Blackwell To Hand Over Keys After Midnight Sunday

OhioNative — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:23:01 -0700

More accounts of Blackwell's obstruction throughout the transition reported. Promoted from the forums.

How Silly is This. What's He Trying to Prove? No Wonder Big, Bold Kenny Boy Was Thumped by Ohio Voters

Ken "Blackeye" Blackwell is leaving Ohioans with a bad taste in their mouths as he continues to snub Jennifer Brunner, his successor and the first woman to hold the post of chief elections officer, after she and her team made every attempt to create a smooth transition from one administration to another but found it to be more of an obstacle course than a paved highway.

In stark contrast to the quotes in Friday's Columbus Dispatch by outgoing chief spokesman Carlo Loparo that the Blackwell crew has "made any accommodation requested — except ones they deemed unreasonable, such as putting Brunner’s employees on the payroll early," the reality of Blackeye's directives were to his staff was to shortchange the Brunner team at every turn. Mr. Loparo's comments are designed to shroud their real actions in a cloak of respectability.

In fact, Blackwell ordered his staff not to meet with the Brunner transition team since early on, insiders tell me. Blackwell, rude and disrespectful to the end, refused to meet with Brunner himself until nearly 30 days after she beat the Republican candidate, Greg Hartmann, a Texas political operative, by more than one-half million votes.

He ordered Monty Lobb, his assistant SOS and Cassandra Hicks, chief of staff, not to accommodate the Brunner team in any way. From providing staff emails to then blocking them, Blackeye, who resides and works from Cincinnati, told his Columbus staff to stiff arm the Brunner team, who has repeatedly tried to give current staff every opportunity to make a case as to why they should be retained. Brunner could have made a clean sweep but instead chose to retain many whose skills and experience in their fields made them a clear choice for retention.

About 15 of the 60 or so unclassified workers, despite repeated opportunities to contact the Brunner team, never once did so. They are now claiming foul, but it's too late due to their pigheadedness to do the right thing.

On two occasions, yesterday, Thursday, and now this coming Sunday, Blackeye has ordered his apostles to scrub Brunner team members from even taking a look-see at the office space they will officially take over Monday morning, their first day on the job.

Blackeye and Lobb now say they will personally turn over the keys of the kingdom in The Borden Building in Columbus at one minute past midnight this Sunday. They may be handing them over to Tom Worley, Bruner's new chief of staff, or someone else, but if he expects Jennifer to be there herself, he will have made the trip from Cincinnati for naught. Unfortunately, Secretary-of-State-Elect Brunner will not be present to receive the keys to the kingdom at such a silly and late hour because she and her husband Rick will be cheering on the Buckeyes in Arizona, where they traveled with others as part of the delegation organized by The Ohio State University.

Why Blackeye has chosen to act in such a dishonorable and disrespectable manner is open to speculation. But what ever the reason, and it tries one credulity to come up with a plausible excuse that remotely makes sense, he will confirm to voters in his final hours of state service why they were right to send him packing in favor of the tolerant, level-headed and honorable Ted Strickland.

Part of his sour grapes, sore loser attitude may come from the fact that he and his crew had grand visions of future jobs in the governor's office dancing in their heads and were completely devastated when he was devastated at the polls. Not only will they not be moving up, but now they are moving out, where they'll have a chance to polish their resumes and go find their true value in the private marketplace.

Let us not shed any tears for Blackeye or his apostles. He is wealthy beyond reason and won't have to worry about where is next meal is coming from.

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Blackwell To Hand Over Keys After Midnight Sunday