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This week on "The State of Ohio": State lawmakers consider what they can do in the wake of the horrible and yet miraculous escape story out of Cleveland involving three women held prisoner in a house for a decade. New data shows more than half of all violent crimes are committed by a very small numbers of offenders. Lawmakers are now working to target that tiny group. And more thoughts on legislation that would dramatically change rules on unions in Ohio.
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| Lobbyists have special interest on lawmakers who work on state budget, study shows. |
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By Bill Cohen - January 18, 2011 |
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Big money from Ohio special interest groups continued to play a huge role the last two years in paying for the election campaigns of state legislative candidates. That’s the bottom line of the latest study by Ohio Citizen Action, a watchdog group that often pushes liberal causes. The study shows that more than a third of legislators’ campaign money came from lobbying entities. And Citizen Action activist Catherine Turcer says when it comes to lawmakers responsible for hammering out the state budget, the special interest money plays an even bigger role. She talks about that with Ohio Public Radio’s Bill Cohen. |
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Catherine Turcer with Bill Cohen (1:58) 
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| In fact, the Citizen Action study that Turcer helped to write shows that the top seven interest group contributors to legislative candidate campaigns are all labor unions, and almost all of that money has gone to Democrats. |
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