Let's talk about Noe campaign money...

Yesterday as the Toledo Blade wrote about this morning, Anita Lopez who is the Democratic Candidate for the Lucas County Treasurer's Office called on Larry Kaczala to:

"do the right thing" and return the campaign funds given to him by Noe, who was convicted of violating federal campaign contribution laws and is accused of stealing from a $50 million rare-coin investment financed by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Down a bit further in the article:

Mr. Kaczala then responded to Ms. Lopez's demand that he return Noe contributions, adding that a lesson learned during the statewide scandal is to avoid one-party rule, which would be in place in Lucas County if he is not returned to office.

He acknowledged receiving $4,000 from Noe for his failed 2004 congressional campaign but said that since that account is now closed, he can no longer add or take money from it under federal law.

He initially denied receiving money from the Noes for his auditor's campaign, though records show that Noe contributed $3,500 to Mr. Kaczala's campaign for auditor in 2002.


This issue isn't just related to Larry Kaczala, it's been something that has been brought up with almost every Republican candidate who took money from Tom Noe.

Republicans have used the same tactic, as this morning's article demonstrates, Mr. Kaczala brought up Bob McCloskey and Sandy Isenberg. Anyone who has followed the race between Betty Montgomery and Marc Dann knows acrimony might be too mild of a word to describe some of this.

Some candidates/elected officials have donated questionable money to a charity but there doesn't seem to be a systemmatic process in place. The question has been raised before and again now as to what should be done with this campaign money? Who should it go to? Does merely donating it a charity really help? Should there be a direct process to return as an example the Noe funds in question to the State? Could we actually get some public information from our local prosecutor or the prosecutor involved with the Federal case as to this?

The Columbus Dispatch wrote about a poll that was released today that states:

"In comparison to their neighbors in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Ohioans have the least amount of trust in their state government," the report said.

It's going to take more than just replacing one party with the other for people to regain trust in our government. It's going to take hard work from both parties to show that they both believe in ethics and doing the right thing. Pointing out people who have been caught doing wrong from either party doesn't solve the larger issue of how the system allowed this to happen in the first place.

Not that I'm sure anyone will heed this advice, but I would caution over using the Noe stick to beat other candidates with as we approach election day the same I would caution not to pretend as if this was just one bad man Tom Noe and now that he is coming to trial all will be magically better. The average person you talk to on the street, on the bus or anywhere wants solutions, they are worried about their job, especially with the news today that the Maumee Stamping Plant is closing. They are worried about healthcare, they are are worried about how they can surivive in our economy. We run the risk of having more of them tune out and that is something I don't think any of us want.

So let's talk about Tom Noe, and let's never forget that some of the problems we face could have been avoided, but let's also remember the biggest issue of all should be how to we stop repeating the mistakes of the past to have a better future...