Ohio’s Democratic Party is rashly contending that Ohio State endorsed Eddie Pauline’s campaign for Columbus City Council when a nationwide fundraising letter for OSU written by Pauline mentioned his political ambitions.
Pauline, a Republican, was one of 22 people who wrote fundraising letters sent to 154,000 OSU alumni across the country. Only about 7,000 of the 33,000 copies of the letter written by Pauline were mailed in the Columbus area.
Although OSU’s recruitment of Pauline to write the letter while he is campaigning for Columbus City Council might appear more than coincidental, Pauline’s name recognition and its help to university fundraising cannot be discounted.
As a two-term OSU Undergraduate Student Government president who graduated in 2003, his name familiarity with recent graduates is high, and Pauline has enjoyed a successful career since graduating from OSU. He was approached because of his university achievements and ability to generate donations from recent OSU graduates, and should not be criticized because of his pre- and post-graduation accomplishments or ventures.
The controversy, however, could possibly have been avoided. Instead of citing the specific position for which he was running, Pauline could have prevented an ethically questionable situation and stated generically he was running for a political office rather than specifically citing his bid for Columbus City Council.
The notion by Ohio Democrats, however, that OSU endorsed Pauline is unsubstantiated. The letter was not a political endorsement from OSU, and Pauline answered the questions presented by the Office of Annual Giving in preparation for the letter factually and truthfully. Under those circumstances, he did not intentionally use OSU’s fundraising letter as a political soapbox.
OSU has dealt with the attacks admirably, and maintains that it did not endorse Pauline’s campaign. This page believes it did not. It is imperative, however, that confusion of this nature does not happen again. Appointments aside, as a large public university that receives substantial state funding, OSU cannot appear in any way to hold political bias.
It should be comforting to students that OSU is speaking out and adamantly denying unfounded allegations. Striving for accuracy and equality is a hallmark of OSU, and no organization or entity should respect the political process more than a public university, where free thought and democratic ideals flourish.
