|
Race for Congress
 Now that Martin Ozinga III's impending appointment to the GOP nomination in the 11th congressional district has permeated the mainstream media, the dissection of Ozinga's history has begun. There's plenty there to be sorted through, to be sure. Minority-contracting fraud allegations, this email flap being pursued by the DCCC, and Ozinga's bi-partisan history of political contributions.But what's astonishing is the mainstream brain trusts inability to differentiate between Martin Ozinga, Jr. and Martin Ozinga III. As has been pointed out here twice already, Ozinga III does have a history of contributing to Democrats, both personally and through his ready-mix concrete company, Ozinga Brothers. But, there seems to be some confusion surrounding Ozinga and contributions to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business reported this yesterday: Party sources said they believe Mr. Ozinga, who was not available for comment, will be able to self-finance much of his late-starting campaign. But word of his selection already is drawing fire from some party activists, who note that he has been a major donor to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, giving the Chicago Democrat $10,000 late in 2005. And today, this appeared in the Bloomington Pantagraph: Ozinga and the companies he owns have given $23,000 to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign fund since 2002, and they have also donated smaller amounts of money to Democrats such as Secretary of State Jesse White, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Comptroller Dan Hynes, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. The Pantagraph gets closer to reality than does Hinz, but even they aren't completely right. Before taking a look the Ozinga contribution file, first we must make some differentiations. Here are the players involved: Martin Ozinga III - Candidate for Congress Martin Ozinga, Jr. - Ozinga III's father Martin Ozinga - Ambiguous listing that could be either Jr. or III Ozinga Brothers, Inc.* - Ready-mix concrete company owned and run by Ozinga III * - The several companies comprising the Ozinga Brothers, Inc. conglomerate are listed in a pleothera of different ways in the contributions file, including: So, now that we've covered that, let's talk about Ozinga's contribution habits. You can click here to download a PDF document of Ozinga's contribution history, compiled from the records at Opensecrets.org and the Illinois State Board of Elections. The color coding is as follows: Yellow indicates Martin Ozinga III; Green for Martin Ozinga, Jr.; Blue represents corporate contributions through Ozinga Brothers; Pink shows an ambiguous individual contribution, impossible to differentiate between "Jr." and "III" on name alone. Donations to Democrats that Ozinga III can be held directly responsible for - inasmuch as they are attributed directly to "Martin Ozinga III" - have gone to Dick Durbin, Mayor Richard Daley and Jesse White. The report that Ozinga has contributed to Rod Blagojevich is simultaneously partially true and incorrect. I'll explain. Between 2002 and 2003, Ozinga Chicago RMC Inc. contributed a total of $13,000 to Friends of Blagojevich. Ozinga holds at least some level of culpability for these donations as they originate from the company he owns. Though, to be fair, corporate contributions could or could not have come at the direct behest of Ozinga III. There's an existing possibility of plausible deniability that he wasn't directly behind these corporate contributions, that there were other individuals at Ozinga Brothers recommending these particular donations. The believability of this potential explanation for his role in these contributions will be left up to the voters of the 11th district. Ozinga will probably point out that his company is equal-opportunity, giving to both Republicans and Democrats. As we pointed out already, Ozinga Brothers' corporate contribution list is a who's who of old guard Illinois politicians and political organizations of both parties, among them: As you can plainly see, it's more than accurate to describe the totality of Ozinga's contributions as a "mixed bag". With the minority contracting fraud story waiting in the offing, this will be area where Ozinga will have to tread lightly. Further complicating this mess is a 2005 contribution of $10,000 to Friends of Blagojevich that is being attributed by both Hinz and the Pantograph to Ozinga III. That looks to be incorrect, but admittedly needs clarification. The donation in question was made by "Martin Ozinga" of "3300 W. 96th Street, Evergreen Park, IL" on 12/14/2005. The name "Martin Ozinga" is an ambiguity without the differentiating "Jr." or "III" suffix, but the address listed with this contribution matches the address listed with Martin Ozinga, Jr. in other campaign contributions. Ozinga III - the one running for Congress - lists his address as "15159 108th Street, Orland Park, IL" in his political donations. The Pantagraph gets it wrong again here: In addition, Ozinga donated $2,000 to unsuccessful Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gery Chico in 2003 ... A check of the contribution file clearly shows this contribution attributed to "Martin Ozinga, Jr.", the father of the congressional candidate. Martin Ozinga III will have plenty to explain when (assuming nothing falls through) he becomes the 11th district GOP nominee. But, a little attention to the details from the mainstream media wouldn't hurt. Filed Under: Race for Congress E-mail this article to a friend | Printer friendly format |
Countdown to Election Day
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
