It is ironic, and maybe even a sly joke, that the ad campaign against the Lake Erie Bill of Rights ballot measure in Toledo warned against “outside influences” on local voters.
Campaign finance reports show that there was one outside influence, and that was the multinational BP Corp. North America that quietly made a $302,000 donation on Feb. 12 to pay for the effort to defeat the so-called Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
BP funded the mysterious Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition to bankroll the radio and TV ads aimed at defeating the citizen initiative ballot issue on Feb. 26.
The campaign backfired because its exaggerated claims gave the supporters of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights valid talking points, and it fired up the opposition.
This may have been the least effective $302,000 ever spent on influencing voters.
Voters should not have been kept in the dark about this outside influence. The local members of the Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition, if there are any, should have disclosed the involvement of BP at the outset.
They should also have identified themselves so we would know whether there really were any “Toledoans” associated with the Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition.
Local opponents hid in their mahogany-lined boardrooms and let Big Oil carry their water, pun intended.
The deficiencies of the so-called Bill of Rights as a city of Toledo charter amendment have been noted. It claims that it gives individuals the right to file suit on behalf of Lake Erie to protect its water quality, yet the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office opined that a Toledo charter amendment does not have the authority to authorize a lawsuit in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
It grew out of frustration that federal and state officials were not taking seriously the ongoing damage done to our water supply by manure and fertilizer that washes off the farms of the Maumee River watershed into Lake Erie. If the local opponents felt at all deeply about the issue they would have put up their own money, but none took a stand publicly.
This is not to suggest that BP violated campaign-finance laws. They made their expenditure on Feb. 12, close enough to the Feb. 26 election to avoid having to disclose before the election. Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition did not have to disclose its spending until April 5, which it did.
The campaign to pass the bill of rights, Toledoans for Safe Water, spent less than $6,000, using money from about 50 local contributors. They made their own views known and put their own money on the line. That’s how you win an election.
First Published April 14, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
