Mystery group tilted local election
Written by
Gregory Korte, Fredreka Schouten and Deirdre Shesgreen
WASHINGTON — Four days before Ohio’s primary election, Democratic voters in the 2nd Congressional District received a blitz of automated telephone calls supporting William R. Smith, a candidate who didn’t campaign, raised no money and gave no media interviews before the election.
Although the defeat of Rep. Jean Schmidt grabbed headlines on Tuesday, Smith’s win also surprised local observers, since he edged out David Krikorian, well-known in the Cincinnati area for his numerous high-profile battles against Schmidt in recent years.
Smith won by 59 votes, even though Krikorian was a better-funded and harder-working candidate who had the endorsement of major Democratic groups.
So who gets credit for helping Smith secure the Democratic nomination to Congress? No one knows.
The “Victory Ohio Super PAC” claimed credit for the “robocalls,” but it is not registered with the Federal Election Commission and has not disclosed any spending to federal regulators.
Campaign-finance experts say the group probably has violated federal election law. Under federal rules, groups must report last-minute activity to the FEC if they spend more than $1,000 on automated calls, mailings or advertising that directly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate. Such spending must be reported within 24 hours.
“This activity does require disclosure,” said Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission official and a leading campaign-finance lawyer in Washington.
Smith will face podiatrist and Iraq war veteran Brad Wenstrup in the general election. Wenstrup pulled off his own upset victory on Tuesday night against Schmidt, a four-term incumbent from Miami Township.
Wenstrup was helped by conservative anti-tax groups and a legally registered super PAC, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, which is working to defeat congressional incumbents in several states. The group reported spending $66,836 against Schmidt in the week before the election.
A 61-year-old former postal worker from the small town of Waverly, Smith says he made less than $15,000 last year driving a truck.
“If you had to produce a prototype for the absolute common man, that’s what you get. He drives a truck. He lives with his mother,” said Blaine Beekman, a Pike County commissioner who helped circulate Smith’s nominating petitions. “People call him the ‘mystery candidate.’ He’s really the impossible candidate.”
Victory Ohio “clearly exists somewhere, because it spent a lot of money,” Beekman said. But he said he has no idea who it could be. “To be frank with you, there’s no one in Pike County that would have the money to do these things. We have the highest unemployment rate in Ohio.”
Smith defeated Krikorian, a three-time candidate who spent $64,356 in his campaign and ran with the endorsement of major Democratic groups in the district.
Krikorian told the Enquirer Thursday “an illegal act has taken place here.”
The Enquirer got an audio copy of the calls from the campaign of Brad Wenstrup, who won over Schmidt in the GOP primary. Brian Shrive, a spokesman for Wenstrup, said he has no idea who is behind the calls, but he’s worried the mystery group will be involved in the fall campaign, targeting Wenstrup.
Krikorian has a longstanding feud with Schmidt over her support from Turkish causes. Krikorian, an ethnic Armenian, has accused Schmidt of denying the Armenian genocide during and after World War I, and their battles escalated into a $6.8 million libel suit by Schmidt still pending in Ohio courts.
Her legal fees — about $400,000 — were paid by the Turkish Coalition of America, which led to a House Ethics Committee investigation. The committee concluded she did not violate any House rules, because she didn’t knowingly accept the funds. But the panel directed her to repay the money because it was an “impermissible” gift.
One version of the robocall took aim at Krikorian, without naming him: “William Smith has an opponent that describes himself as a Reagan conservative. William Smith’s opponent was already sanctioned by the Ohio Elections Commission for not telling the truth. Please don’t make a mistake and embarrass the party. Vote for William Smith, the real Democrat for Congress.”
The recorded call ended with this disclosure: “This has been paid for by the Victory Ohio Super PAC.” Neither the FEC nor Ohio’s secretary of State has any record of such a group.
A call recipient’s caller ID system generated a non-working phone number from the Cleveland suburbs.
“Honestly, the more I think about this, the more mysterious it becomes. Something is fishy,” said Clermont County Democratic Chairman David Lane.
“Robocalls are pretty cheap, but they did enough of them I have a hard time believing they spent less than $1,000,” said Caleb Faux, the director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. “It’s all rather strange. Who are they, what is their motivation, where did their money come from?”
Republicans agree. “If a Republican did it, I don’t know about it. We’re not one bit worried about any Democrat in that district,” said Alex Triantafilou, the GOP chairman in Hamilton County. “Somebody should put a stop to it. That kind of thing should not occur in politics. Transparency is crucial. I hope someone fully investigates it.”
Paul Ryan, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group, said the group broke the rules if it spent more than $1,000.
“Ohio voters seemingly had no information about who was trying to influence their election with last-minute robocalls,” Ryan said. “Ohio voters deserve that information.”
For his part, Smith said he’s as surprised as anyone that he won, but he credits his prayers — and perhaps the robocalls. In only his second media interview, he said he doesn’t know the source of the help but suspects Republicans who “were looking at my inactivity and my access to no funding” and figured he was less of a threat to the Republican nominee.
“Whatever the source of that is, I’ll take it,” he said.
Greg Korte and Fredreka Schouten work for USA TODAY; Deirdre Shesgreen is the Washington correspondent for the Enquirer
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jeanne schmidt out
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