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Portman Addresses Concerns Over DeVos' Campaign Finance Fines

a photo of Senator Rob Portman
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Senator Rob Portman

The U.S. Senate is holding hearings on President Trump’s cabinet picks. And his nominee for Secretary of Education is raising eyebrows because of a court case in Ohio.  

During a recent teleconference, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said he couldn’t answer questions about fines owed to Ohio by a political action committee created by Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos.

“I don’t know the details of it. I haven’t heard about this yet.”

Portman later issued a statement saying he was told DeVos was not a party to this lawsuit.

The PAC she and her husband created was ordered to pay fines for campaign finance violations in Ohio in 2008 which to date total more than $5.3 million. Democratic senators are pressing her to pay that fine. But her supporters say the lawsuit was politically motivated and contend she has no responsibility to pay the money to the state.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.