Ohio Elections Commission votes to prosecute Newburgh Heights mayor over campaign-finance violations

[George II]

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Elections Commission has voted to refer Newburgh Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins for prosecution over his misuse of roughly $134,000 in campaign funds to cover his personal expenses.

Commissioners voted 5-2 on Thursday to refer Elkins, a Democrat, for prosecution, saying the commission needed to make a tough statement on what they viewed as a precedent-setting case. The two ‘no’ votes came from Democrats Dennis Brommer and Otto Beatty, who argued the commission should only impose a fine, while Democrat Charleta Tavares joined Republicans D. Michael Crites, Catherine Cunningham, Natasha Kaufman and independent A. Scott Norman in voting ‘yes.’

Elkins has been mayor of Newburgh Heights, a Cleveland suburb of roughly 1,700 people, since 2011. He is actively involved in county Democratic politics, including unsuccessfully seeking leadership of the county party in 2018. He is a political director for former state Sen. Nina Turner’s campaign for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Cleveland and Newburgh Heights. A request seeking comment has been left with the Turner campaign.

But Elkins also has admitted to misusing more than $134,100 of his campaign funds on 650 occasions from 2015 to 2019, using a campaign debit card to cover routine personal expenses. He said he always repaid the account and didn’t realize what he was doing was illegal until it was pointed out to him.

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2021/04/ohio-elections-commission-votes-to-prosecute-newburgh-heights-mayor-over-campaign-finance-violations.html

Interesting that he's using the ol' "vendetta for challenging party leaders" defense, even though he admitted to using his campaign credit card illegally 650 times.