Ohio panel rules against congressional challenger

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Armenian-American congressional challenger made false campaign statements with reckless disregard for the truth when he said an Ohio congresswoman took money from the Turkish government and Turkish government-sponsored interests, the Ohio Elections Commission found Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Cincinnati-area Republican, brought the complaints against David Krikorian after he made the statements in the waning days of the 2008 campaign. Krikorian, who ran as an independent, said Schmidt was given roughly $30,000 from Turkish interests because of her denial that the mass killings of Armenians by the Turks in 1915 constituted genocide.

The commission will issue a public reprimand of Krikorian for three violations, all variations of statements he made about Schmidt taking money either directly from the Turkish government or indirectly through what he called Turkish government-sponsored political action campaigns.

It is illegal for elected officials or candidates to take money from foreign governments or individuals.

“We are incredibly gratified that we won on all the major counts,” said Schmidt Chief of Staff Barry Bennett. “We’ll see if he learns his lesson.”

The commission ruled in Krikorian’s favor on one of Schmidt’s arguments, dismissing a complaint that his statement that Schmidt had taken money from Turkish individuals was a false statement. The commission felt that “individuals” could be interpreted to mean Americans of Turkish descent.

Krikorian attempted to show that he had a “good faith” reason to believe that Schmidt was getting Turkish government money because registered lobbyists of the Turkish government were donating money to Turkish-American political action committees, who in turn gave to Schmidt’s campaign.

Neither side disputed that Schmidt received legal money from Turkish-American political action campaigns.

Krikorian also attempted to show that he believed that the lobbyists of the Turkish government helped coordinate fundraising activities for Schmidt.

The commission found that Krikorian should have known that he had no proof to make the claims.

“A prudent person, given his cognitive ability, would have been a little hesitant in making those bold statements,” said commission member Larry Wolpert.

Krikorian’s attorney, Mark Geragos, argued that the commission should come down on the side of protecting free speech.

“For anyone to say that that is actual malice, that he didn’t have a basis, makes a mockery of free speech,” Geragos said. “This goes to the core of political speech.”

But Schmidt attorney Donald Brey said candidates can’t say anything they want.

“Freedom of speech is not a license to lie or defraud the voters, which is what he did,” Brey said.

Krikorian said he didn’t yet know whether he would appeal the decision in common pleas court. He is running for the Democratic nomination to face Schmidt again in 2010.

“The people of the district desperately need some leadership and this case has taken too much time,” he said.

Schmidt’s position that she doesn’t have enough information to proclaim the 1915 killings were genocide — which many history scholars believe it was — is also shared by the U.S. government. The U.S. foreign policy establishment’s careful positioning on the issue is driven by the importance of maintaining productive relations with a moderate ally in the Middle East.

Turkey denies that the deaths an estimated 1.5 million Armenians constituted genocide, contending the toll has been inflated and that the casualties were victims of civil war. It says Turks also suffered losses in the hands of Armenian gangs.