It is not much of secret that most political candidates have people research their backgrounds so as they prepare their campaigns they can anticipate what might be said about them. Most candidates never acknowledge this research and guard the materials collected as if they were a state secret.
At a March 17, 2006 press conference in Columbus, however, I provided to the media over 1,000 pages of documents regarding my personal and professional background. I have taken this unusual step for three reasons.
- As a candidate for Ohio Attorney General, I'm applying for a job – the job of serving as the People's Lawyer in Ohio. As an applicant for this position, my prospective employers and clients — the people of Ohio — should be able to check my background just like any other employer. I'm providing this information to members of the press as a means to give my future employers this opportunity, so they can make a fully-informed decision about whom they want to hire as their attorney.
- As we have found out over the last year or two, there have been far too many secrets in state government in Ohio and it has taken investigation after investigation to get to the bottom of them. If we are going to end the secrets in Columbus and build the kind of transparent state government that can earn back the trust of its constituents, our elected officials must start with themselves. To accomplish this, we need to start with our campaigns. If people see we are willing to disclose the details of our backgrounds while we are candidates, they will have more reason to trust us to run an open, transparent government once we are elected officials.
- The political process benefits from greater openness. If candidates laid out their backgrounds, warts and all, it would drain a fair amount of negativity out of political campaigns. Instead of being distracted by revelations about our opponents' backgrounds, we could instead focus on the needs of the people we are asking to represent, the responsibilities of the offices we seek, and our comparative abilities to do the job.
The press received a CD that included:
- A scanned copy of the documents I provided to the FBI when they conducted the mandatory background check I was required to pass to receive official SECRET clearance and serve as an Assistant United States Attorney.
- The scanned copy of the documents I submitted when I applied for the position of Law Director for the City of Cleveland.
- A Lexis report on the cases where I am listed as representing the City of Cleveland.
- All the news articles we found in an online search in which I have been mentioned during my career and my candidacy. We have combined these articles into a single searchable document and have also included them in a folder of individual files.
- The articles regarding the case of Michael Green and the groundbreaking approach we developed at the City of Cleveland for managing cases where DNA exonerates people who have been wrongly prosecuted and convicted.
- Information about the real estate my wife and I have purchased and sold.
- The attorney Information listed for me by the Ohio Supreme Court.
- Legal pleadings and rulings from the case Darryl Hines v. Subodh Chandra, Theodora Monegan, Kevin Gibbons, James Glending, and the City of Cleveland, Ohio.
Anyone who spends any time in public life inevitably finds him or herself involved in issues that could be misunderstood or misconstrued. For example, when I was Treasurer of the Indian-American Leadership Investment Fund, an organization I helped found, a fundraiser misrepresented the source of the contributions he collected and used the organization to funnel contributions from foreign nationals into the federal-election process, acts that I brought to the attention of the Federal Election Commission and other authorities when I became aware of them and for which he was ultimately convicted. I provided the attached information to the FBI to guarantee that a misunderstanding of these events did not somehow become an issue with my background check. I am providing it to the public for the same reason.
In the weeks that remain before the primary election I intend to talk with Ohioans about the squandered potential of the Ohio Attorney General's office that has been put at the disposal of the campaign contributors of the recent office holders instead of being used to further the interests of the Attorney General's real clients – the people of Ohio. I intend to make the case that – as every Ohioan already knows – our state is in trouble and that when they consider who to vote for as the next Attorney General, they should do just what they would do if their family were in trouble – hire the best attorney they can find.
It is my hope that by giving my prospective employers, Ohio voters, the opportunity review my background, they will approve my application and Hire Chandra for Ohio Attorney General.
Sincerely,
Subodh Chandra
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