Three in a row

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett issued the following statement today regarding the resignation of Cuyahoga County Recorder Patrick O'Malley, the secretary of the Ohio Democratic Party:

"This is yet another sad case of a Democratic Party in Ohio that is falling dramatically short of the higher standard they promised.  In a matter of days, we've seen a county elected official, a state legislator and an attorney general resign in disgrace, and they're all Democrats.  The Democrats like to brag about cleaning their own house, but they seem to live in a pigsty lately.  You know it's bad when the corruption even reaches the leadership of the Ohio Democratic Party."

Patrick O'Malley ran a Dann-like operation of cronyism, incompetence and corruption for years, but Democrats never said a word:

• Cronyism: A Plain Dealer review of the recorder's 2007 payroll found that O'Malley has given nearly three dozen jobs, with combined salaries of $1.4 million, to politicos and their kin - former mayors, the son and daughter of a judge, the wife of a councilman.   A review of applications also found people whose previous job skills don't match the work they do for O'Malley.  (The Plain Dealer, 4/27/08)

• Corruption: Shortly after filing in January to run for Cuyahoga County recorder, Cathy Luks said incumbent Patrick O'Malley offered her a $50,000-a-year job in his office if she dropped out of the race.  Under Ohio law, offering something of value to affect an election is a felony. A conviction could result in a candidate being forced off the ballot or being barred from taking office.  Henry Eckhart, spokesman for the government watchdog group Common Cause-Ohio, said an incumbent offering a job to get rid of a challenger would be a "dumb thing to do."  (The Plain Dealer, 4/27/08)

• Negligence:  Cuyahoga County has foreclosed on a property owned by one of its elected officials.  Recorder Patrick O'Malley failed to pay three years' worth of property taxes, from 2005 to 2007, on a commercial property he bought in 2001. He owes more than $18,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest on the property - the former Aragon Ballroom on Cleveland's West Side.   "I've got financial problems like anybody else," he said. "You want to condemn me for that, I don't care."   (The Plain Dealer, 1/26/08)