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an impact on the Fall election.
Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann, in office for just 16 months, today fired or accepted the resignations of four of his top allies in his office. These firings and resignations revolved around what the Cleveland Plain Dealer refers to as "an Animal House" mentality complete with drunkenness, sophomoric sexual innuendos, "chronic profanities" and extramarital affairs. The only thing that Dann and his cohorts forgot was the Toga Party.
Anyway, Dann admitted in the Sunday Plain Dealer that he didn't expect to win the office in 2006 so he said he was ill prepared for overseeing an office with branches across the state which employs over 1,400 people, most of them diligent civil servants. A damning utterance if there ever was one. To top it off, the very married Dann, in his mid 40's, was having an affair with a woman, in her mid 20's, from his office. Dann told the PD that he was staying in office.
Things, however, soured quickly for Dann as a list of all the state democratic elected official of note called for Dann to resign or face a democratic call for impeachment. And if you look at the Ohio Democratic Party Web Site, the name of Marc Dann has been removed from the column listing state wide elected democrats.
Meanwhile, the GOP is salivating over this scandal as they have had a hard time getting their base excited. Nothing Gay related on the ballot this time. Now, when, if is not an option, Dann resigns, the Governor appoints his successor. The problem is there is more than half of his term left so there is a possibility of primary in both parties with the winners facing off in the November general election. Three prominent Republicans are itching to get back into office. Former US Senator Mike DeWine, Former Attorney General and State Auditor Jim Petro and the woman Dann beat in '06, Former Auditor and Attorney General Betty Montgomery, are all gunning to pad their pensions.
For a party that claims to despise government, they sure do have some people who love being on the public payroll. Montgomery and Petro served for 16 years swapping offices when term limits kicked in.
According to sources I have in Columbus, the main players on the democrats side are State Treasurer Richard Cordray, who ran for Attorney General before and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman. Beside those two early favorites to be considered by Gov. Strickland as potentials for appointment, two long shots come to mind; Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason and former Minority Leader of the Ohio Senate, Ben Espy. As tempting as the office might be for former Attorney General and now Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, there are no indications that he is even considering a return engagement in the AG's office.
So, as always, Ohio is going to be in play again this year.
The key factor that will save the Democratic Party from being painted as scandal ridden is that Strickland pulled together all the democrats immediately and presented a unified front calling for Dann to resign. Back in 2005-2006, the GOP just let their scandals fester with not one of them calling for harsh punishment for Taft or the myriad of others tainted by what has been referred as "coin-gate".
We shall see. We shall see.
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