Akron businessman's contacts with Ohio (R) lawmakers investigated

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1121778314104460.xml&storylist=cleveland

7/19/2005, 10:03 a.m. ET
The Associated Press


COLUMBUS (AP) — ...

David Brennan operates White Hat Management, a for-profit, private firm that runs about 30 charter schools in Ohio, accounting for more than a quarter of the 39,500 charter school students in the state. The firm received $109 million in tax payer money last year.

Deputy Inspector Donald Petit said in a letter this week to Brennan's lawyer that "It appears that Mr. Brennan may have engaged in activities that would constitute lobbying."...

Karen Tabor, spokeswoman for House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said the speaker met with Brennan several times. She said the conversations focused on Medicaid changes, education issues and efforts to place a constitutional ballot issue before voters to limit state government spending.

Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, said he and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, met with Brennan's lobbyist, Tom Needles, for two hours at Brennan's home May 9...

[whistle]

1. That's $8,375.25 per student plus whatever the parents pay....

[NEOBuckeye]

2. Brennan is pretty much the Savior of the Ohio GOP

He did a lot of financial($$$) propping-up of the Ohio Repugs during the 1990s, while the state-level Dems pretty much tanked. He's also a die-hard advocate of term limits, which are currently enforced in Ohio's governorship and state legislature. Of course, when he merrily contributes to every new Repug candidate who walks onto the scene, I don't suppose term limits would bother him too much. The newbies are much easier to influence and train.

His Robber Baron antics here have won him a few friends elsewhere. Incidentally, the White Hat he wears was supposedly sent to him from a Texas businessman who admired his style. Go figure.



Hope they dig up some real dirt on this guy. But it won't be easy as he is quite the shrewd and savvy fellow. (Cheney and Rove could learn a thing or two from this guy. He's that slick.) In addition to being a businessman, David Brennan is an attorney who has profited quite handsomely for his knowledge and manipulation of laws that most Ohioans would rather pretend don't exist. His exploitation of the GOP-manufactured education crisis through his Hope Academy charter schools has only heaped more hot coals upon public education in this troubled state.