The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - U.S. Sen. George Voinovich has changed his mind and now is prepared to give up $85,000 in contributions he received while he was Ohio's governor from a donor who is now in prison.

A spokesman for Voinovich said earlier the money would not be returned because it went to a gubernatorial campaign that is closed.

But spokesman Scott Milburn now says that Voinovich will ask the Federal Election Commission if he can dip into his Senate campaign fund to return a contribution made to a state campaign.

"If the FEC permits federal campaign funds to be used to return improper contributions to a state campaign committee, and any improper state contributions are identified, the senator will, of course, return them," Milburn said.

Several elected officials have returned contributions from Larry Rogers, co-founder and former president of the defunct PIE Mutual Insurance Co. of Cleveland.

Rogers is serving 40 months in federal prison for bilking the company to support his high living and to make illegal political contributions to Voinovich and 74 other politicians from 1990 to '97.

PIE was liquidated by the state in 1998 and still owes malpractice claims worth $150 million, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance.

The company was the largest medical malpractice insurer in Ohio when it failed in 1998, leaving thousands of doctors uninsured and limiting payments to injured patients.