Blackwell On A Church-Owned Plane

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell is a Republican candidate for Ohio governor. (If you are not from Ohio, I'll refresh your memory: he counted the votes in Ohio for the Presidential elections. Need I say more?) There are 2 things that have come out about Blackwell:

1. Blackwell has been flying around on a church-owned plane, according to the Cincinnati Post. This means that one of the pastors, Rod Parsley, Russell Johnson, or some other pastor owns a private plane. Here is an excerpt from the Post:

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has met with two conservative pastors more often than alleged in an IRS complaint accusing the pastors of improper support of his campaign for governor, according to a review of documents by The Associated Press.

While the complaint looked at nine publicly reported events sponsored by the pastors, a review of Blackwell's daily schedule found 19 other meetings or contact with the pastors, including flights on a church-owned plane, meetings in Blackwell's office and attendance at church services.

Blackwell, a Republican and favorite of conservatives, had contact with pastors Russell Johnson and Rod Parsley or their churches 28 times from January 2004 through March of this year, according to sources that include Blackwell's confidential schedule obtained through a public records request....

2. Kenneth Blackwell has also taken money from those he gave work to through no-bid contracts. The Columbus Dispatch has the information. In summary, both Blackwell and Jim Petro (both Republican candidates for Ohio governor) are unethical. Here is an excerpt:
A review of Blackwell’s campaign-finance reports and the personal-services contracts or other unbid work from the secretary of state’s office since 2002 shows Blackwell has taken at least $38,000 from those vendors.

For example, Blackwell has awarded no-bid personal-services contracts to Bostonbased Keane Inc. for computer-related work and has taken $6,300 from company officials and their spouses in Ohio since 1999.

Blackwell also has gotten at least $35,000 from vendors who have state contracts that, although not competitively bid, are negotiated by the Department of Administrative Services.

Besides those contributions, Blackwell has accepted more than $23,000 from specialcounsel lawyers representing his office and thousands more from other members of their firms through the years....

Once again the Ohio GOP Culture of Corruption story just keeps rolling on and gathering steam.