Gregory Flannery at CityBeat has the latest ethics questions for the Schmidt campaign, this time related to her media strategist Fritz Wenzel:

Wenzel left The Blade on Friday, May 13. Records with the Federal Elections Commission show his new political consulting company, Wenzel Strategies, received $30,000 three days later for media purchases for the Schmidt campaign, plus an additional $30,000 a week later.

That’s quite an assignment for a brand new company. After all, Wenzel Strategies, whose mailing address is in Toledo, still doesn’t even have a telephone listing there. The company does have a Web page of sorts (heartlandpolitics.com); the page describes itself as the “future home” of Wenzel Strategies.

A company with no track record, no phone and no Web site: What could have recommended it to Schmidt’s campaign? Was Wenzel advising the Schmidt campaign while still covering politics for the newspaper? He says no.

“I became aware of the Schmidt campaign because I’m a longtime friend of (campaign manager) Joe Braun,” Wenzel says. “He knew that I was starting this company up and we talked about it after leaving The Blade. I remember that weekend after I left The Blade we talked extensively and decided then to do this. It was a very busy weekend for me. I paid attention to that race, so I was well aware of what was going on.”

Wenzel did more than pay attention. In “Heartland Politics,” a personal blog he maintained while working for The Blade, he wrote a scathing summary of Schmidt’s opponents in the GOP primary election, citing former U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen’s history of bounced checks and Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine’s personal peccadilloes. (more…)


One fun fact that comes out from the article: both Wenzel and her campaign manager Joe Braun are working for free.

ASIDE: To be honest I’m not clued into how things work on the inside to judge this sort of thing. How common is this? It strikes me as strange. You’ve got to ask anyone involved with such a high stakes game what’s in it for them.

BTW… what’s in it for us here at the Ohio 2nd Blog? We haven’t worked that one out yet. Obsessive behavior? Boredom? Intense dislike of the current political dialog? A love of the game? Pure ego gratification? ;-)