Hmmm...Tricksy

U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor and his wife have moved into this home on a golf-course setting in Dublin, Ohio. It is deeded to a subsidiary of a lobbyist and campaign contributor.

TIFFIN, Ohio — Stationed beside U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor’s district office, Paper and Ink has glossy magazines, paperback reads, and divided feelings about the congressman’s new $1 million home.

The suburban Columbus residence is outside Ohio’s 5th Congressional District and deeded to a subsidiary of a lobbyist and campaign contributor.

Mr. Gillmor considers the transaction uncontroversial, even though his evolving explanation of the purchase appears to contradict earlier statements.


The revised explanation:

Brad Mascho, a spokesman for Mr. Gillmor, said the ownership structure conforms to the regulations that supervise members of the House of Representatives, overturning statements made by the congressman in a letter to The Blade published two weeks ago. Mr. Gillmor wrote that the Columbus-based law firm and lobbyist Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease has the property for him in a trust, a vehicle that ensures moneyed public officials a degree of privacy from public disclosures.

All congressmen must notify the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct before transferring assets into a trust.

The House Legislative Resource Center contains no record of notification by Mr. Gillmor. And the past 10 years of financial disclosures by the Republican congressman indicate that no such trust exists.

His spokesman, Mr. Mascho, said Friday that a trustlike entity that is “not a trust” controls the house, so there is no need to provide notification to Congress.

Gillmor's earlier statements here.

-Diane