as a reason for not going ahead. If you look at the archives of information -- it seems that Blackwell Does contridict himself. I'll have to look further into this - I've not been reading them in order, though I know that at one point he said one thing -- he got mad at Cuyhoga for choosing a vendor and made them take back their offer -- there's weirdness with this leasing thing, too.
I'm not saying Toledo Blade has the best archives, I just happened to stumble upon this information doing a search on
Kenneth Blackwell DieboldFreePress has a new article about Blackwell
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1049J. Kenneth Blackwell: The “J” is for Judas
January 23, 2005"Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is perhaps the single most opportunistic politician in the history of Ohio. His career began in Cincinnati in the 1970s and progressed to statewide office until today. Along the way, he metamorphed from a charter reform Democrat, into a Carter Democrat, then a New Democrat, then an Independent, then a moderate Republican, then a conservative Republican, and is now the state’s leading reactionary right-wing Republican.
"Blackwell has always represented opportunism in search of a political position. His flamboyant rhetorical style has never changed, as he has gone from arguing for civil rights to recently comparing himself to Gandhi and King as he offered himself up for arrest in defiance of a federal court ordering him to count provisional ballots cast within a voter’s county.
"Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has come under intense fire for his role in officiating the disputed Ohio balloting and vote count. Blackwell served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign while running an election he says went “smoothly.” The fact that the vast majority of voters he disenfranchised are poor and minorities is lost upon the born-again Blackwell who has staked out the far right-wing of Ohio politics populated by intolerant bigots and white supremacists.
"Blackwell will gladly do their bidding if they will anoint him governor."
<snip>
End of article states:
"New affidavits point to possible criminal activity by top Ohio election officials, raising yet more questions about the 2004 vote. Rhonda J. Frazier, a former employee of the Secretary of State’s office, has confirmed in an affidavit taken by Cynthia Butler, working with freepress.org, that the Office had secret slush funds. Frazier says it also failed to comply with the requirements of “The Voting Reform Grant” that required all the voting machines in Ohio to be inven-toried and tagged for security reasons.
“I was routinely told to violate the bidded contracts to order supplies from other companies for all 17 Secretary of State offices throughout the State which were cheaper vendors, leaving a cash surplus differential in the budget,” Frazier states, “After complaining about the office’s repeated practices of violating grants and contracts, I was fired.” "
more at link
How different is this from Shelley's problems?