Tag: Scott A. Pullins

Ohio GOP Leaders Call for RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to Help Fix State Party

Neil W. McCabe

Two leaders of the Ohio Republican Party told The Ohio Star and The Star News Network Thursday that it is time for Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to get involved in reforming the Ohio GOP. “I don’t understand why Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the national Republican committee hasn’t looked into these issues, and gotten back to us, and backed us getting answers to our questions regarding the financial activities of the Ohio Republican Party,” said Mark A. Bainbridge, a member of the state party’s central committee, and one of five members of the central committee suing the state party, its Chairman Robert A. Paduchik and Treasurer David W. Johnson. Bainbridge, a certified public accountant, now in private practice, retired from Ernst & Young as a partner after three decades at the Big Four accounting firm, is at the forefront of exposing more than $3 million in accountable funds, including a $1.7 million write-off of retained earnings. The lawsuit asked the court to restore Bainbridge and others to their committee assignments after Paduchik summarily took them off those assignments, order an audit of the Ohio GOP books going back to 2017, and claw back funds Paduchik transferred to campaigns…

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Exclusive: Blystone Whistleblower’s Attorney Ridicules Blystone’s Suit to Have Court Dismiss Complaint

Neil W. McCabe

The attorney for Sarah Chambers, the whistleblower, and former co-campaign manager for Joseph K. Blystone’s gubernatorial campaign, told The Ohio Star Blystone’s lawsuit filed Tuesday asking the court to order the Ohio Elections Commission to dismiss Chambers’ Oct. 28 51-page complaint against him is a futile and desperate exercise.

“The old saying is, if the facts are on your side, you pound the facts. If the law’s on your side, you pound the law. If neither the facts nor the law is on your side, you pound the table,” said Scott A. Pullins, the Mount Vernon lawyer, who has for many years represented candidates, campaigns and political action committees.

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Campaign Whistleblower Chambers Files First Request for Blystone’s Documents, Financial Records

Neil W. McCabe

The attorney for Sarah Chambers, the former co-campaign manager for Joseph K. Blystone’s gubernatorial campaign, filed her first request for records in support of her campaign finance complaint against her former campaign under consideration by the Ohio Elections Commission.

Scott A. Pullins, the Mount Vernon lawyer representing Chambers, named Blystone, his wife and treasurer M. Jane Blystone, and Friends of Joe Blystone, the campaign committee as respondents.

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Exclusive: Chambers Tells The Ohio Star What She Told the FBI About Blystone’s Campaign, What FBI Told Her

Neil W. McCabe

The former co-campaign manager for Joseph K. Blystone’s gubernatorial campaign, who filed a complaint in October against that campaign, told The Star News Network she told two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents Blystone mishandled cash contributions to his campaign, while they told her their probe into Blystone goes beyond his run for governor.

Sarah Chambers said she met with the FBI special agents Julie Becker and Blane Wetzel November 18 in the Columbus field office at or around 1 p.m. “They don’t conduct interviews over the phone; they want to meet in person.”

The whistleblower said the FBI agents were very prepared for her interview. They each had copies of her complaint with many of the pages highlighted, along with printouts of articles from The Ohio Star.

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Exclusive: FBI Probing Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Blystone Campaign Finances Says Whistleblower’s Attorney

Neil W. McCabe
Joe Blystone

  In an exclusive interview with The Ohio Star, the lawyer representing a whistleblower and former co-campaign manager for Joseph K. Blystone‘s quest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Sarah Chambers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are probing Blystone’s campaign finances. “Sarah and I met with them on Thursday, November 18, in their Columbus office,” said Scott A. Pullins, a Mount Vernon attorney whose practice has included representing many campaigns and campaign law compliance clients. Pullins also said Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and his Campaign Finance Division, received evidence of Blystone campaign finance misconduct and took no action. FBI reaches out to Chambers The graduate of The Ohio State University and the Capital University Law School said he also took note that FBI Special Agent Blaine Wetzel, one of the agents who interviewed Chambers that day, was listed as a virtual attendee at the December 16 Ohio Elections Commission hearing, where the commission reviewed the 51-page campaign finance complaint filed by Chambers and other former senior Blystone campaign staffers October 28 against Blystone, his wife, and campaign treasurer, M. Jane Blystone and his campaign committee Friends of Joe Blystone. In the complaint, Chambers, and others detailed how Blystone…

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