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: The Pullins Report

Past Rears Up to Bite Former Ken Blackwell Political Team

By The Pullins Group LLC

This morning, a ballot issue committee called LetOhioVote and several individuals involved with this group filed suit in the Ohio Supreme Court to duck depositions and subpoenas requested by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The investigation was launched after it was reported that LetOhioVote's political operations were funded by over $1.55 million in contributions by an obscure Virginia nonprofit group called New Models.

Their complaint can be found here. 

Most of the individuals associated with either LetOhioVote or New Models are former aides or consultants to Ken Blackwell, Ohio's former Secretary of State. They argue in Court that the Secretary of State does not have the authority to launch such an investigation.

That's funny.

That's the same argument that I made in 2004 when Ken Blackwell and his top aides tried to subpoena donation records to the Ohio Taxpayers Association.  A link to my comments and objections can be found here.

Nonetheless, here are some of the quotes from then by Carlo LoParo, a spokesperson for Ken Blackwell at the time and now one of the individuals that was subpoenaed by Jennifer Brunner:

LoParo said the secretary of state is doing his duty to investigate campaign finance irregularities and denied any vendetta against Pullins.   "We hope that Mr. Pullins fully complies with this subpoena," LoParo said. "If Mr. Pullins has done nothing wrong then he will have no problem presenting the information requested."

-     Lancaster Eagle Gazette - June 15, 2004

Blackwell?s spokesman, Carlo LoParo, was unmoved. ?While I?d love to join Mr. Pullins at his pity party,? LoParo said, ?we have a job to do and we want him to comply with our subpoena.?

-     Cleveland Plain Dealer - June, 2004