Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association

Brunner can Investigate Issue Backers

May 3, 2010

The Ohio Supreme Court allow Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to proceed with her attempts to unmask donors to a group that wants an election on slot machines at horse-racing tracks.

In a unanimous ruling, justices denied an attempt by LetOhioVote.org to block Brunner from enforcing subpoenas intended to reveal who funded the group's petition to put the slot-machine issue on the November ballot.

The court said Brunner's inquiry was not a judicial proceeding, so she did not overreach her authority by issuing subpoenas. But the court noted that LetOhioVote.org still can take its case to common-pleas court. A spokesman for the group said no decision on that has been made.

LetOhioVote.org is officially a trio of conservatives who want Ohioans to be

able to vote on Gov. Ted Strickland's proposal to add thousands of lottery-run slot machines to the state's seven horse tracks. But many, including Strickland himself, question whether the group is a front for other gambling interests. Brunner has tried to force LetOhioVote.org to reveal its donors, but the group maintains that it already has complied with disclosure requirements.

"Ohio law requires disclosure, and that's why my office has undertaken an investigation that the Ohio Supreme Court has now confirmed is authorized by law," Brunner said in a statement. "We shall proceed to investigate LetOhioVote's financial activities in the interest of Ohioans' right to know who is attempting to influence their votes in this November's election."

LetOhioVote.org spokesman Carlo LoParo said the court ruling doesn't necessarily change anything.

"It was not a decision on the merits of the case," LoParo said. "It was a decision on a technicality."

In January, LetOhioVote.org reported more than $1.5 million in contributions, all of them from a political nonprofit called New Models. The Virginia-based organization has not revealed its donors this year.

In March, Brunner's office concluded that LetOhioVote.org had gathered enough valid signatures to place the slot-machine referendum on the November ballot.

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Brunner can Investigate Issue Backers