Another example of Fiscal Discipline by Democrat Leaders

Alternate Heading: What the heck - It's not their money!

Ohio Democratic Chair, Chris Redfern, says he didn't want anyone to accuse him of getting a "freebie". So he paid Kim Redfern (his wife) $4,500 OUT OF HIS CAMPAIGN FUNDS for the cost of the home that they shared.

This on top of the $12,800 dollars (ALSO CAMPAIGN FUNDS) for rent and utilities on his apartment in 2006. The icing on the cake may be the $4,000 IN TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENTS that he also took in 2006.

Certainly no "freebies" here for the Chairman of the Ohio Democrats. Nothing like leading by example Chris!

from the Columbus Dispatch

Ohioan used campaign cash for rent

Saying he didn't want anyone to accuse him of getting a freebie -- even from his future wife -- Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern used campaign funds to pay Kim Redfern $4,500 in May for the cost of living with her earlier in the year.

They were married in March and bought a home that month in German Village. But before that, said Redfern, also a state representative, his fiancee was talking about becoming a lobbyist.

"When you're under the microscope, you have to make sure you're not doing things like staying and not paying rent," said Redfern, also a state representative from Catawba Island.

"There's always rumors that people stay in the houses of lobbyists or other Statehouse folks and don't pay rent. We didn't want to do that."

Lawmakers have found a variety of ways to spend campaign cash, on which there are few restrictions, as newly filed reports show. But few if any use it to pay for their digs in the capital city.

Redfern used another $12,800 in campaign funds to pay rent and utilities for an apartment in the Columbus Brewery District throughout 2006. The rent was $975 a month, and he wrote himself a $2,739 check in January to cover utility costs from the previous year.

As minority leader, Redfern made about $80,000, not including his salary as state party chairman. He also got more than $4,000 in travel reimbursement from the House in 2006.
Ohio law regarding how state officials can spend campaign money often boils down to whether the expense is related to the job. In Redfern's case, the law asks whether he would have to stay overnight in Columbus if he were not a legislator.

A Dispatch analysis this year of 2006 campaign-finance records found that state candidates spent campaign funds on a variety of items, such as flowers, club memberships and Ohio State football tickets.

A number of legislators have houses or apartments or share hotel rooms in Columbus, especially when staying overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday session days. Patrick Gallaway, spokesman for the Ohio secretary of state's office, said experts there saw no legal problem if Redfern paid for staying with his fiancee or not.

"Obviously, he was trying to keep separate worlds going and he didn't want it to look like he was free-lancing," Gallaway said, adding that the issue was more about perception than the law.
Lawmakers can use campaign money for rent, but not to buy land, Gallaway said.

Gov. Ted Strickland, meanwhile, reported more than $300,000 in expenses on his semi-annual report, although much of that amount went to pay bills from his 2006 campaign, said Randy Borntrager, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.

The expenses since then include nearly $29,000 for Dayton consultant Erik Greathouse to help raise money toward Strickland's re-election campaign in 2010, as well as more than $3,900 in moving expenses to put campaign furniture and other equipment in storage, Borntrager said.

The $89,150 that Strickland reported raising during the first six months of 2007 includes $10,000 from the Ohio Ready-Mixed Concrete Association Political Action Committee, a combined $7,500 from three other construction-related PACs and $5,000 from DaVita Inc., a PAC that bills itself as the largest provider of dialysis services in the United States for kidney patients.