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Posts Tagged ‘Ohio’


OH: Former Democrat AG Dann Found Guilty of Ethics Charges

From Vindy.com:

Former Attorney General Marc Dann was found guilty today on two ethics counts — providing improper compensation and filing false financial disclosure statements.

He entered an “Alford plea,” meaning he admits there is sufficient evidence to convict him of the charges, but avoids having to plead guilty.

He was fined $500 for each count and is required to serve 500 hours of community service.

After his conviction in Franklin County Municipal Court, Dann, a Democrat from Liberty, told reporters that he is innocent, but added that he took full responsibility for his mistakes.

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Primary to set the stage in Ohio

From Middletown Journal:

Tuesday’s primary election will help Republicans resolve some tea party conflicts, at least for now.

The conservative movement advocating small government lies at the center of an intensely competitive primary for state auditor, in which Delaware County prosecutor David Yost faces state Rep. Seth Morgan.

Yost is the state Republican Party’s chosen candidate, while Morgan was the first big candidate to be endorsed by the newly formed Ohio Tea Party political action committee.

In GOP primary for secretary of state, state Sen. Jon Husted faces Sandra O’Brien, who lost a bid for state treasurer in 2006. Husted, a former House speaker, is running on a decade-long record in state government that includes a push for election reform.

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OH: Democrat Secretary of State Not Following Federal Election Disclosure Rules

From Cleveland.com:

Jennifer Brunner, the U.S. Senate candidate whose day job is to make sure that Ohio elections run smoothly and lawfully, is not following a requirement of federal election law in her own campaign — or so it appears based on a review of her campaign finance reports as well as Federal Election Commission guidelines.

The Ohio secretary of state, running in the May 4 Democratic primary for Senate against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, has consistently failed to list the identities and itemize the salaries of all her campaign staffers, as required by law.

Instead, she files quarterly FEC campaign finance reports that itemize every stipend to each of her interns. She then lumps the salaries of her top staffers into a payment she makes regularly to a paycheck-processing company, PayChex. During the first three months of this year, the Jennifer Brunner Committee paid $37,081.61 to PayChex, according to an itemization from Brunner’s latest FEC report.

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OH: Disgraced Former AG Dann’s Wife Charged with Ethics Violation

From the Columbus Dispatch:

The estranged wife of former Attorney General Marc Dann was charged late yesterday afternoon with using her husband’s position to score a $6,500 grant for her university.

Alyssa Lenhoff, who teaches journalism at Youngstown State University, “knowingly (had) an interest in the profits of a public contract” entered between the university and the attorney general’s office in 2007, according to the misdemeanor charge from the Ohio Ethics Commission.

The $6,500 grant would have been used to fund a “cold case” course that Lenhoff taught, but the attorney general’s office cut off payment

David E. Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, said the charge was part of a plea agreement between Lenhoff and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s office.

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OH: GOP Secretary of State Candidate Launches Ad Campaign

From Cleveland.com:

Secretary of State candidate Jon Husted, who will battle Tea Party activist Sandra O’Brien in the Republican primary May 4, launched a television advertising campaign over the weekend touting his conservative values.

The ad, among the first for a statewide candidate this election season, could be a sign that Husted, a state senator from the Dayton area with a significant fund-raising edge, isn’t taking O’Brien lightly.

O’Brien, viewed by many as the underdog in the race, already has one notable upset on her political resume: She stunned incumbent Jennette Bradley in the Republican primary for state treasurer in 2006 before losing to Attorney General Richard Cordray in the general election.

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OH: Republicans Gain as Voters Switch Parties

From the Columbus Dispatch:

In what could be a worrisome sign for the party that controls the White House and Ohio governor’s office, substantially more Democrats than Republicans are switching parties this year in early absentee-ballot requests from Ohio’s largest counties.

That’s a huge change from the 2008 Ohio primary, when far more Republicans than Democrats changed parties.

In Cuyahoga County, for example, the number of Democrats switching to the GOP outnumbered Republicans becoming Democrats by nearly 7 to 1 as of Tuesday. Two years ago, nearly five times as many Republicans switched in Ohio’s largest county.

Democrats lead the party conversions by almost 9 to 1 in Hamilton County, while it’s about 6 to 1 in Franklin County. Statewide totals aren’t available, but the three counties contain about 30 percent of all registered voters in Ohio.

Experts say it’s too soon to draw firm conclusions, but they think part of the reason for the change is that Republicans who switched for the heated Democratic presidential primary in Ohio two years ago are moving back to the GOP.

But the trend also could be another sign of concern for Democrats in midterm elections that historically have favored the party not in power in Washington, observers say.

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OH: Secretary of State Candidates Debate

From Dayton Daily News:

The two Republican candidates for secretary of state each claimed their experience in government makes them the best candidate for the job, but one took aim at the other for issues that have nothing to do with the job of chief elections officer.

Ashtabula County Auditor Sandra O’Brien called state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, a “tax raiser” during an editorial board meeting at the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday, April 7.

“I’m the Republican candidate who is proud to be Tea Party endorsed,” O’Brien said.

She contrasted Husted’s support of a state sales tax increase in 2005 with her successful efforts to defeat a sales tax in Ashtabula County the same year.

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Ohio AG Refuses to Join Health Care Lawsuit

From Dispatch Politics:

Ohio will not join 15 other states that are suing to block the federal health-care overhaul as a costly mandate and an infringement on personal liberty, Attorney General Richard Cordray announced yesterday.

Cordray, a Democrat, said a lawsuit initiated by Florida’s Republican attorney general has “no legal merit” and would needlessly tie up the resources of his office.

Minutes after President Barack Obama signed the health-care legislation last Tuesday, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and the top legal officers of 12 other states filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida challenging the law. Indiana joined the 13 yesterday. Their lawsuit said the requirement that Americans buy health insurance violates the “commerce clause” of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among states.

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OH: Another Disqualified AG Candidate Goes to Court

From The Daily Briefing:

A second statewide candidate disqualified for insufficient petition signatures has filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court in an effort to get his name on the May 4 ballot.

Robert Owens of Delaware, a Constitution Party candidate for Ohio attorney general, argues in his court filing that the Franklin County Board of Elections improperly threw out valid signatures for not being legible, leaving him 19 short of qualifying for the ballot.

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OH: Former Democrat AG and Wife may be Next Charged

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Shortly after pleading guilty to two ethics violations arising from his work for former Attorney General Marc Dann, Leo Jennings III sat down with investigators for about two hours today to discuss information that could help build a criminal case against Dann.

Jennings, formerly Dann’s close friend, political adviser and chief spokesman, now might play a key role in helping lead prosecutors to the Democrat, who has not faced criminal charges in the nearly two years since a scandal forced him from office.

Jennings’ plea agreement produced a $2,000 fine and a sentence of 250 hours of community service. It also requires him to testify “truthfully, completely and accurately” in the investigation of Dann – with the prospect of 360 days in jail if he refuses.

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