From the
Toledo Blade:
The Ohio Ethics Commission is investigating whether a former high-ranking aide to Republican Gov. Bob Taft violated state ethics laws by accepting $39,000 from Tom Noe.
A major question in that probe is whether Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area rare-coin dealer and prominent Republican, used state funds or his own money for the payment to H. Douglas Talbott, the ethics agency said.
Mr. Talbott, also a former aide to Gov. George Voinovich, served as director of boards and commissions for Mr. Taft from 1999 until May, 2000, when he left to become a lobbyist.
Mr. Talbott said he accepted $39,000 as a "loan" from Mr. Noe in September, 2002, to help buy a house in Lakeside, Ohio, for $213,000.
The thing about this is...it could have been avoided if the state legislature had worked with Ken Blackwell...
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, said the controversy over Mr. Talbott is a reminder of why the legislature should adopt a "lobbyist ethics reform'' bill. In 1999, Mr. Blackwell worked with Mr. Jacobson and other legislators pushed a bill to tighten ethics rules for lobbyists, but the bill never became law.
