Blackwell: a Petro-clone?

Peddling influence seems to be a way of life in Ohio: first former speaker Householder; then Taft; next Petro; and, now Blackwell??

JKB accused Petro of shakedown techniques on Feb 20 by alleging that after Petro fired some anti-Petro law firms because they would not contribute to his campaign, he turned around and gave the work to firms who had contributed $1.6 million to him. Blackwell claimed that his own campaign had never accepted money from these no-bid contracts, but that if his own campaign did, his own campaign would return the money if Petro went first.

Two days later in a "published report" Blackwell changed his story and said that he had received some money but that it was without Petro's arm-twisting technique. Some 22 days later on March 12th Mark Niquette of the Columbus Dispatch reported on page A1 that Blackwell's contributions came to $102,300 dollars since 1999.

The story also criticizes Blackwell for having spent more than a million dollars contracting out un-bid contracts. This is old recycled news. The only new facts are that Blackwell spent x dollars between n different contractors, while other politicians have spent y dollars between m different contractors.

Sadly for the tax-payer No-bid contracts are standard government practice. That the practice wastes tax-dollars is true enough, but that this way of business is limited to Blackwell is not. Thus, Blackwell's TEL ammendment is needed in order to starve the government of its pork

The story wants you to believe that Blackwell's past claims are more of the soap-box variety, rather than the high moral ground type. Both this story and the AP summary ignore that Blackwell revised his absolutist position "I never took contributions" two, that is 2, days later. The only new facts are how much Blackwell received.

The Dispatch doesn't seem to have posted the story to its website yet. More to follow as links appear (via Lexis-nexis). The story will be overshadowed by March Madness.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.