Toledo Blade: Money fueled Ohio GOP but now puts future at risk

A decade before George W. Bush pinned "Pioneer" status on his top presidential fund-raisers, Ohio Republicans sent avian statues to about 10 men who raised at least $100,000 each for George Voinovich's 1990 campaign for governor.

2 decades of planning paved way for Bush win
By JIM TANKERSLEY and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS - The falcons are ceramic, wings folded back, eyes gazing sternly across the room.

They sit on some of the wealthiest desks in Columbus and throughout Ohio, unnoticed to all but a few political heavyweights, to whom they are a badge of honor.

A decade before George W. Bush pinned "Pioneer" status on his top presidential fund-raisers, Ohio Republicans sent avian statues to about 10 men who raised at least $100,000 each for George Voinovich's 1990 campaign for governor.

The businessmen and lobbyists who earned the "Maltese Falcons" - a reference to Mr. Voinovich's right-hand man, Paul Mifsud, whose family was from the Mediterranean island of Malta - went on to wield enormous influence during Mr. Voinovich's two terms in office.

The success of Mr. Voinovich's $8.7 million campaign, along with Republican Bob Taft's $2.7 million bid for secretary of state, ignited a political machine that would dominate Ohio for the next 15 years - and nurture a network of donors who helped Mr. Bush win the state's wallet and votes in 2004.

"George Bush comes to Ohio and inherits that very powerful Republican infrastructure to help him, and John Kerry comes to Ohio and inherits a very weak Democrat infrastructure," said Mark Weaver, a Republican consultant who has worked on Ohio campaigns since 1990. "In a race that was otherwise pretty much even, that was a factor."

But now scandal is threatening the GOP machine - and money is at its roots....