Below is a screencap of the letter:
As you can see, Pickrell is asking supporters to contribute to the campaign in order to make sure the Governor makes a "show of strength" in the campaign finance report that will be filed at the end of the month. In order to get these contributions counted, he sets a deadline of Sunday.Except there is one problem.
Ohio campaign finance law states that only contributions received before December 31st may count for this reporting period. Below is a screencap from the Secretary of State's office highlighting the deadline.
Now, if I recall correctly, there is some flexibility on this deadline, but only until January 15th. I admit, I may be wrong on that, but I think it's safe to say that campaigns are not supposed to be reporting contributions made through this Sunday.
If someone that knows campaign finance law better than I is interested in commenting, please do. But based on the information available, it does seem like the Strickland campaign is very publicly going out of its way to skirt Ohio campaign finance law.
Additionally, another aspect of the Strickland letter gave me a little chuckle. Near the end, Pickrell asks for 50(wow!) contributors by Sunday. 50 contributors. In four days. If Pickrell translated this goal out to a whole month, that would be like asking for 375 contributors over the course of 30 days.
For reference, the Kasich campaign had a fundraising campaign looking for 2,010 online contributors in the month of November.
In other words, it seems Pickrell doesn't have the highest of expectations for his boss' contributors.
Probably a smart idea.
You're right, but all of the campaigns do it. The cutoff is supposed to be December 31, 2009 but they always report donations for as long as they can after that date in order to inflate their numbers. My guess is that Kasich will do the same.
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