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Portman Donates Campaign Contribution From White Supremacist Leader

StatehouseNews

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman has donated to charity a contribution he got from the head of a white supremacist organization linked to the killing of nine black people in a South Carolina church last week. But another Ohio politician has no such plan.

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 two-and-a-half years 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.