The Toledo Blade Online
The Toledo Blade OnlineThe Toledo Blade Green Edition
Click here to subscribe or renew!
Temp: 20°
Humidity: 88%
Wednesday, 02/10/10
Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here
Home »   Latest News »   State » 

Click to Receive RSS Feeds!EmailPrint IndexHelp FacebookTwitterDiggDel.icio.usFark

Article published June 04, 2005
California governor will not return Noe's donations
Democratic Party chief Dean wants Bush to yield more funds
Schwarzenegger


COLUMBUS - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated any efforts to get him to return $10,000 that Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe contributed to his campaign.

On Thursday, President Bush joined a steadily growing band of Republicans opting to rid their campaign accounts of Mr. Noe's money, but the Republican governor of California is not planning to return the campaign cash he received from Mr. Noe, who is facing a flurry of state and federal investigations.

"The allegations about Mr. Noe became public a year after we accepted his contribution," said Martin Wilson, a spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger. "As he was an active Ohio Republican Party fund-raiser and donor, we had no reason at the time to question his contribution and have no intention of refunding the money."

Last week, Mr. Noe's lawyers told Ohio authorities that up to $12 million in assets of the state's $50 million investment in rare coins was missing.

State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown, who has been an outspoken critic of the coin investment, said he would be willing to go out to California and arm-wrestle the governor for the $10,000 because the "money belongs to the workers" of Ohio.

Dean

"I would be willing to arm- wrestle the governor for this," said Mr. Dann, who wrote a letter to the California governor urging him to return the money. "I can take him one on one."

Better yet, Mr. Dann said Gov. Bob Taft should be the one to take on the former body-builder in California.

"It was through his negligence that this took place," Mr. Dann said. "They ought to square off in arm wrestling, and Bob Taft ought to be able to use two arms."

A number of Republicans, including Governor Taft, U.S. Sens. George Voinovich and Mike DeWine, and three candidates for governor have returned contributions that Mr. Noe made to their campaigns. Mr. Noe and his wife contributed more than $200,000 to candidates, political parties, and political action committees in the past 15 years.

Mr. Noe achieved status as a Bush "pioneer" for raising between $100,000 to $250,000 for the President's re-election campaign last year. The President has said he will return the $4,000 Mr. Noe contributed to his campaign, but opted to withhold returning money raised by Mr. Noe for him - at least for now.

In a scathing statement yesterday, Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the President has not gone far enough and must return all of the money "raised by his disgraced fund-raiser."

"It's not enough to return a few thousand dollars when Noe is facing serious allegations and may have illegally collected more than a hundred thousand dollars for Bush's re-election," Mr. Dean said in the statement, which cited multiple Blade reports.

Mr. Noe is facing a federal investigation for allegedly laundering contributions into the Bush campaign by giving friends and colleagues money to give to the President. A grand jury convened this week in Toledo to hear the allegations.

Aaron McLear, a spokesman from the Republican National Committee, said Mr. Bush's advisers are continuing to monitor the situation in Ohio.

"At this time, all donations appear to be completely appropriate," he said. "It certainly is a situation we are going to continue to montior and we'll take additional action if the situation warrants that."

The RNC also returned $2,000 in contributions from Mr. Noe.

Mr. Dean said Mr. Noe is only the latest in a line of "disgraced" fund-raisers. He called Mr. Noe, and two other fund-raisers facing scrutiny - Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed - "Bush's three musketeers of corruption."

"It's disturbing that now three of the Presidents top fund-raisers … are subjects of corruption investigations," Mr. Dean said. "The American people deserve better."

The RNC spokesman declined to respond to those charges.

The topic of the campaign contributions from Mr. Noe came up Thursday at the daily press briefing in Crawford, Texas. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was asked about monies raised by Mr. Noe and why - other than the $4,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Noe - there were no plans to return that money.

Mr. McClellan answered: "Well, those are from other individuals, and in the past, I think the campaign, if you'll go back and look, has returned contributions from individuals that maybe have been convicted of crimes, and so forth. And this one is certainly a unique situation that raises some very serious allegations, and we felt it was the right thing to do to return the contributions that he [Mr. Noe] had made to the campaign."

- Steve Eder


Permanent Link

Cops/Courts
Updated: 6:24 am
Teen in assault to be tried as an adult >>
Blade Area
Updated: 6:23 am
Children's Wonderland equipment is up for sale >>
Cops/Courts
Updated: 6:08 am
Retired Sylvania officer who stole on job gets early release >>
Blade Area
Updated: 6:05 am
Bell stands by raises in face of unions' ire >>
State
Updated: 5:50 am
Strickland defends fee on late license renewal >>
Cops/Courts
Updated: 5:42 am
Ottawa County driver asks lifetime ban after fatality be ended >>
More news stories
 



click here!

ADVERTISING SECTIONS
Tom Henry
Updated: 7:13 am
Playing the odds can help mitigate disasters >>

S. Amjad Hussain
Updated: 5:53 am
France draws line over Muslim women’s dress >>

Marilou Johanek
Updated: 5:54 am
Sense of superiority drove church to 'help' Haitian children >>

Jack Kelly
Updated: 5:42 am
As Democrats schmooze, Obama’s credibility slides  >>

Jack Lessenberry
Updated: 5:32 am
Granholm failed to make case in last Michigan address >>

Rose Russell
Updated: 6:09 am
Even in South Africa, pols' private affairs are people's business >>

David Shribman
Updated: 9:37 am
Love means never saying budget deficit >>

Mike Sigov
Updated: 12:31 pm
Russia's president brings little to the table >>

Tom Walton
Updated: 5:40 am
Apologies in politics are unprecedented >>

More columnist stories
MOST READ STORIES
1.  Snowstorm slaps Toledo region; most activities canceled
2.  Ottawa County driver asks lifetime ban after fatality be ended
3.  Retired Sylvania officer who stole on job gets early release
4.  Teen in assault to be tried as an adult
5.  Bell stands by raises in face of unions' ire
6.  Children's Wonderland equipment is up for sale
7.  Strickland defends fee on late license renewal
8.  Toyota workers become lobbyists for a day
9.  Northwest Ohio's Crystal Bowersox impresses Simon, survives another 'Idol' round
10.  Honda adds 378,000 cars to recall list
MOST E-MAILED STORIES
1.  Toledo strip club puts cover charge into quake relief
2.  Tennis champ accused of phone harassment
3.  Officer says 33 dogs seized from suspected puppy mill
4.  Knights' Cromwell steps down
5.  Mental health agency looks to pare $3.5M from services
6.  Homelessness board votes for outside audit; advocate Ken Leslie safe for now
7.  'Stagecoach Mary' broke barriers of race, gender
8.  Sylvania lawyer charged in thefts from 2 clients
9.  Mental health board hears appeals from officials
10.  MAC basketball struggles with fall from elite


AP  News Headlines



AP  Business Headlines



AP  Sports Headlines


AP  Features Headlines
Copyright 2010 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them.
The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660, (419) 724-6000
To contact a specific
department or an individual person, click here.
The Toledo Times ®