14A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 16, 1999 LOCAL/STATE House Dems call for reform amid fraud claim Ex-girl can't get . LANSING (AP) - House Democrats said yesterday they will introduce bills this fall limit- ing soft money contributions and requiring most candidates to file campaign finance reports elec- tronically. Bill sponsors said the measures would give special interest groups less influence and make candidates more accountable to voters who want to know who's paying for their campaigns. But Michigan Republican Chair Betsy DeVos said Democrats should be following existing laws, not writing new ones. "It's very disingenuous to talk about campaign finance on one hand when they can't obey the laws on the other," she said. DeVos said the Michigan Democratic Party may have violated the federal postal code during 1998 by mailing campaign literature for candi- dates at the party's lower rate of roughly 10 cents per piece, rather than having candidates do the mailings themselves at the bulk mail rate of roughly 25 cents per piece. Eric Doster, general counsel to the Michigan GOP, said the postal code says political mailings may not be made at the partisan non-profit mail rate if a political candidate: --Helps the political committee prepare or mail the materials; -Pays any of the costs of preparation or mail- ing: or -Provides any consideration to the committee in return for the mailing. "The law in this matter is very clear," Doster said. Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer said the party didn't break any laws or codes by mail- ing out literature promoting Democratic candi- dates. He said the mailings probably were made at the party's low, nonprofit rate, but were clearly iden- tified by the party's disclaimer and address as coming from the party, not the candidate. "They're playing semantical games here," Brewer said of the Republicans. "They're our mailings. They're about candidates, no doubt, but they're our literature. Both parties do a lot of campaigning on behalf of all kinds of candi-. dates." He added that Republicans have been embar- rassed by their own campaign violations and are trying to distract attention away from the Democratic campaign reforms rolled out yester- day. "They've had FEC (Federal Election Commission) audits that found a million dollars over a two-year period taken in by the state Republican Party in illegal, unitemized contribu- tions," he said. But DeVos said it can't be purely a coincidence that, in more than 20 instances, Democratic can- "Logic would tell you there is much more to this than wanting to be nice to the Democratic party." - Betsy DeVos Michigan Republican Chair didates made contributions of $1,000 or more to the Democratic State Central Committee to have the DSCC turn around and spend like amounts on postage. "Logic would tell you there is much more to this than wanting to be nice to the Democratic Party or wanting to put money into their coffers," she said, noting the maneuver may have helped Democratic candidates avoid paying more than $100,000 in postage. "Every document we have been able to obtain points to the Democrats engaging in mail fraud." Republicans say the biggest contribution made to the DSCC and later used for mailings came from Barbara Roberts Mason, a Democratic member of the State Board of Education who lost her re-election bid last year. The donation totaled $21,380. She said a lot of mailings on her behalf were handled by a committee during the campaign. Nothing was done without the party's approval, she added. The Michigan GOP has asked U.S. Postmaster William Henderson to open an immediate inves- tigation into the mailings. The party also has filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the postal statement the parties must file with each mailing. An earlier request for the statements was denied. Penalties for violating the law could include up to five years in jail and a fine up to $10,000, according to Republicans. In addition, violators can be charged a civil penalty of up to $5,000 and assessed twice the amount of any improper mail- ings. Brewer isn't worried. "There's no problem," he said. "We can get input and we can get advice from the candidates (on mailings) as long as in the end, the state party chair or the state party makes the call." transcript, changed BIRCH RUN, Mich. (AP) - Vic Dee Hrinik may be a man now, but he will remain a girl on his high school records. A judge has refused to order the Birch Run Area Schools to change the name and sex on the transcript for the former Vicki Hrinik. As Vicki, Hrinik graduated .fro Birch Run High School in 1983. asked the district to change his school records to reflect his new name and sex, and he sued in June 1998 when it refused. Saginaw County Circuit Judge Leopold Borrello dismissed the suit, filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act. "A transcript is a record of who you are and what you did while yc were in school," Superintende' Richard Ramsey told The Saginaw News. "If who you are changed after you left school, I don't think you can change the record." The Board of Education voted against the change last summer, say- ing it did not want to set a prece- dent. Doctors have diagnosed Hrinik with a hormonal imbalance leadin to "gender dysphoria," an identi disorder, said his attorney, Rudy Serra. The lawyer contended that the Americans with Disabilities Act covers Hrinik's condition. Hrinik referred to himself as a transsexual "on more than one occa- sion," and the act excludes the con- dition, Borrello said in his Aug. i3 ruling. Hrinik also maintained that a inability to produce sperm is ,. handicap covered by the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, but Borrello again dis- agreed. "If such a condition were a dis- ability, then all women would b. considered handicapped," Borrell4 said. Hrinik married five years ag rd has a 13-year-old stepson. They ljV in Spokane, Wash. He declined comment on the rul- ing. He sued because the district was hindering his pursuit of higher education, Serra said. Hrinik sought the document to apply to communi- ty college. But the judge ruled that there was no indication that a college refused to enroll Hrinik because his tran- script reflected a different gende "The court finds that the fails. to further plaintiff Vie's education is of his own doing," Borrello wrote. The Birch Run schools did renew the offer they made before Hrinik sued, saying they will leave the male/female box blank on Hrinik's transcript and replace the "Vicki" with a "V." "To the credit of the defendants, they've responded in the best way they could," Serra told the paper. still think they could give Vic a trMF script that does not contain obsolete information, (but) Vic is going to try to get on with his life." 4 ..ariwt.