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Widowfield allegedly resold OSU tickets bought with campaign funds
By Dennis Willard
and Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writers
Published on Thursday, May 29, 2008
COLUMBUS: State Rep. John Widowfield, R-Cuyahoga Falls, abruptly resigned his legislative seat Wednesday amid allegations he purchased Ohio State University football tickets with campaign funds and sold them for a profit.
In a brief letter to House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, Widowfield said he was resigning effective 1 p.m. Wednesday.
''It has been an honor and privilege to serve the 42nd Ohio House District, and to serve under your leadership,'' Widowfield wrote in the two-paragraph letter.
The letter was placed in the official House journal at the end of the day's session, which Widowfield didn't attend.
Widowfield did not return several phone calls seeking comment Tuesday and Wednesday. He signed for gas mileage reimbursement for the week and attended a committee hearing Wednesday morning.
Sources told the Beacon Journal that Widowfield sold the football tickets on the Internet for more than their face value and pocketed the profits.
A lawmaker who uses campaign funds to purchase and sell items for a Please see Campaign, A8
profit could face investigations from the Legislative Inspector General, the Ohio Elections Commission and the Internal Revenue Service if the income was not reported.
Ohio law requires state lawmakers to disclose all sources of their income. Widowfield's financial disclosure forms for the past four years list only his legislative salary and interest on checking and annuity accounts as sources of income.
Widowfield's campaign committee spent $1,664 on April 3, 2006, and $1,636 on April 20, 2005, on OSU season football tickets, according to the most recent campaign finance report filed with the Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office .
He also paid $1,398 for tickets in 2004. Reports that would outline ticket purchases in 2007 and this year were not available.
Officials won't comment
Tony Bledsoe, the legislative inspector general, said Wednesday that he is prohibited from discussing an investigation until it is referred to a prosecutor. He would not confirm or deny whether Widowfield was under investigation.
When a lawmaker resigns, Bledsoe said, any information his office has accumulated in an investigation is referred to ''the appropriate law enforcement entity'' if a criminal matter was involved.
''Our ability to serve a complaint or take action would cease upon the person's departure,'' Bledsoe said.
Husted, the House speaker, who sits on the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC), said he could not comment on the panel's work.
He said Widowfield told him recently he planned to resign in July to take an unspecified job, but decided to leave the legislature earlier.
Husted said he did not know anything about questions surrounding ticket purchases and sales by Widowfield.
Other members of JLEC contacted by the Beacon Journal said they were not permitted to say whether the committee met Wednesday morning to discuss the Widowfield matter.
Ohio law says, ''No beneficiary of a campaign fund or other person shall convert for personal use . . . anything of value from the beneficiary's campaign fund.'' The only exceptions are for certain reimbursements.
Rules on ticket buy
Philip Richter, executive director of the Ohio Elections Commission, said buying tickets with campaign funds would be allowed if the tickets were used for a campaign purpose. He said this is no different from the campaign purchasing a computer to track donations.
''By purchasing those tickets with campaign funds, those tickets then become a campaign asset,'' Richter said. ''If he sells them and that money does not come back into the campaign fund, that's a potential problem because that's a campaign asset that has not been used for a campaign purpose.''
No complaint against Widowfield had been filed with the Elections Commission as of Wednesday afternoon.
The IRS Web site says an online auction seller ''may be subject to liabilities for income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax or excise tax. Your sales may result in capital gains, nondeductible personal losses or you may have ordinary business income.''
Philip Okonek, a spokesman for the IRS office in Akron, said the ''numbers are pretty high'' for potential fraud investigations.
''You wouldn't want us wasting time on a couple thousand dollars,'' he said. ''Any misappropriated funds could be construed as taxable income, but may not result in criminal fraud charges.''
Jon Turney, who managed Widowfield's campaign for the House in 2006 and unsuccessful bid for Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court clerk last November, said Widowfield bought OSU football tickets ''as most legislators do.''
''As far as selling, I don't know how far I should comment until I'm actually questioned,'' Turney said, referring to investigators.
Turney, who lives in Silver Lake, said Wednesday afternoon that he hadn't yet been questioned by Bledsoe or anyone else regarding Widowfield's campaign finances, but was expecting to be.
Jeff Ortega, a Brunner spokesman, said his office had not been contacted by anyone regarding Widowfield's use of his campaign funds.
Jim Lynch, an OSU spokesman, said Widowfield had season tickets last year that were in the stadium's end zone. He said season ticket packages sent to lawmakers this year were still being processed and he did not know if Widowfield applied.
The law
Ohio State allows the state's 132 lawmakers to buy up to four season tickets at face value. Many OSU alumni are limited to buying tickets to one game each year and it is difficult for the average fan to buy tickets without paying a scalper's premium.
Lynch said Ohio State had not been contacted by any state agencies, including the Legislative Inspector General's office, regarding Widowfield.
In past years, Lynch said, Ohio State's governmental relations staff has worked with JLEC on issues of ticket purchases.
''We have been assured that JLEC has cautioned lawmakers not to resell tickets for amounts above face value,'' Lynch said.
Widowfield, 44, is running for a seat on Summit County Council in November after defeating an incumbent Republican in the primary. He was eligible to serve two more years in the Ohio House before being term-limited.
Richard Nero, who won a Republican primary in March to run for Widowfield's House seat Nov. 4, is expected to be appointed to serve out the term. He is a consultant for Oracle, a California software and technology company.
Dennis Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Beacon Journal reporters John Higgins and Phil Trexler contributed to this article.
COLUMBUS: State Rep. John Widowfield, R-Cuyahoga Falls, abruptly resigned his legislative seat Wednesday amid allegations he purchased Ohio State University football tickets with campaign funds and sold them for a profit.
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