Bosma Identifies Kittle As The Person Who Offered Him Unlimited Contributions To Kill HJR-3

The Indianapolis Star has finally been shamed into covering the public flap created when House Speaker Brian Bosma recently announced during a State House press briefing that he had been offered unlimited campaign contributions by one of the opponents of HJR-3 if he agreed to kill the proposed constitutional amendment. Bosma refused to identify the offeror at the time, but the AP's Tom LoBianco, citing numerous sources, identified the person making the offer as former Indiana GOP Chairman Jim Kittle. Speaker Bosma acknowledged during an interview with the Star's Barb Berggoetz today that Kittle was indeed the person who made the offer.

On Wednesday in an interview with The Star, Bosma publicly acknowledged for the first time that the person was Jim Kittle Jr. — a prolific GOP fundraiser and former state party chairman . . .

“The exact quote was: ‘There will be unlimited campaign contributions if this thing can just go away,’ ” he said.

“I thought it was highly inappropriate,” Bosma reiterated Wednesday. “I didn’t think it crossed any criminal line. But I was very uncomfortable with it.”  

Bosma characterized Kittle’s offer as atypical and decided to make it public to show intensity of the lobbying effort on the gay marriage ban. 

“It’s not unusual for people to come to me to support a position,” he said. “Rarely, if ever, is it connected with any pledge of campaign support. I’ve never heard anyone ever say anything ever about unlimited anything.” 

When he told Kittle how he thought it sounded, Bosma said, Kittle changed the offer to “virtually” unlimited campaign funds. Bosma said Kittle he didn’t specify exactly to whom the money would go

For his part, Kittle tells the Star that Bosma is mischaracterizing their conversations about HJR-3:

Kittle said Wednesday, while vacationing in Mexico, that Bosma “mischaracterized” their conversations.

“I expressed my opposition to the marriage amendment and also expressed my belief there would be strong political support for those who had the courage to oppose it or at least amend the (constitutional) amendment,” said Kittle, owner and board chairman of Indianapolis-based Kittle’s Furniture. His company contributed $5,000 to the Freedom Indiana coalition which opposed the amendment and he played a key role in helping find financial support for the group.

Kittle denied he promised “unlimited” campaign funds for GOP lawmakers who would vote against House Joint Resolution 3, which lawmakers passed in February without the civil union ban, thus keeping it off the November ballot.

“Any implication or anything that can be construed as inappropriate or untoward, that’s simply not true,” Kittle told The Star. “I’ve been around politics for a long time. And I know the difference.” . . .  

Kittle said didn’t cross the line. He said Bosma told him he was concerned some House Republicans could draw primary opponents funded by social conservative groups if they voted against the amendment or agreed to remove the civil union ban.

But Kittle said he just told Bosma there would be “significant or substantial support” for them from the businesses, universities and many groups that opposed the amendment. He added, though, he wasn’t there representing anyone but himself, but acknowledged his support of Freedom Indiana.

“I think I had some credibility with Brian and that certainly was one reason I met with him and thought my counsel and offer to support folks who did stand up against it probably had some validity,” Kittle said.

The article goes on to discuss whether the offer might be considered a bribe. Of course, they reference the state's bribery statute and not the federal bribery statute and conclude Kittle's offer probably doesn't rise to a criminal level. As I've discussed before, the state bribery statute is intentionally written to make prosecution under it difficult. That's why cases involving allegations of bribery are typically referred to the feds for prosecution. The Star's story mentions that Kittle contribute $5,000 to Freedom Indiana, the political action committee formed to fight passage of HJR-3; however, Kittle insists that he spoke to Bosma in his individual capacity and not on behalf of Freedom Indiana.

Kittle Denies Offering A Bribe To Speaker Bosma To Kill HJR-3

Former Indiana State GOP Chairman James Kittle is denying a recent AP report identifying him as the unidentified person that House Speaker Brian Bosma recently told State House reporters offered him unlimited campaign contributions if he would kill HJR-3, the marriage discrimination amendment. Bosma said he turned down the offer and expressed concern about the legality of the offer to the unidentified person who offered it to him. Lobianco reported that numerous sources familiar with the offer said it was Kittle who made the offer.

What I find more interesting than who said what in this saga is the State House media coverage of this issue, or better yet, the lack thereof. I observed at the time Speaker Bosma stepped before reporters and made the astonishing claim that virtually no State House reporter mentioned the serious bribery allegation in their reporting of that day's press briefing. Apparently, only the AP's Tom LoBianco even bothered to track the story down to learn who the person was who Bosma alleged made the offer to him.

One would think that a story of this importance put out by an AP reporter would be picked up by virtually all major news outlets in Indiana. Yet most newspapers ignored the story and many media outlets either didn't run the story, or only ran abbreviated version of the story. The only newspaper I could find that ran LoBianco's follow-up story containing a denial from Kittle is the Columbus Republic, which is hardly one of the State's leading daily newspapers. This would story would appear to be an abbreviated version of LoBianco's story, judging by its length--four short paragraphs.

LoBianco's story also mentions that the National Organization for Marriage sent a letter to Attorney General Greg Zoeller requesting an investigation of the alleged bribe offered by Kittle to Bosma. The out-of-state organization obviously is unaware that our state's Attorney General, one of the weakest in the nation, has no prosecutorial powers.

Perhaps revealing of the media's agenda on the issue of same-sex marriage was the extra attention it gave to an issue that arose with a tax bill making its way through the legislature yesterday. Because Indiana's income tax piggy backs on the federal income tax, lawmakers are asked to periodically update the state's income tax code to reflect changes in the Internal Revenue Code. After the IRS ruled last year that same-sex couples would be allowed to file joint tax returns and otherwise be treated the same as traditional married coupled under the tax code following the Supreme Court's landmark decision striking down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Indiana Department of Revenue quickly announced that same-sex couples who filed joint federal tax returns would still have to file tax returns separately because of the state's Defense of Marriage Act, which no court has yet ruled unconstitutional.

Arguably, the differing tax treatment of same-sex and opposite-sex couples increases the likelihood that state laws like Indiana's Defense of Marriage Act will eventually be ruled unconstitutional. That has already been the outcome in several lower federal court rulings handed down since last year's Supreme Court ruling. If state lawmakers had rejected the Department of Revenue's ruling last year and allowed same-sex couples to file joint state tax returns, it would have implicitly repudiated the state's Defense of Marriage Act. Yesterday's action in the Senate was taken to codify the state's Department of Revenue's administrative determination, which is consistent with state law whether one likes that law or not.

UPDATE: The IBJ has published a longer version of the AP story, which includes quotes from Kittle in response to the allegations:

Jim Kittle, a prolific fundraiser in Indiana Republican circles, said he twice met with and tried to convince House Speaker Brian Bosma that the ban shouldn't be considered this session but that he never offered unlimited funds. Bosma has repeatedly said he was offered unlimited money in the heat of the debate if he would pull the issue from consideration, but he has refused to say who made the offer.

Kittle, who opposed the ban, told The Associated Press that he met with the legislative leader at Bosma's law office, once before the session and again shortly after the session started. He said Bosma expressed concerns that some House Republicans could face strong primary election fights if they opposed the ban.

"To offer support to individual legislators if they do happen to get primaried or they're running certainly is not illegal, immoral or anything else," Kittle said. "I respect the fact that Brian's got himself kind of in a jam here. He misjudged what was happening, period, on this."

At the start of the fight in January, Bosma said he had rejected an offer of "unlimited" funds to make the ban "go away." He said at the time that he was concerned it might violate state and federal law.

But, last week, Bosma said he believed nothing criminal was meant by the offer. Bosma spokeswoman Tory Flynn declined comment Tuesday, referring to Bosma's comments last week.

Former Indiana GOP Chairman James Kittle Fingered In Bribe Offered To House Speaker To Block HJR-3

Wealthy businessman and former Indiana State Republican Chairman James Kittle has been identified as the businessman who offered House Speaker Brian Bosma unlimited campaign cash earlier this session if he would kill HJR-3, the proposed marriage discrimination amendment according to the AP's Tom Lobianco. Citing multiple sources familiar with the offer, Lobianco said Kittle withdrew the offer of "unlimited" campaign help after Bosma questioned the legality of his offer.

Jim Kittle offered "unlimited" campaign help to House Speaker Brian Bosma as part of a push to defeat the proposed amendment, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the discussion. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the private discussions.

Kittle withdrew his offer after Bosma questioned its legality, and it turns out the money wasn't needed after all. Only four House Republicans targeted by ban supporters face primary challenges, and changes to the proposed amendment's language will keep the issue off the ballot until at least 2016. But the back-room intrigue illustrates how election-year politics and campaign dollars shape some of the state's most important decisions . . .

Bosma also has said a potential candidate notified him that he had been offered $500,000 from an out-of-state source to challenge the speaker in the May primary.

But Kittle's offer is the one that raised some eyebrows. Bosma first announced an offer of campaign dollars in a January news conference but did not identify the potential contributor.

"I received a pledge of unlimited campaign funding if I were to make this issue go away," Bosma announced.

Bosma said he rejected the offer and expressed concern that it might have violated state or federal law. He has worn his decision as a badge of pride throughout the session, telling reporters he does not bow to threats or intimidation.

Bosma told The Associated Press last week that he didn't think the offer constituted a crime. But the speaker, who has never said Kittle made the offer, acknowledged voicing some concerns.

"I did bring to that individual's attention what it sounded like he was saying and I think he was pretty concerned about it after he said it," Bosma said.

Kittle did not return calls seeking comment . . .

This isn't the first time Kittle's name has surfaced in connection with nefarious activities. Kittle, who stepped down as the GOP's state party chairman and Gov. Daniels' finance chairman after before his arrest for drunk driving in Hamilton County in December, 2010, was identified as one of several investors a controversial Chinese immigrant had supposedly lined up to start up a new company that would assist Chinese investors with investment opportunities in the United States. Monica Liang, then a newly-hired consultant to Mitch Roob, the former head of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), became the subject of a complaint lodged by Chinese businessmen after Liang lured a Chinese billionaire, Ao Yuqi, to wire $50,000 into her bank account. According to a written complaint several Chinese businessmen had delivered to Gov. Mitch Daniels accusing Liang of criminal wrongdoing, Liang had identified Kittle as someone with whom she was very close who had tremendous political clout in Indiana.

She advised us that the State of Indiana would set up an office in China and she would be appointed as the manager of that office. She also repeatedly hinted to us that she was connected politically because she was in an intimate relationship with Chairman of Republican Party of Indiana. She advised us that the Chairman was "super rich," owned two large biotechnology companies and was the largest campaign contributor of Governor Daniels' election. As she put it that meant it was no problem for us to meet Governor Daniels when we next visit Indiana.

Sources familiar with an FBI investigation of Liang's business dealings tell Advance Indiana that she had formed a new company, China North American Investment Group, LLC, whose members according to Liang were to include herself, Ao, Kittle, Mitch Roob and Bingham McHale managing partner, Toby McClamroch, a former Indianapolis City-County Council member. Liang used a letter dated February 18, 2011 signed by Roob appointing her as his special assistant for Chinese relations to impress potential investors in China. Liang had also supposedly represented to the Chinese investors an opportunity to invest in a $12 million nursing home project she was trying to develop in a building she had purchased in Marion, Indiana, which she claimed included Gov. Daniels, Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold and Roob as investors according to an expose' on the entire sordid affair by the Indianapolis Star, titled, "The China Letter." Among the supporting documents Liang provided to the Chinese investors was a letter on the City of Marion's letterhead signed by the city's economic development director, Darren Reese, pledging support for TIF incentives for the project.

The FBI dropped its investigation of Liang's business dealings after she died unexpectedly from an aneurysm during a visit to her apartment in Carmel in late October, 2011 from a Chicago attorney, Thomas Gehl, who was advising her on EB-5 immigrant visas, a visa program that allows large foreign investors to obtain permanent resident status in the U.S. in consideration for investing in qualified American investments.  As a result of an internal investigation of the complaint sent to Gov. Daniels, Liang was immediately terminated and Roob stepped down as IEDC's CEO a short time later, although he insisted that the sordid affair was not the cause for his resignation. IEDC also ended its long-term relationship with Pacific World Trade, which had an exclusive contract to assist the IEDC in developing business relationships in China, in retaliation for its perceived role in helping bring the serious allegations of wrongdoing on Liang's part to light. The company's owner, Dennis Kelley, delivered the complaint on behalf of the Chinese businessmen, a fact that irked state officials, even though essentially all of the allegations contained in their complaint had been determined to be accurate based on the state agency's internal investigation of the complaint. Roob had demanded that Kelley retract the allegations set forth in the complaint prior to his abrupt departure from the state agency.

Last December, the Indianapolis Star featured a $2.5 million log cabin home in Carmel owned by Kittle that was being offered for sale. "Detailed craftsmanship is the hallmark of this spacious Carmel home being offered for $2.5 million," the article read. "Jim Kittle's custom log home is filled with signature lines from the family furniture business." "Set in a private, wooded area, the home resembles a mountain retreat, complete with natural interior features such as slate flooring and exposed board and batten ceilings." Watch the Indianapolis Star and other media outlets to bury this AP story since it doesn't fit their meme on HJR-3, not to mention the advertising Kittle's furniture store purchases from them.