Attorney General Contest to Stretch Republicans and Democrats?
Attorney general contest will stretch Republicans and Democrats
Posted by Mark Naymik/Plain Dealer Politics Writer
May 15, 2008 20:10PM
The race to fill former Attorney General Marc Dann’s office will distract the Ohio Republican and Democratic parties from their main mission this fall: helping their respective presidential nominees win the state.
And the race, though short, will be expensive.
Thanks to Dann, who resigned Wednesday following a sexual harassment scandal, each party has to pick a candidate by Aug. 20 and will most likely try to raise at least a million dollars.
With limited time, and early voting beginning Sept. 30, the candidates will have to rely on television, which will be cluttered by presidential ads.
Broad Dann Investigation Promised
Inspector General Tom Charles pledges broad Dann investigation
Posted by Reginald Fields/Plain Dealer Bureau
May 15, 2008 20:57PM
Marc Dann is gone, but the state inspector general on Thursday promised a wide-ranging state investigation into the problems that chased him from office.
Meanwhile, employees of the attorney general’s office tried to come to grips with the drama that unfolded this week behind Dann’s departure and tried to regain focus on their jobs.
Inspector General Tom Charles, whose investigators raided the attorney general’s Columbus and Youngstown offices Wednesday just hours before Dann resigned, has invited nearly a dozen local and state agencies to join his inquiry.
Charles would not comment on what he is specifically looking for but said he is interested in reviewing various allegations that cost Dann his job.
No place to run, No place to hide
No limits on Dann probe
10-plus agencies collaborating, inspector says
Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles says the focus of his investigation of former Attorney General Marc Dann is simple: “everything and anything.”
Charles and a diverse task force involving 10 or more state and federal agencies will probe a broad range of issues, some of them potentially criminal, in a one-of-a-kind investigation authorized by the legislature and approved by Gov. Ted Strickland this week.
“We have no agenda other than to do this right and do it fair,” Charles said. “We’ll leave the chips fall where they may.
“Everybody is on board. There aren’t going to be a bunch of separate investigations.”
Charles briefed reporters yesterday, a day after the investigation began with Wednesday’s shock-and-awe raid on Dann’s offices in Columbus and Youngstown. Computers, telephones, other electronic devices and what Charles called “a lot” of documents were seized. Dann’s computer, BlackBerry and state vehicle, a Chevy Suburban, were seized.
Reportedly stunned by the raid, Dann, 46, a Democrat elected in 2006, resigned Wednesday after 5 1/2 weeks of intense scrutiny over sexual-harassment complaints and allegations of cronyism and mismanagement in his office. He was attorney general less than 17 months.
The emergency legislation empowers the inspector general to head the investigation just this once. Charles’ agency is normally limited to investigating those agencies under the governor’s control.
The far-reaching bill tells Charles to “investigate the management and operation of the office of the attorney general to determine whether misconduct or wrongful acts or omissions have been or are being committed by the attorney general or by present or former employees or contractors with that office.” He is to report his findings to the governor and legislative leaders.
The investigators
These state and federal agencies are expected to be part of the investigation of the attorney general’s office under Marc Dann:
• Ohio auditor
• Department of Administrative Services
• Ohio Elections Commission
• Ohio Ethics Commission
• Ohio inspector general
• State Highway Patrol
• Secretary of state
• Franklin County prosecutor
• FBI
• Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Other federal agencies as needed
Is Winters the right choice?
Is Winter’s a good choice after all or will things continue as they were?
What did Winters know, and when?
Acting attorney general had some knowledge of wrongdoing, sources say
Thomas R. Winters took charge as Ohio’s acting attorney general today, still dogged by — and refusing to answer questions about — his possible knowledge of the sexual-harassment allegations that brought down his former boss, Marc Dann.
Winters, 58, is not accused of any misconduct. However, sources and transcripts of sworn interviews with office employees suggest that Winters had at least some knowledge of wrongdoing by fired Dann aide Anthony Gutierrez last year and took no action.
Shortly after taking office in 2007, Dann hired Winters as his top legal aide and paid him nearly $150,000 a year.
Winters fired Gutierrez and Dann’s communication director, Leo Jennings III, and forced the resignation of top nonlegal aide Edgar C. Simpson in the aftermath of a scathing internal report on the sexual-harassment charges.
Dann gave Winters power to discipline and fire those employees because the harassment charges cut close to Dann, who had lived with Gutierrez and Jennings in a Dublin-area condominium where some of the misconduct occurred.
As the neutral arbiter, Winters minimized his own role in the affair. But sworn interviews conducted as part of the investigation show that Winters was not completely out of the loop:
Charlie Rosol, Gutierrez’s deputy, said he believed that Winters had been aware of Gutierrez’s misuse of state vehicles. Gutierrez crashed a state-owned SUV last October. Rosol did not say that Winters took any action in response.
Human-resources chief Stephanie Bostos Demers said the two employees who accused Gutierrez of sexual harassment, Vanessa Stout and Cindy Stankoski, came to her in early March to make verbal complaints. Under the office’s policy since January, accusers do not need to put allegations in writing in order to trigger an investigation. But Winters said there was “no, quote, formal complaint” until the women put something in writing, Demers said.
In addition, Winters has acknowledged other knowledge of the situation last year:
During the May 2 news conference in which the office’s report on the sexual-harassment complaints was made public, Winters confirmed that he had nixed Dann scheduler Jessica Utovich’s participation in an overseas trip with Dann last June. Dann later admitted an affair with Utovich and acknowledged that it may have contributed to an atmosphere of tolerance for sexual misconduct.
Winters said he heard other unspecified rumors but could not take action because he was in charge of the office’s legal operations, not its human-resources functions.
“Any office anywhere has a lot of rumors,” Winters said.
On May 4, The Dispatch requested correspondence between Winters and the human-resources office in the last four months of 2007. The attorney general’s office has not yet released any correspondence sought under that public-records request.
Winters, for his part, isn’t talking.
Spokesman Jim Gravelle released a statement today in which he said Winters is prohibited from commenting because the questions “go directly to issues probably being investigated and which could be the subject of litigation.”
Alleged Threat Made Against Attorney General Employee
One day after Marc Dann resigns as Ohio Attorney Geneal, one of the women who initiated the sexual harassment investigation in his office is allegedly threatened. Cindy Stankoski’s attorney Rex Elliott tells 21 News that the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a call made to the Columbus Office.
More >>> Here
AG Replacements What say You?
Let’s hear from those visiting our site of whom they believe Gov. Strickland should give a temporary appointment to until the November Presidential Elections.
Marc Dann’s resignation sets off a scramble by his fellow Democrats who want to keep control of the attorney general’s office, and by Republicans, who relish the chance to win it back.
So who might be their likely candidates?
Here are some possibilities:
Democrats
State Treasurer Richard Cordray, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr., Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer.
Republicans
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, former White House budget director Rob Portman, U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, former Attorney General and Auditor Jim Petro, State Sen. Tim Grendell of Chester Township, Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost.
Redfern described the Dann scandal as only “collateral damage.”
Nice way to minimize a situation that has blacked the state’s eye Redfern, this should be an election year slogan for any GOP candidate running. Too bad the George Forbes situation has been swept under the rug and that would be until now. Why isn’t his daughter or their firm facing any charges?
That’s right I have to keep reminding myself this is the party which looks out for the little guy, that is when taking his money to make sure their friends are being taken care of. You wouldn’t want to post any of those jobs as they were to be posted for every qualified individual to have a shot at them would you now?
Just as with Mayor Mike “Slick” Coleman, there still hasn’t been any real exposure about the girlfriends of drug dealers receiving jobs while their men do time? Then again that would require the Columbus Dispatch, John Wolfe and his merry little band of info ignorer’s to actually expose the core corruption in Columbus on the local level in the city.
Fallout just beginning for Democrats
Posted by Mark Naymik/Plain Dealer Politics Writer May 14, 2008 22:40PM
The Democrats finally got rid of Marc Dann, but they will have a harder time purging the former attorney general’s legacy from this year’s elections.
Gov. Ted Strickland and Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern dismissed the notion Wednesday, but their recent actions speak louder than words.
They kicked him out of the party, filed articles of impeachment against him and refused to head off an Ohio inspector general’s investigation into his office initiated by Republicans.
This only reinforces what a liability he had become to the party that promised in 2006 to clean up state government.
“I don’t know that it damages the Democratic Party,” Strickland insisted during a news conference following Dann’s brief resignation speech. “This was not the failings of the party. I think the party responded strongly and forcefully and has taking steps to clean our own house.”
But Dann didn’t make it easy. He heightened the tension — and the damage — by insisting for five weeks that he had done nothing wrong beyond giving in to personal weakness and displaying some poor judgment.
On May 2, Dann, 46, admitted an affair with a subordinate only after a separate investigation of harassment charges against one of his top managers threatened to expose it. The harassment investigation also exposed Dann’s lax management and blind loyalty to his friends who worked for him.
The scandal, compared to the two-year Republican investment scandal that began in 2005, didn’t need much buildup. It involved sex and patronage, easy concepts for voters to grasp that instantly made newspaper cartoons and editorials.
Redfern described the Dann scandal as only “collateral damage.”
“Our response was appropriate, swift and responsible,” he said.
Both sides were playing politics around the Dann scandal.
The Democrats wanted him out in a hurry out of self-preservation. Republicans wanted to keep the story alive. And they won.
The impeachment is over. But the inspector general’s investigation is just beginning and will continue to generate headlines toward the November elections.
Even if it doesn’t, the Republican Party will.
“This embarrassment is far from over,” GOP Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine declared Wednesday. “Marc Dann’s resignation is overdue, and the investigation into his mismanagement and corruption must continue.”
Dann left the attorney general’s office totally alone, just 17 months after arriving as the Democratic Party’s surprise star.
No one, not even Dann himself, believed he could topple State Auditor and former Attorney General Betty Montgomery in the 2006 election. He knocked the Republican Party behemoth out by literally bullying his way into office. He campaigned that year with abandon, shouting to anyone who would listen that he would clean up government and champion consumer causes.
Dann quit Wednesday after the inspector general searched his office, hauling out computers and leaving him and his office virtually paralyzed, an image sure to play this fall.
Dann didn’t even tell his staff before delivering his resignation from the governor’s office. When he was done, he walked out a side door, alone.
O’Malley Pleads Guilty
Could Marc Dann be facing the same fate yet different charges joining the long ranks of Valley office holders?
O’Malley pleads guilty
Posted by Damian G. Guevara May 15, 2008 16:31PM
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Patrick J. O’Malley pleaded guilty to one count of obscenity this afternoon in U.S. District Court, a few hours after resigning his position.
The nature of the computer images was not detailed during the hearing, but O’Malley’s attorney stressed afterward that they did not involve children.
“This does not involve child pornography,” said Ian Friedman. “This is material that involved adults.”
The images in question were deemed obscene enough for them to enter the plea of guilty, Friedman said, but declined to further elaborate.
O’Malley smiled at reporters as he walked into the courtroom wearing a dark suit and blue patterned tie.
Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.
O’Malley resigned his office as part of the plea agreement. He does not plan to ever run again for public office, Friedman said, though that is not part of the plea agreement.
O’Malley remains free on $100,000 bond. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 22.
Patrick O’Malley Resigns part II?
Is it me or is there something in the water removing Democrats from office in Ohio this week?
O’Malley resigns as county recorder
Posted by Joe Guillen May 15, 2008 14:59PM
Patrick O’Malley has resigned as Cuyahoga County recorder.
O’Malley submitted a letter of resignation on Thursday afternoon to the Board of County Commissioners. Jimmy Dimora, chairman of the county Democratic party and one of three county commissioners, also was specifically addressed as a recipient of the letter.
County Administrator Dennis Madden said the commissioners formally will accept O’Malley’s resignation at Tuesday’s board meeting but it is effective today. They might appoint O’Malley’s replacement at that time.
Thomas Roche, O’Malley’s chief of staff, will lead the office, which tracks property ownership, until a replacement is named.
O’Malley’s resignation is part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, said Ian Friedman, O’Malley’s attorney. O’Malley was charged with one count of obscenity in a criminal information unsealed in federal court this morning. He is scheduled to appear in court today.
FBI agents raided O’Malley’s Chagrin Falls home in 2004 and seized two personal computers.
Just the facts ma’am
Here we go Lord only knows what will come out of this
Inspector general promises thorough probe of Dann’s office
By Alan Johnson
Dann, 46, a Democrat elected in 2006, resigned yesterday following 5 1/2 weeks of intense scrutiny about sexual harassment and other allegations of wrongdoing in his office. He was in office just 17 months.
At least 10 federal and state agencies are forming a task force to investigate a broad range of potential problems, included sexual harassment, obstruction of justice, perjury, misuse of state property and other issues.
“We have no agenda other than to do this right and do it fair,” Charles said.
He said there is no timetable for the inquiry. Gov. Ted Strickland will appoint an interim replacement for Dann until Ohio voters will select someone in the Nov. 4 election to serve out the remainder of Dann’s term, which expires in January 2011.
Legislation approved on lighting track by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Ted Strickland empowered the inspector general to head the investigation on a one-time basis. Charles’ agency is normally limited to only those agencies under the governor’s control.
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