Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio says he has donated to charity a campaign contribution he received from the head of a white supremacist organization linked to the killing of nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church last week. But another Ohio politician has no plans to follow suit. M.L. Schultze of member station WKSU in Kent reports.
Earl Holt III donated $250 to Portman’s 2010 Senate campaign and $1,500 to the 2012 Senate campaign of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. Holt is president of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the council as a white supremacist group. And in a diatribe on his web site denouncing blacks and other minorities, the alleged gunman in the South Carolina killings, Dylann Roof, cites the work of the council. Portman’s spokesman says he learned of the contribution Sunday night and is giving the money to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to help the victims of the shooting. A spokesman for Mandel says he spent the money 2 ½ tears ago and can’t give it back. Federal Election Commission filings show Mandel’s campaign fund still had nearly $50,000 in it as of April.
