Reply #16: Ohio-Blackwell turns up heat

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

Republican gubernatorial contender Ken Blackwell accused his GOP rival, Attorney General Jim Petro, of creating an “elaborate pay-to-play scheme” involving special counsel lawyers that has cost Ohio taxpayers more than $129 million.

Blackwell seized a potentially genial invitation to the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s “Ag Day at the Statehouse” Wednesday to turn up the political heat on his opponent, following revelations that the FBI is questioning lawyers who say Petro took state legal work away from those who refused to donate to his campaign.

“The fact of the matter is that he created a system that was more expensive to taxpayers,” Blackwell, secretary of state, told reporters after his formal remarks. “He also, in the process, created a pay-to-play scheme that was his own personal ATM for (campaign) finance payments.”

At the same function later in the day, Petro declined to engage in what he called “deceptions and half-truths.”...


- Julie Carr Smyth