Some more ammo for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D. OH):
U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci failed to disclose nearly $50,000 in political contributions while registered as a Washington lobbyist starting in the late 2000s, according to an Associated Press review of federal records.
The AP review identified five reporting periods from 2008 to 2010 while the Ohio Republican was registered as a lobbyist when he either failed to file the required disclosure form or reported giving no political contributions when he had given.
Renacci, a businessman and former Wadsworth mayor, is Republicans’ favored candidate to win a GOP primary and take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown this fall in one of the year’s most closely watched Senate contests.
Renacci’s campaign said that he never lobbied. They said he was registered as the lobbyist with the consulting firm he helped launch in 2008, Smokerise International Group, as a precautionary measure.
Renacci’s attorney, Laura Mills, said he “never performed any lobbying activities.”
“He requested my office to deactivate him in 2009, as the entity in which he was a member never performed any lobbying and he wanted to be in full compliance of the law prior to entering into Congress,” Mills said.
Mills provided the AP a form not available online that listed Renacci’s lobbyist status as “inactive” as of Aug. 1, 2009. The campaign said only active lobbyists are required to disclose their contributions.
But an AP review found Mills didn't file the companion form required to deactivate Renacci's registration until 2011. Renacci's registration was terminated as of May 2011, about four months after he entered Congress.
And Renacci continued to file and digitally sign lobbyist disclosure reports, other than the two he missed, through mid-2011, as an active lobbyist would.
His campaign refused to specify why he filed the reports if, as it contended, they were not required or to address the inaccurate reporting of his contributions.
Campaign spokesman James Slepian said the campaign's position was "there would be no requirement for (Renacci) to report them since he never lobbied at any point."
Under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, signed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2007, federally registered lobbyists are required to disclose all federal political contributions of more than $200.
Along with that beefed-up transparency, the law increased civil penalties for knowing and willful reporting violations from $50,000 to $200,000.
Click here to read the full timeline on Renacci’s lobbying record.
Renacci is helping flood the swamp in Washington, D.C. and then tried to leave it to come back to Ohio in a failed gubernatorial bid. Of course, that didn’t work out, so now he’s trying to head back to D.C. in the Senate to keep on being part of the swamp. Truly pathetic. Meanwhile, Brown has been busy being a good public servant for Ohio:
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) joined area law enforcement officers and addiction treatment providers Wednesday to discuss funding to combat the state’s ongoing opioid epidemic.
Senator Brown spoke during a press conference Wednesday at the Safety Building about a recently passed spending bill for opioid detection devices.
Last week, Congress passed a funding bill, so $3 billion will be distributed to address the opioid epidemic, Senator Brown said. Of that amount, $65 million will be used to fund hundreds of opioid detection devices and equipment, called for in Senator Brown’s Interdict Act, which President Trump signed into law earlier this year.
The equipment will screen specifically for fentanyl or carfentyl at entry points into the country and hopefully off the streets, Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown’s Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), also supported the bill.
“Most packages come in through the post office,” Senator Portman said during a meeting with The Blade’s editorial board on Tuesday, with a particularly steady stream coming through online purchases shipped to the United States from China. “The President wants to increase the penalties on drug dealers. I’m fine on being tougher on drug dealers, but who’s the drug dealer in that case?”
A special provision has been included for those states hardest hit — including Ohio. Those states are expected to receive 15 percent of the $3 billion, said Sentator Brown, which would amount to roughly $450 million.
Let’s help Brown mop the floor with Renacci in November. Click here to donate and get involved with Brown’s re-election campaign.