Ken Blackwell

The Ohio GOP has been busted for illegally funneling almost $500,000 dollars into a fund for Ken Blackwell during his failed try to retain the Secretary of State office in 2006:

The letter says Ohio's Republican party collected nearly half a million dollars from a federal GOP account in October 2006. They also took in $20,000 from a state GOP account the same month and another $25,000 in November 2007.

The letter doesn't indicate which candidates received the party's largesse. But according a state GOP spokesman, the money supported just one candidate -- former Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell ran for governor in 2006, and lost.

Remember - this is the same GOP that supported Ohio's former Governor Bob Taft who was convicted of receiving illegal contributions. The Ohio GOP is just as corrupt as the national GOP, if not more.

I haven't heard much on this, but it is very interesting. Last year all state offices in Ohio went to Democrats with the exception of the State Auditor. That was won by Republican Mary Taylor. Now that the Democrats have moved in, they are trying to go throw what the Republicans have done and found some interesting items, particularly involving the former Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell:

Brunner has asked Taylor, who has a master’s degree from the University of Akron, to do a thorough audit of her office’s finances and operations under her predecessor, former Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who was by most accounts one of the sorest losers of the November campaign after being trounced by Strickland.

In a letter hand-delivered last week, Brunner cited five major concerns: shredding of documents, the disappearance of the shredding machines, more than $80,000 in bonuses Blackwell paid to departing employees, a depleted budget and 50,000 unsent letters to businesses canceling their corporate charters.

A spokesman for Blackwell has denied any wrongdoing and accused Brunner of playing politics. Playing politics? In state government? Really?

This entire article in the Cantonrep is very interesting. The article also posses the money question on this issue: