More information has come out about the Ohio GOP's "pay-to-play" scandals in recent days. Here is the latest round-up..
Gov Taft (the gov with 15% approval ratings)'s new "pay to play" shenanigans have come to light yesterday. A Ohio based company has disclosed that it gave Mr. Taft a $125 gift by paying his golf fees. This was not disclosed by Taft which is against the state law.
An Ohio-based basketmaker revealed yesterday that it had paid Gov. Bob Taft's golf fees in September, 2003, but the embattled governor continued to refuse to provide details about that or any other outings he has failed to disclose on his annual financial disclosure statements.
The Newark-based Longaberger Co. filed an amended lobbying statement yesterday, disclosing that it gave Mr. Taft a $125 gift by paying his golf fees on Sept. 12, 2003.
State law requires officeholders to list each source of gifts over $75.
It is a first-degree misdemeanor to knowingly file a false ethics form, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
more below the fold..
Two high-ranking members of Mr. Taft's administration -- Randy Fischer, executive director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission, and Ohio Turnpike Commission Executive Director Gino Zomparelli -- previously have stepped down from their state posts because they failed to disclose golf outings.
But Mr. Taft has vowed he won't resign.
Nearly a month after admitting that he had failed to include golf outings on his annual statements filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission, Mr. Taft yesterday evaded questions about how many free golf games he has accepted over the years and from whom.
Here is the complete story from Toledo Blade.
There have been other unofficial reports that Taft may have gone to atleast 50 golf outings that were not discolsed according to the state laws. Why is Taft not voluntarily releasing his golf outings that were not disclosed to ethics committee?
Getting back to Tom Noe, the newly realeased documents show that millions of dollars in coins and cash exchanged hands among managers of the main thief Tom Noe's $50 million rare-coin venture in the days prior to his admission that up to $13 million was missing. They also show that Tom Noe authorized millions of dollars in loans from the state fund -- including $285,000 to himself -- while using state money to foot the bill for legal work to fight public records requests to release coin-fund documents. Here are more details from Toledo Blade.
In a late breaking story Toledo Blade is reporting that Ohio AG is charging Tom Noe with converting millions of dollars in Ohio money for personal use, while using a "Ponzi" scheme to hide what was taking place within his $50 million state-funded rare-coin venture. Where was this same GOP AG Petro when Noe was sucking money out of Ohio taxpayers? The whole GOP REGIME was intentionally fast asleep at the switch. The money that was stolen by Noe for personal use might have been laundered to the Bush campaign.
A silver lining to all of these scandals is the new rising star for Ohio Dems. He is our Democratic state senator Marc Dann. He is fighting this fight against the corrupt GOP and hammering GOP's "pay-to-play" culture almost every day. In this Toledo Blade article he is seeking an end to favoritism toward big campaign donors. Sen Dann also won a fight against gov Taft by forcing him to give up his claim to "Executive Privledge" to disclose all the official reports he received from his staff regarding the BWC investments. You can send your thanks to state Sen Marc Dann by contacting him at (614)466-7182 or dann32@maild.sen.state.oh.us