Posted on 05/14/2008 9:59:54 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
A press conference by Attorney General Marc Dann will not be held and the 17th floor of the Rhodes Tower where his office is located is apparently on lock-down to protect sensitive documents that may be subject to investigation.
The State Highway Patrol is in the attorney general's offices, checking employee badges and monitoring to see if documents are being removed from the floor, sources told The Dispatch. Troopers were even searching the purses of employees leaving the offices.
Whether the patrol was working at with Inspector General Thomas P. Charles, who promised to launch an investigation today, could not immediately be confirmed.
Dann's spokesman, Jason Stanford, said this morning Dann would have a press conference at noon. “ Attendance is mandatory,” Stanford said. As noon came and went, Stanford could not be reached for further comment.
But none of Dann's press officers knew anything about the event.
Dann again huddled with Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher this morning, a former attorney general who counseled Dann privately for about an hour yesterday afternoon. Fisher also made calls yesterday to House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill M. Harris. Dann's first political work came in a Fisher campaign.
While speculation remains rampant that Dann will resign, some of those close to the attorney general predicted he would not quit, and instead may launch a legal battle to halt an independent investigation of his office by Charles.
Some Dann advisers have raised the possibility of Dann raising a constitutional separate of powers challenge, since the inspector general normally does not have the authority to investigate the attorney general's office.
Dann spent much of Tuesday attempting to broker a deal to leave office in exchange for calling off the inspector general's investigation. However, his attempts failed; legislation expanding the inspector general's authority passed both branches of the legislature and was signed by Gov. Ted Strickland last night.
If Dann quits now, Strickland would appoint a successor until Ohioans vote in November on someone to fill out the final two years of Dann's term. Fisher has been among those mentioned as a possible successor.
Yesterday, several close to Dann said his resignation was “imminent” and he was looking for a graceful way to depart.
Dann, a Democrat, was elected in 2006 on a platform of cleaning out the “culture of corruption” in state government.
Earlier this month he admitted an extramarital affair with a female staff member, which he said might have contributed to a hostile work environment where sexual harassment occurred.
Two top aides, Anthony Gutierrez, general services section chief, and Leo Jennings III, communication director, who are Dann's longtime friends and former co-residents of a Dublin-area condo, were fired May 2 after an internal investigation into sexual-harassment complaints. Two others, including Dann's chief of staff, Edgar C. Simpson, resigned, and another two were disciplined.
A variety of other investigations are pending, and the FBI has been asked to join the case. On Saturday, the Ohio Democratic Party voted to shun Dann from the party; state Democratic leaders have demanded that he resign or face impeachment.
Yesterday, House Democrats filed nine articles of impeachment against Dann.
The impeachment process would stop if Dann leaves office, but the probe by Inspector General Thomas P. Charles will continue.
This whole episode should be good news for the Republicans in November.
It was just announced on a local radio station that the media had been notified of an impending announcement at noon. The announcement, that he would not resign was made on his behalf while the AG was at lunch....
The Republicans won’t be able to turn a blessed thing about this situation to their favor in November, as they are too “gentlemanly” to hold the shortcomings of others against them.
John McCain has already set the tone for how the campaign “should” be carried out, and no allowance is being made for the moral shortfalls of others. It is all going to be on “issues”, which boils down to, “no discussion of any alternatives to the programs being promoted by the opposition”.
I actually think that McCain will do well against Obama in Ohio. Obama will certainly dominate the big cities, but McCain will win in the suburbs and exurbs (the ONLY areas of the state that are growing) and he’ll do well in SE Ohio, which might have voted for Clinton but won’t for Obama. Unlike similar size states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan, Democrats CANNOT simply run up huge margins in the urban areas and win statewide. They won in 2006 by making a huge dent in the suburbs/exurbs and in SE Ohio.
They shoulda known: Pizza delivery by thonged underlings is only legal on the federal level.
Excellent!
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