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Thursday, December 16, 2010
No violation by FoxNews, Ohio Elections Commission says
The Ohio Elections Commission on Thursday voted 5-0 against finding any violation by FoxNews when it allowed Republican John Kasich, a former FoxNews host, to solicit campaign contributions during a TV appearance.
The Democratic Governors’ Association complained that Fox violated the ban on corporate activities in campaigns and that allowing the solicitation amounted to a campaign contribution above the legal limits.
Elections Commission Director Phil Richter said the panel found no violation on either issue.
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TweetPoll: Palin leads, but Ohio GOP voters bunched in picking 2012 Obama challenger
Ohio Republican voters don’t have a clear favorite to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released Thursday.
The poll finds Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, on top among usual GOP primary voters with 21 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 19 percent.
Others are: former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 18 percent; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 15 percent; Texas Congressman Ron Paul, 6 percent; Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, 5 percent; Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, 3 percent and South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune, 2 percent.
The poll also finds that former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine is the GOP favorite to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown for a rematch in 2012. Brown defeated DeWine in 2006 and DeWine said emphatically on Thursday that he intends to serve four years as attorney general and won’t run for the Senate in 2012.
Other GOP Senate possibilities in the poll are: 2006 gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, 17 percent; Secretary of State-elect Jon Husted, 11 percent; U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, 10 percent and Lt. Gov.-elect and current Auditor Mary Taylor, 7 percent.
Northeast Ohio Congressman Steve LaTourette gets 6 percent, state Treasurer-elect Josh Mandel gets 5 percent and state Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, 2 percent.
Husted also has said he’s not running for the Senate in 2012.
PPP, of Raleigh, N.C., surveyed 400 usual GOP primary voters from Dec. 10 to Sunday, Dec. 12. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent.
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TweetAuditor-elect Yost names leadership team
Republican Auditor-elect Dave Yost on Thursday named his executive team, headed by chief of staff Brenda L. Rinehart, who has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Others are:
*William J. Owen, chief legal counsel, now first assistant prosecuting attorney in Delaware County.
*Mary Amos Augsburger, director of policy and public affairs, now chief counsel for the division of financial institutions at the state Commerce Department.
*Christine L. Hansen, director of performance audit and local government services, now chief financial officer for the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission.
Robert R. Hinkle will continue as chief deputy auditor, a position he has held since March 2006.
Hinkle has been with the auditor’s office for 27 years, a press release said.
Yost, now Delaware County prosecutor, defeated state Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, for the GOP auditor’s nomination and then defeated Democrat David Pepper in the general election.
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TweetIG report: BWC employee used state computers for personal “schemes”
An investigation by Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles’ office concluded that Don P. Gooch, a Bureau of Workers’ Compensation specialist, used state computers in the BWC Garfield Heights office in suburban Cleveland to conduct personal research on tax avoidance and debt elimination plans during work hours.
Gooch was placed on administrative leave by the BWC in November. The IG report recommends that BWC review the investigation and take “appropriate action.”
Results of the report are being forwarded to the Internal Revenue Service, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office and the Cuyahoga County Notary Public office.
Click here to access the report, released Thursday.
The investigation found that Gooch brought external storage devices to work, connected them to his work computer and accessed documents and images related to “tax avoidance and debt elimination schemes.”
One document he created purported to be a $300 million bond that Gooch admitted sending to the U.S. Treasury to deposit into his “account” that could be used to eliminate future potential debt,” the report said.
“Gooch also created bogus money orders, one of which he sent to an attorney performing collections services for a credit card company,” the report said.
Gooch could not be reached.
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TweetCharles and Born to head public safety and patrol
Gov.-elect John Kasich on Thursday appointed state Inspector General Tom Charles as his new public safety director and announced Maj. John Born as the new superintendent of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Kasich said the patrol had been infiltrated by politics in recent years.
“My message to the patrol is: get it together. You have a legacy. This is a pride driven operation that represents the best of what we have in the state of Ohio,” Kasich said at a press conference. “There will be no room for politics and shenanigans.”
As public safety director, Charles, a retired patrol lieutenant colonel, will oversee the patrol, liquor control, the bureau of motor vehicles, homeland security, emergency management and other functions.
He’ll be running a department that has suffered from embarrassing headlines and blistering criticism in recent years — much of it stemming from his own reports from the inspector general’s office.
During the Strickland administration, then-public safety director Henry Guzman delayed implementing new rules for so long that thousands of illegal immigrants were able to falsely register cars through the Ohio BMV, two troopers were disciplined for distributing a photo of one of them wearing Ku Klux Klan garb on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an off-duty trooper clocked at more than 140 miles per hour on an interstate wasn’t immediately ticketed, and dozens of troopers were caught cheating on an exam.
Also, an aborted sting operation at the Governor’s Residence involving inmate workers led to more headlines and criticism and ultimately the Senate rejection of Strickland’s next pick for public safety director, Cathy Collins-Taylor, this year.
Then on Monday of this week, Charles’ office issued another report critical of patrol Superintendent David Dicken over how he handled an investigation of a staff lieutenant who was caught in a state vehicle with a 16-year-old girl.
Dicken demoted himself to captain.
Charles’ wife, Brigette, is a patrol captain and his son Brian is a lieutenant. Charles said Born will be the layer of supervision between him and his family members and he will recuse himself from the promotion process to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Kasich declined to discuss who he will appoint to replace Charles as inspector general.
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TweetBrunner to join law firm, form PAC to focus on finance reform
Outgoing Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, next month plans to hook up with her husband Rick’s Columbus law firm and also form a PAC - political action committee - focusing on finance reform - including mortgage foreclosures -, the state budget and other issues.
As to whether she might again seek statewide office, Brunner, 53, said Thursday:
“At this point in time, it’s too far off.”
Instead of seeking re-election this year, Brunner ran for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination and lost to Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. Fisher lost in the general election to Republican Rob Portman.
Brunner expressed no regrets.
The Senate campaign “gave me the privilege to talk with Ohioans about a broader range of issues,” Brunner said.
Republican Jon Husted, a state senator from Kettering, was elected to succeed her as secretary of state.
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TweetBrunner releases Ohio “quality of life” markers
Outgoing Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Thursday released a comprehensive Ohio quality of life report that provides information on 26 indicators, ranging from per capita income to the state’s child abuse and neglect victimization rate.
The data can be accessed at www.sos.state.oh.us
The report, prepared at a cost of $150,00, is called S.C.O.R.E. - Setting Criteria for Ohio to Realize Excellence.
The indicators are in eight categories: economy; education; environmental and natural resources; family; government and civic participation; job growth; public safety and recreation and leisure.
It compares the quality of life in Ohio over time and in comparison with other states, Brunner said.
Brunner, a Democrat, said that report puts into an easy-to-use format statistics collected by her office under Ohio law.
The indicators always will be “a work in progress,” said Brunner. She said she has talked with incoming Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted about continuing the work and Husted said that he is reviewing the idea.
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TweetUPDATED with Mike DeWine comment - Poll: Sen. Brown could face tough 2012 challenge
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a 12-point winner over Republican Mike DeWine in 2006, could face a tough re-election challenge in 2012, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released on Wednesday.
Although DeWine, just elected Ohio attorney general in November, isn’t expected to run for the Senate again, he and Brown are tied in a potential rematch, according to the poll.
DeWine called the Dayton Daily News Columbus Bureau Thursday with this comment about the 2012 Senate race:
“I’m not running.”
DeWine said that he is committed so serving his full, four-year term as attorney general.
Also, Brown has fairly narrow leads over three relatively unknown potential GOP candidates, Lt. Gov.-elect Mary Taylor, Secretary of State-elect Jon Husted and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana.
Husted also told the Dayton Daily News on Thursday that he does not intend to run for the Senate in 2012.
“Sherrod Brown won by a wide margin in 2006 because it was a strongly Democratic year,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a press release.
“But he hasn’t proven to have much appeal to Republicans and independents and that could make his quest for re-election a tough one.”
In the poll, Brown and DeWine are tied at 43 percent. The other matchups:
Brown leads Taylor, 40-38 percent.
Brown leads Husted, 43-38 percent.
Brown leads Jordan, 43-35 percent.
In the survey, 40 percent approve of Brown’s performance, while 37 percent disapprove. However, among independents, 48 percent disapprove and 28 percent approve.
A PPP analysis released with the poll says that Brown’s 2012 fate will be closely intertwined with Democratic President Barack Obama’s re-election chances. If Obama carries Ohio, Brown also is likely to be a winner, the analysis says.
Also, Brown’s potential vulnerability depends on whether the GOP nominates a “serviceable opponent.” The Republicans “blew their chances against some easier marks than Brown in 2010 by nominating candidates far outside the mainstream,” the analysis says.
PPP surveyed 510 voters statewide from Dec. 10 through Sunday, Dec., 12. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percent.
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