CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones publicly called for colleague Jimmy Dimora to take a 60-day leave on Thursday, citing distractions caused by federal prosecutors implicating him in a corruption investigation.
To view the entire article and associated comments click the cleveland.com link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/jimmy_dimora_not_in_attendance.html
Could it be the "hope" and "change" electorate are finally beginning to see what they did?
http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/07/08/the-bellwether-blues/
CLEVELAND — Federal prosecutors this morning charged a Cleveland construction contractor with bribing Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora with $33,000 in cash, lawn work, Cavs and Indians tickets and hundreds of dollars in meals and drinks for county contracts.
See the entire article on cleveland.com by clicking the link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/steve_pumper_of_das_constructi.html
Some interesting new numbers out of Gallup : There has been a statistically significant uptick in the percentage of Americans who view the Democratic Party as "too liberal."
To view the entire article click the link below:
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/06/30/gallup-more-americans-view-democrats-as-too-liberal/
Maybe it will be a "Trafficant" kind of run for office...
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo, one of the main subjects of a federal public corruption probe, has not ruled out running for re-election next year.
To view the entire article and associated comments on Cleveland.com click the link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/cuyahoga_county_auditor_frank_3.html
Former county employees J. Kevin Kelley and Kevin Payne pleaded guilty Wednesday to several corruption-related crimes and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors as they pursue other people in the probe of contract steering in Cuyahoga County.
Kelley will serve a minimum sentence of about six years in federal prison while Payne faces at least seven years behind bars. That's assuming federal prosecutors are satisfied with the information, testimony and other help each man provides as the case continues.
Kelley, 39, and Payne, 54, admitted to a variety of charges, including conspiracy, bribery and tax evasion. Both men worked for the Cuyahoga County engineer's office while Kelley also sat on the Parma school board. They admitted using their positions to steer lucrative contracts to associates in exchange for money.
Kelley and Payne declined to comment after their hearings.
The crimes committed by Kelley and Payne implicate Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo. The two politicians have not been charged, nor were they identified by name in a 51-page charging document filed last month. But it's clear based on descriptions that two men referred to in the document as "Public Official 1" and "Public Official 2" are Dimora and Russo.
J. Kevin Kelley, left, and Kevin Payne.
Kelley, in a dark gray suit with a green shirt and green tie, appeared calm as he stood before the judge for more than an hour answering questions before she accepted his guilty pleas to 11 charges. He acknowledged being under a psychiatrist's care since March and taking medications for depression and insomnia.
It also was revealed during the judge's questioning that Kelley's telephone had been tapped by authorities.
Kelley admitted to doing favors for Dimora and Russo with the expectation that he would get something in return.
In one instance, Kelley arranged for Dimora and Russo to fly first-class to Las Vegas, prosecutors said. Brian Schuman, who wanted county funding continued for a halfway house he operated on East 55th Street, paid for the airfare. The owner of a construction company seeking work on the county's juvenile justice center paid for the hotel rooms and gambling chips, according to the plea agreement.
Kelley and Payne also admitted to funneling work on a county mapping project to Broma Information Technology in return for cash payments.
In another scheme, Kelley had Nature Stone, a contractor that performed about $240,000 of work on Parma schools, install flooring in Payne's home for free, according to the plea agreement.
The two men also admitted to not paying taxes on the bribes they collected. Kelley also pleaded guilty to failing to report $190,000 in bribes as income. Payne admitted having $137,000 in unreported income from bribes.
Besides whatever back taxes they owe, Kelley and Payne must pay restitution to Cuyahoga County and the Parma school board. Kelley agreed to repay nearly $568,000, although that amount might be split among other defendants. Payne agreed to pay back more than $152,000.
Kelley, who once worked for Russo in the auditor's office, joined the engineer's office in 2005 to manage a computer mapping project. He quit last month, around the same time he and his family moved to Florida.
Payne was hired in 2002 as a labor relations adviser but became chief of staff shortly thereafter. He retired last year.
Payne could avoid a long prison term because he is ill. He told O'Malley that he had thyroid cancer diagnosed in 2007 and that it has spread to his lungs. He also suffers seizures caused by a bleeding vein in his brain.
Kelley made $110,000 a year when he quit and Payne earned nearly $135,000, but for a while both men were making even more money by personally logging extra hours until County Engineer Robert Klaiber put an end to the practice.
Also charged in the corruption investigation were Schuman, who ran the halfway house, and Daniel Gallagher, a consultant who once worked for the engineer's office. Both were expected to plead guilty Thursday.
To view the entire article and associated comments on Cleveland.com click the link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/j_kevin_kelley_kevin_payne_ple.html
In bellwether Ohio, hopes for a new Republican beginning rest largely on two familiar faces from the GOP past.
The governor's race in this state could potentially be the most important race in the country," says the man who hopes to be the Republican candidate, former U.S. Rep. John Kasich.
The GOP's candidate for an open Senate seat, former congressman and Bush Cabinet appointee Rob Portman, has been on the ballot in midterm elections before and frames the 2010 stakes this way:
"The 2010 election is going to be about the Obama agenda and the Democratic Congress agenda and whether they are doing the right thing and people will have to judge."
When a party is struggling as the national Republican Party is now, candidate recruitment is often a difficult task. But in Portman and Kasich, the Ohio GOP has two battle tested veterans with proven fundraising ability and TV-age communications skills.
Kasich faces a potential GOP primary but is the leading Republican candidate. Portman has no significant GOP opposition. Political science professor Paul Beck at Ohio State University says lining up two "impressive candidates" at such a difficult time for the GOP is a good beginning.
"That's often a problem for the party that is down," Beck said in an interview on campus. "Nobody wants to run. They want to wait until the climate is much more, much more supportive of people from their party."
One question, Beck and others say, is whether Kasich and Portman can cast their experience in Washington as an asset, or whether Democrats will succeed in labeling them as bound to a failed GOP brand.
Kasich was the House Budget Committee chairman and a rising party star during the mid-1990s, when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. He laughed when asked about the Democrats' efforts to paint him as part of the problem.
"I was the chief architect of the plan that balanced the budget, cut taxes, paid down debt and gave us the most prosperous times in the history of our country," he said recently between campaign events. "That is sort of a silly attack."
Mindful, though, of the party's national image, Kasich is quick to stress his independence.
"The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master," he said. "I mean I am here to try to bring prosperity back to this state, to make sure families are better off. I'm not here to carry anyone's banner."
He is harshly critical of his party's performance after President Bush took office in 2001, the same year Kasich left Congress.
"They stopped solving problems," said Kasich, who after his House tenure worked on Wall Street and as a cable TV political commentator and host. "Whenever you don't have any ideas and are afraid to put things forward, you are going to lose energy. That's what happened to the GOP and frankly I'm as mad as anybody in this country about what they did in the last 10 years, or since 2001."
Portman represented the Cincinnati area in Congress for 12 years before joining the Bush Cabinet, first as trade representative and then as budget director. Those close ties to the unpopular Bush administration could make his break from the past more difficult.
While saying criticism of the Bush White House on spending issues is more than fair, Portman defends his record, saying it was on his watch that Bush began threatening to veto some spending bills. And he notes the Obama budget deficits dwarf those of the Bush days.
"When I was the OMB director, we cut the deficit in half," Portman said in an interview in Columbus as he made his way to a campaign event recently. "When I was there, by the way, the unemployment rate was half of what it is today."
Portman, like Kasich, says the GOP in Congress has failed to offer alternatives on a consistent basis.
"The Republican Party needs to have answers," Portman said. "You mentioned health care. The system is broken. The status quo is totally unacceptable. I agree with President Obama on that. I also disagree with his prescription because I don't think it is going to fix the very problems he identifies. ... We need to have a proposal out there as Republicans, and even if we don't, I'm certainly going to have one in this campaign."
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is up for the second term next year. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner both are campaigning for their party's nomination for the Senate seat.
Beck sees a campaign centered on one defining issue: jobs.
"If we are a year from now, and the economy hasn't improved in a big way, I think the Democrats are in trouble -- and the Republicans are well-positioned to take advantage of that situation," Beck said.
A bigger question, though, is whether Republicans, in Ohio and elsewhere, can begin to reverse the troubling demographic shifts evident in 2006 and especially 2008: declining GOP support in the suburbs, among Latinos and among voters ages 18-29.
"It's an ominous future for Republicans," Beck said. "They're not doing well among young voters. I think young voters are not attracted by the old themes ... There really has been a mood shift in the country among younger people. and a bigger generational divide that I've seen. You really have to go back almost to the 1960s to see something that is comparable to today."
As the GOP tries to rebuild, its problems run deeper than the 2006 and 2008 defeats, or the embarrassing admissions of infidelity by two elected officials who had been considered potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates: Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
Consider this snapshot of a 10-year GOP decline.
In 1999, Republicans held 223 seats in the House of Representatives. Now: 178. In the Senate, there were 55 Republicans in 1999, now just 40. And at the state level, in 1999 there were 31 GOP governors, now just 22.
"There will be cycles," Portman said, expressing optimism Republicans would learn the lessons of their recent defeats but also acknowledging their current slump. "I don't know if it is a pothole or a ditch or a canyon. I'm probably more in the middle ground there -- maybe the ditch category."
To view the entire article and associated comments click the CNN link below:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/25/king.ohio.gop/index.html?iref=newssearch
Previous coverage:
• Sparks fly at Cuyahoga County commissioners meeting as Republican leader challenges Jimmy Dimora
• Read the main story about the charges and find links to all the coverage.
• Explore all of The Plain Dealer's continuing coverage of the county investigation.
• Read the court filing (pdf)
UPDATED: 1:20 p.m.
CLEVELAND — Commissioner Jimmy Dimora will not resign.
In a 20-minute diatribe during a packed commissioners' meeting this morning, Dimora -- the focus of a federal public corruption probe -- blasted the Republican Party, its Cuyahoga County chairman, Rob Frost, and The Plain Dealer.
"I haven't done anything wrong," the Democrat said as he flipped through notes on a yellow legal pad. "I am innocent."
Dimora, one of three county commissioners, voted on all but one of the board's decisions this morning, abstaining from one contract because it is connected to the legal firm he hired for his defense in the investigation. He did vote on an amendment to award Ozanne Construction Co. a $2.4 amendment to a contract for additional work on the Juvenile Justice Center.
Dimora has not been charged or convicted of a crime. Documents related to charges against Democrat J. Kevin Kelley and three other party insiders describe a seven-year pattern of corruption by someone identified as Public Official 1. The description of that official identifies him as Dimora.
This morning, Dimora remained quiet for most of the meeting.
When two citizens came to the podium to make statements about the investigation and allegations of bribery, commission President Tim Hagan fired back.
"This is not a court of law. We are not investigating," Hagan said. "We intend to conduct the business of county government."
But when Frost asked Dimora to resign, he launched into a litany of allegations, ranging from fraud dealing with the Board of Election's purchase of electronic voting machines, to county reform, to trips to Vegas.
He also ranted in his own defense.
He said that on 95 percent of votes, he has voted with Hagan and Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones. On 97 percent of them, he voted for the lowest bidder. And he said he has never appealed to either of his co-commissioners to vote for a contract or hire an employee.
None of his relatives work for departments controlled by the commissioners, he said.
Afterward, answering questions from a throng of reporters, he said he wasn't worried about possible wiretaps on his phone. He said he has no idea if he'll be indicted.
"I'm going to show up, do my job and keep voting on the issues before me because that's what I was elected to do."
To view the entire article and associated comments click the link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/cuyahgoa_county_commissioners.html
J. Kevin KelleyJ. Kevin Kelley, a key figure in the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal, has left town amid federal corruption charges.
The longtime county employee and Parma school board member is not on the run. Federal prosecutors were aware of his move to Florida and said Kelley will return to Northeast Ohio for court hearings.
Records and interviews show Kelley moved his family to Florida shortly after the school year ended, leaving his home on Huntington Reserve Drive in Parma for the St. Petersburg-Tampa area.
Kelley left days before federal prosecutors filed public corruption charges against him and three friends June 12. The charges and interviews indicate Kelley went gambling with Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo and accepted wine and other gifts. It appears he is cooperating with investigators.
Neighbors said a moving truck took half a day to pack up the family's home and leave. Kelley is expected to appear in Cleveland next week at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley.
U.S. Attorney Bill Edwards said the charges were not delayed until after the school year to make it easier on Kelley's children. Kelley could not be reached, and his attorney declined to comment.
A key question remains: Who will pay Kelley to return to Cleveland if he testifies against Dimora and others? Prosecutors could not be reached to discuss it, but in most cases, if prosecutors need a witness, the government will pay for the trip.
If that happens, a man is accused of taking trips on the public's dime in the past may make more taxpayer-financed trips in the next two years.
SMB Editorial: Apparently, J. Kevin has sung his favorite song and is now getting the hell out of dodge!
To view the entire article and asscoaited comments click the cleveland.com link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/corruption_case_figure_j_kevin.html
Jimmy Dimora, the center of federal public corruption probe in Cuyahoga County, will step down as the county party chairman July 1, according to party officials.
Cleveland Clerk of Council Pat Britt, who is the party's vice chair, will take over and has informed a number of council members of the move. The un-paid position will not affect her job as clerk.
Exactly who ultimately convinced Dimora to step down is unclear. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, and Northshore Federation of Labor leader Harriet Applegate discussed the matter this week in a private meeting. But Jackson spokeswoman Andrea Taylor said the mayor has not talked to Dimora or Britt directly and was unware of the decision.
To view the Cleveland.com article click the link below:
http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2009/06/cuyahoga_county_democratic_par.html
SMB Editorial- But he's still a County Commissioner??? How is that right?
