Coin dealer asks Taft to take back statements

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http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-19/1124578188305850.xml&storylist=cleveland

And now the good stuff begins. Hang on, its going to be a great ride!

8/20/2005, 7:53 p.m. ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Toledo-area coin dealer wants Gov. Bob Taft to take back a statement the governor made implying the dealer tried to hide his involvement with a scandal-plagued state investment, the dealer's lawyer said Saturday.

Tom Noe, a prominent Republican fundraiser who managed a $50 million investment in rare coins for the state's fund for injured workers, tried to reach the governor by phone and e-mail Saturday, said William Wilkinson, his attorney.

"It's Mr. Noe's hope that the governor will simply correct the statement he made about Mr. Noe's supposed concealment of the coin funds," Wilkinson said.

(snip)
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Taft said Noe "made a great effort to conceal" his role in managing the Bureau of Workers' Compensation investments.

more.....

[liberalnurse]

1. Can we say, "Lets Make a Deal?"

It is time for Noe to spill his gutz. Sell out the brotherhood.

[damntexdem]

3. There goes Noe's pardon.

So now he'll have to sing.

[mod mom]

10. Hi LN, Wouldn't you like Blackwell brought into the squabble?

that would definitely make things interesting in Ohio! Wonder if wife Bernadette has any pearls of wisdom to share.

[liberaliraqvet26]

2. rock on Taft...

keep refusing to step down, you are doing us more of a favor for '06

[sickinohio]

4. That's what I say!

Keep talkin guys - hope the whole gang comes tumbling down!! Ratting on each other - cool!!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. Send Bob Taft warm e-mails of support....

Don't back down to the liberal pinko's! Stay the course!!

[Dynasty_At_Passes]

5. I want to see the beginning of the Ohio election fraud explode.....

And these thugs go down so we can all find out what the real results were.....

[cmd]

7. Noe is one of the key figures

He just might sing like a canary to save his skin.

[Kolesar]

8. Noe was a prime financer of Beast/Cheney '04 as a "Pioneer"

...bundling $20000 in campaign contributions. What else did Noe do?

[cmd]

11. It's not so much what he did as what he knew

Bernadette was the Republican chair of Lucas Co. and a member of the Board of Elections. Lucas is the county where the Dem HQ was broken into and computers were stolen, where voting machines were left unsecured in an unlocked room, where people couldn't vote on election day because those machines were locked in a principal's office, where the entire board was fired for not following the law.

Tomand Bernadette know enough to get a nice pardon.

[sickinohio]

15. Yep - I've always thought that is was really suspicious

having the Dem headquarters broken into just a week or two before the election. No one ever mentions that!!!

[Kolesar]

16. I see. This is going to get interesting

:popcorn:

[sickinohio]

14. Yeah - and Blackwell and I am almost positive that

I heard that Noe and a whole gang of the Crooks met in Columbus with the chimp very early in the morning on election day. Something funny there it seems to me. I still don't believ in any way shape or form that the chimp actually won here in Ohio!!

[mod mom]

12. His wife Bernadette was Chair of Lucas County BOE, which had such huge

problems that Kenny blackwell was forced to write a report about it. Here is a summary for all you newbies:


http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas.htm


This report includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.


-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4



-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5



-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7




-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.



-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19

*Among those whose donations have caught the attention of investigators are:

City Councilman Betty Shultz; former state representative Sally Perz, her husband, Joe, and her daughter, Allison; former county elections director Joe Kidd; county Auditor Larry Kaczala and his wife, Gina; County Commissioner Maggie Thurber and her husband, Sam; and two of Mr. Noe’s co-workers at Vintage Coins and Collectibles, partner Tim Lapointe and executive assistant Susan Metzger. Mr. Lapointe’s wife, Linda, also donated.

All of the above gave the campaign $2,000 except the Thurbers; each of them gave $1,950 to the campaign. The $23,900 in donations were made between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, 2003.

Path of donations At issue is whether Mr. Noe gave people money in order for them to give to the Bush campaign, allowing Mr. Noe to exceed federal spending limits, law-enforcement sources said.
Source:
Toledo Blade - FBI Raids GOP Donor Noe's Condo
Friday, April 29, 2005




-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16


-The number of precincts in Lucas County for the November 2003 election was 530 precincts, at the time of the November 2, 2004 election there were 495 precincts.

[cmd]

13. Thank you , mod mom

I need to bookmark this

[SoCalDem]

9. Looks like they have started the "neener-neener" wars

pass the

[cmd]

17. Holy Cow! Look what the Blade has to say!!!!!!!

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050821/NEWS24/508210419
(snip)
If Mr. Taft does not acknowledge that he made a "simple mistake," then Mr. Noe "will help people to understand that it was incorrect," said Mr. Noe's attorney, William Wilkinson.

(snip)
David Mark, the editor of Campaigns & Elections, a Washington-based nonpartisan political magazine, said Mr. Taft is "between a rock and hard place."

He said Mr. Taft would be better off cutting his losses and issuing the retraction, rather than letting Mr. Noe's attorney jog his memory.

"Noe has a lot more to tell, whether it's to the media or prosecutors," Mr. Mark said. "It sounds like the governor's troubles are not over. His memory might very well get freshened up in the not too distant future."

More, more, more........including Taft has known Noe for 20 years, has visited his Catawba Island home, attended Noe's birthday party/roast/fundraiser.

[jsamuel]

18. WOWZA!!!

[bnr65432]

19. sounds like blackmail to me

maybe taft will use it to
and get in more trouble

[JPZenger]

20. He's Stuck in this Scandal Just Like ...

Taft is stuck in this scandal just like his great grand-father was stuck in the White House bathtub. Somebody pry me out of here!!