Democrats -- who loathe Blackwell for other reasons -- as well as Blackwell's Republican rivals have to date been unsuccessful trying to tie Blackwell to Taft's woes. Now, however, they will attempt to drive attention to the secretary of state's decision to approve the touch-screen voting system of Diebold over that of the company's main rival, ES&S. ES&S is currently suing Blackwell over this decision, and the company has been investigating the campaign contributions of Diebold and its associates. One such contribution that has raised eyebrows was a $10,000 check written by Pasquale "Pat" Gallina on January 4, 2004, to the Franklin County Republican Party. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Franklin County Board of Elections director Matt Damschroder discussed the contribution in his office at the time the county was accepting bids on voter-registration software. Damschroder is a Republican and a former executive director of the county party.The post is rich in links, so I encourage those interested to read the whole thing and check the whole thing out.
The Franklin County prosecutor (Ron O'Brien, who is also a Republican) has recommended that Damschroder be fired, an action which may come as early as today when the entire county board of elections meets. Damschroder, who has had a history of disagreements with Blackwell, now claims that Gallina told him in May 2004 that Diebold had donated $50,000 to Blackwell's "campaign interests" through Washington-based political consultant Norm Cummings. According to the Dispatch, no such donation has yet been identified among campaign filings. Gallina would not discuss with the newspaper Damschroder's claim about the $50,000 contribution, but he did say that all of his campaign contributions have been reported and are a matter of public record.
Damschroder's story does not explain exactly how a contribution in May 2004 was supposed to affect the outcome of Blackwell's decision on touch-screen voting systems, especially since the secretary of state in January 2005 initially determined that no touch-screen system was acceptable under the Ohio legislature's directives to fulfill the federal Help America Vote Act. In the secretary of state's initial opinion, the prohibitive cost of touch-screen machines that provided the required "paper trail" went far beyond the federal money available to conform to the new rules. Furthermore, no touch-screen machines had been certified as conforming to the Ohio legislature's requirements. Blackwell subsequently allowed the Diebold touch-screen machine in April after the company lowered its price and it appeared the Diebold machine would be certified.
If the mysterious and unverified campaign contribution Damschroder claims he was told about in May 2004 was designed to influence Blackwell's decision on touch-screen voting systems, it seems to have done so in a very odd way. Unless something far more substantial is found, the fuss over touch-screen voting does not seem likely to derail Blackwell's continuing strength among Republican voters as next year's gubernatorial election approaches.
The analysis is pretty convincing though, at any rate.
The same post has some fascinating things to say about the draft Kasich movement and the implications for Montgomery and Petro...clearly, Blackwell is the frontrunner and he has managed to successfully tick off some powerful establishment Republicans...not bad for a guy who (supposedly) used to be a Democrat (I have a note in to the campaign for clarification on this point).
