How much influence should one man have?  How can we have government by the people and for the people, when certain folks have the unfair advantage of enormous resources?  Are Ohio politics working in the interests of average Ohio citizens, or in the interests of statewide contributors like Richard Weiland—who looks like he may have given more political donations in Ohio in the past few years than any other person.

The Secretary of State web site features this resource, which allows for political contribution records to be searched a variety of ways.  This link allows you to search by the name of the contributor.  If you are a wonk with a penchant for data mining, this might be the website for you!

If you enter the name “Richard Weiland” in the appropriate boxes, the search results return 798 line items—each documenting a separate contribution made in the state of Ohio by Richard Weiland.  That does not include looking for any different information with other names, like “Dick Weiland,” “R. Weiland,” or even “Richard Consulting Services.”

Hopefully, a reader will volunteer to search the document for illuminating line items.  I found it remotely interesting in the second screen of results that he gave $100 to both Barrett and Kearns.  I also found it noteworthy that, in a $150 donation to “Team Coughlin,” Weiland listed his occupation as “attorney.” It is my understanding he was disbarred several years ago.

Is Richard Weiland allowed to list “attorney” as his occupation if he has been debarred?

Keep searching through the results:  $1,000 to Kearney, $1,000 to Petro.  As I said, this document includes lots of data, but a cursory glance for familiar names finds more:  $100 to Driehaus, $1,000 to Seitz, $100 to Kearns and $100 to Barrett, another $1,000 for Petro, $700 to Driehaus, $200 to Mallory, $1,000 to Schmidt.

The donations span more than one year, for those curious at multiple listings under the same name.

(Since we’re playing online, we looked up “P. Heimlich” and found he has only given fifteen contributions—as himself anyway—since 1990, and five of them were for Tom Brinkman!)

The story of Richard Weiland is starting to look like a years long quest to gain power and influence through sidling up next to politicians with frequent contributions.  Whether he gives $1,000 to the candidate he really likes whenever he can, or whether he throws a $100 bone here and there to those he wants to keep around—Richard Weiland seems to have more access to our State’s political body than any other citizen.

Does Richard Weiland also do philanthropic works?  Yes, but now we enter the slippery realm of trying to pin down an individual’s motivation.  To what degree do charitable deeds serve as a facade for Weiland’s personal quest for increased political power and clout?

So what is Weiland’s political agenda?  What is he trying to accomplish?  How does this relate to the long list of organizations Weiland represents as a lobbyist?  Is everything here above board, or is there some backdoor influence peddling lurking beneath the surface?

Is if right for the citizens of Ohio to have their lives shaped and molded by the personal policies of a man who does not ever campaign the neighborhoods talking to people about what he believes, a man who has no voting record on the issues, a man who does not get voted into any office because his work is beyond political offices themselves?

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