Critics say Rep. Jim Renacci may have used 'straw donor' scheme to fund state campaign account

WASHINGTON – Shortly after Rep. Jim Renacci announced his gubernatorial bid last March, the Ohio Republican doled out $56,000 in campaign contributions to 12 House Republican candidates and several political action committees affiliated with those lawmakers.

Eight of those Republicans then turned around and contributed to Renacci's state gubernatorial campaign, to the tune of $26,700, within weeks or even days of Renacci’s initial contribution to their campaigns and PACs.

Campaign finance experts say it looks like a "straw donor” scheme, with Renacci using his federal campaign account and allied lawmakers to evade Ohio’s campaign finance limits.

Renacci has since abandoned his gubernatorial bid to run for U.S. Senate in Ohio’s marquee Senate race, in which he hopes to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

During his gubernatorial run, Renacci was legally barred under Ohio law from transferring more than $12,707 from his federal House committee to his state gubernatorial committee. He made that maximum transfer last June.

James Slepian, Renacci’s campaign spokesman, said the congressman’s other contributions were simply an effort to support his fellow House Republicans and spend down his congressional account.

He did not answer a specific question about whether Renacci asked his GOP colleagues for donations to his state account in return for his contributions to their federal committees.

But Slepian dismissed questions about the flow of campaign funds as a “conspiracy theory.” And he pointed to another pattern of donations – made to and from Brown’s fundraising committees and Brown's fellow Senate Democrats – as more suspect.

There is nothing unusual about lawmakers using their own re-election committees or personal leadership PACs to boost other candidates or their own political parties or personal ambitions. Leadership PACs are ostensibly created for that very purpose — a pot of money lawmakers can dip into to help vulnerable colleagues without denting their own campaign war chests.

Slepian noted that last spring, Brown’s PAC, called America Works, donated to the campaigns of nine Senate Democrats, including Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Each of those senators’ leadership PACs also donated to Brown’s Senate campaign within a few weeks or months.

“After announcing he would not seek re-election to the House, Jim Renacci donated over $107,000 to Republican campaign committees, just eight of whom also happened to donate a combined total of $26,700 to his gubernatorial campaign,” Slepian said. “In contrast, Sherrod Brown ... is far more adept at skirting campaign finance laws than Jim Renacci.”

But Brown’s transactions are permissible — with the funds flowing to and from federal campaign accounts.

'Happy to support Jim'

With Renacci’s transactions, what’s unusual, and potentially problematic, is the flow of funds from a federal account to a state one.

“What this sounds like is a straw donor scenario, where Renacci is using funds from his federal campaign account to unlawfully support his state gubernatorial run and doing it through his fellow elected officials,” said Brendan Fischer, an election and ethics expert at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group that advocates for stronger campaign finance laws.

Take these examples:

• On May 2, 2017, Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., received two donations from Renacci’s congressional committee for $2,000 each, according to Federal Election Commission records. Then on June 13, Walorski’s congressional committee donated $4,000 to Renacci’s gubernatorial bid, according to Ohio campaign filings.

• On May 4, Renacci for Congress made two donations of $2,000 each to Florida GOP Rep. Dennis Ross’s congressional committee. On the same day, Renacci also made a $2,000 donation to Ross’s leadership PAC. Ross donated $5,000 donation to Renacci for Ohio on May 5.

• On April 27, Renacci made two donations of $2,000 each to Nevada GOP Rep. Mark Amodei’s re-election and one donation to Amodei’s leadership PAC for $2,700. On May 30, Amodei’s congressional committee donated $1,000 to Renacci’s gubernatorial bid and his leadership PAC donated another $2,500.

Spokespeople for Walorski, Ross, Amodei, as well as other lawmakers who received and gave to Renacci, either did not respond to emailed questions or sent general expressions of support for Renacci.

"Luke believes Jim Renacci is a great, conservative member of Congress, and he has been happy to support Jim over the years," said a spokeswoman for Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., who received a total of $6,000 from Renacci's House account on June 27 and gave $2,000 to his Ohio governor's race on June 28.

In all, Renacci donated to 12 lawmakers from his House re-election account and eight of them gave to his gubernatorial bid.

“This could just be a coincidence,” Fischer said. “But ultimately if this is a straw donor scheme, the original source of the funds (for Renacci’s gubernatorial account) is Renacci’s federal campaign committee.”

Fischer said it could violate Ohio’s straw donor ban.

'The law is fairly toothless'

That law states in part: “No person shall knowingly conceal or misrepresent contributions given or received, expenditures made, or any other information required to be reported.”

“It’s really about making sure that there’s not some big slush fund that an incumbent in one situation brings to a space where there are different rules,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a left-leaning good government advocacy group.

She reviewed the Renacci transactions and agreed they looked potentially suspect. But, she said, Ohio’s law is “toothless” and it would be nearly impossible to prove a violation unless the donations were specifically earmarked to flow from Renacci’s federal account back into his state account via the other GOP candidates.

“It sounds like there was a gentlemen’s or a gentlewoman’s agreement to take the money from one hand and give it to the next,” Turcer said. “This kind of campaign finance shuffle is not atypical and part of that is because the law is fairly toothless.”

But Slepian said any suggestion of impropriety was baseless. He said the candidates those who gave back to Renacci represented a sliver of his overall donations, which he said included more than $100,000 to various candidates and political committees.

“If this straw man conspiracy theory hadn’t actually been complete fiction, this clearly would have been the least successful conspiracy orchestrated in the history of the universe,” Slepian said.

But his tally includes a $50,000 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which most GOP lawmakers are expected to contribute to protect the GOP majority. The NRCC would not contribute to a gubernatorial race since its mission is to elect House Republicans.

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