Blackwell defends campaign donations

[Algorem]

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/NEWS09/604160656

Governor hopeful: Firms got no favors


By STEVE EDER
and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


COLUMBUS - Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican candidate for governor, has accepted more than $1 million in contributions from employees of firms seeking business with the statewide offices he's held over the past 12 years, a Blade investigation shows.

The Blade's analysis also found that financial institutions contributing to the campaigns of Mr. Blackwell, who became secretary of state in 1999 after nearly five years as state treasurer, have given at least $1.34 million to the Ohio Republican Party. In turn, the party has shipped at least $1.29 million to Mr. Blackwell's campaigns.

In addition, firms that have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in business from the secretary of state's office under Mr. Blackwell's watch have been hired to do work for his political campaigns.

Mr. Blackwell said last week that there was nothing wrong with his campaigns accepting money from contractors because the donations were made "within the rules" and with "full disclosure." He said the firms - primarily financial institutions and high-tech companies - received no favors in exchange for their contributions...



Conspiracy theorists, or right on target?

http://www.cleveland.com/letters/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1145090070129980.xml&coll=2

Saturday, April 15, 2006

So CEO Wally O'Dell of Die bold, the company that manufactured some of the voting machines for the 2004 election, promised to deliver Ohio to George W. Bush. And Ken Blackwell, as secretary of state - the man in charge of counting the votes - was Bush's Ohio campaign chair.

And now we also find out that Blackwell's personal money has been tied up with Diebold.

Are the people who question the validity of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio really the paranoid left-wing nuts that the Republican Party and much of the mainstream media make them out to be?

Marcus Whiteamire

Lakewood



Blackwell outsources calls

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_04.html#131295

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, who says his top priority is to create jobs, is already doing his part to put people to work – in Arizona.

While Ohio’s 18-to-24 year-olds leave the state in droves looking for work, Blackwell is paying a telemarketing firm that employs young adults in Arizona to hit up people in Ohio for money.

Like members of a Wall Street boiler room eager to close a deal, the firm’s employees are slamming Ohio Republicans with calls to solicit money as the latest campaign finance reporting deadline approaches.

Blackwell sees no irony in outsourcing such calls. In fact, spokesman Carlo LoParo suggests the firm's hiring is necessary research. He said the firm, which uses technology to sort and track calls, is an example of the type of company Blackwell is focused on bringing to Ohio...



http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/NEWS09/604160666/-1/NEWS

Religious faith a key element in life and work of Strickland

By JIM TANKERSLEY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER


Ted Strickland remembers the preaching, the choir, the hundreds packing the picnic shelter, his 12-year-old body kneeling at the altar rail, and the peace that swelled inside him.

Fifty years later, he remembers the song that brought him to the railing, to Jesus. He sings it in a clear, preacher's alto:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me.

See on the portals he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me...



Political lessons of Frank Lausche: Could his example of conservative independence be the key for today's gubernatorial candidates?

The long-serving Ohio governor and U.S. senator successfully appealed to voters while defying party lines and ideology

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/NEWS09/60416001/-1/NEWS

By JOSHUA BOAK
BLADE STAFF WRITER


After being elected mayor of Cleveland in 1941, Frank Lausche was asked to fire city Safety Director Eliot Ness, the untouchable crimestopper most famous for busting mobster Al Capone.

The Democratic machine bosses wanted Mr. Lausche to replace Mr. Ness, a Republican, with a party crony. Mr. Lausche refused.

Mr. Lausche’s break with Cleveland Democrats solidified his identity as the rarest breed of politician — a genuine independent.

As he ascended to become Ohio governor and a U.S. senator, Mr. Lausche appealed to voters by abandoning party lines and ideologies, according to a new biography by James E. Odenkirk, Frank J. Lausche: Ohio’s Great Political Maverick...

[rodeodance]

1. WHEN will something stick to this jerk?

[C_U_L8R]

2. Within the rules ? Perhaps

but it sure does smell bad

[rzemanfl]

3. Yeah, and strippers give lap dances for free when you donate

to their favorite charity.

[Supersedeas]

9. Oh?

[Flabbergasted]

4. So they're going to go from Taft to Blackwell. I feel sorry for Ohio.

[ClintonTyree]

6. If that happens.......

Ohio is in a WORLD of trouble and so is the United States. I cannot believe that the people of Ohio will legitimately elect Blackwell for Governor. "Legitimately" being the key word in that sentence. I'm sure Blackwell and the Repigs will do everything within their scope of influence to steal that election. The people of Ohio must be extremely vigilant during this election because the Repigs WILL cheat, lie and steal to stay in power.

[AndyTiedye]

8. Over 30% of the Vote Flipped in Last Fall's Referenda

The reform initiatives went into the election leading by 2-1 margins.
They "lost" by 2-1 margins. Over 30% of the vote flipped. Usually
they only steal what they need to "win", but those initiatives would
have stripped Blackwell of much of his power and he took that personally.

Once he got away with that, he knew he was a shoo-in for Governor. :grr:

[mtnester]

7. No....EVERY Republican in this state in the higher ups

I have spoken to has admitted THEY ARE FULLY AWARE there will be a Democrat in the Ohio statehouse come January UNLESS there is major cheating going on. MAJOR cheating.

MAJOR MAJOR DOUBLE DIGIT TYPE CHEATING.

The moderate Repubs are already bracing themselves.

[brentspeak]

5. Good grief...when is someone going to hold this clown's feet to the fire

about the Warren Cty lockdown? Never before in American history has a government building been locked-down on Election Day -- for any reason. And to make things even more bizarre, the Warren Cty building was locked-down due to an alleged FBI-issued "terror threat" which the FBI said they never even made!

:banghead: