Brunner stumbles on equipment purchase

Ohio Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner (D) is in a bit of hot water over the attempted transfer of equipment from her Secretary of State campaign committee to her Senate committee.

Last week, local media reported that Brunner had used her state campaign committee to purchase $15,000 worth of equipment in the week leading up to her mid-February Senate announcement.

When she was asked about the equipment last week, Brunner said she knew nothing about the purchases. But in a request she sent to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week, her campaign describes an agreement about the equipment it signed with her husband’s law firm four months ago, according to the Columbus Post-Dispatch.

Brunner’s campaign says it arranged Feb. 18, the day after she announced her candidacy, to donate $15,000 to charity in exchange for the right to use the equipment.

A couple problems here for Brunner:

1. The timing of the purchases is suspicious enough, but her original statement that she didn’t know about the equipment doesn’t seem to wash. If there was an agreement, that implies that she knew something about it.

2. The whole situation smells bad and is not what you’d expect from a statewide official who is in charge of administering her state’s elections.

3. The Post-Dispatch describes the Feb. 18 arrangement as a “secret agreement.” You can pretty much see the campaign ads now.

Brunner’s primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, would like nothing better than to see her crash and burn early. Fisher has much of the Democratic establishment behind him, and ideally it would like to avoid a primary.

Brunner has been adamant that she would stay in the race, but stuff like this gives her incentive to bow out.