So, we’ve heard Ed FitzGereld jumping up and down and making a fuss about JobsOhio for weeks now. He even asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to look into his accusations. Yesterday, we got the results. From the Darrell Rowland of the Dispatch:
Brachman said FitzGerald has made no actionable allegation or complaint against JobsOhio
After all of Fitzy’s actions, he didn’t even make an actionable allegation? Does he even know what he is doing?
Talk about incompetence.
And what about Ed’s complaints to the commission against the governor himself? From the Plain Dealer:
The chairman of the Ohio Ethics Commission said Thursday there is no need for an ethics probe of Gov. John Kasich’s relationship to a company that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in state development tax credits.
Chairman Merom Brachman, noting that the commission is “anxious to not become a political theater,” said data provided by the governor shows conclusively there is no conflict of interest to investigate.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s leading ethics regulator said Thursday that Gov. John Kasich appears to have made a clean break from a corporation whose subsidiaries were granted $619,000 in state tax breaks brokered by JobsOhio.
Ohio Ethics Commission Chairman Merom Brachman said he saw no reason for the panel to investigate the relationship between Kasich and Worthington Industries.
“It’s a clean break and clear as a whistle,” Brachman said.
Let’s look at the facts here:
- Kasich quit the board of directors for Worthington Industries before he took office.
- The deferred compensation he received from 2010 to 2012 was set up 5 years ago in 2008, three years before he took office.
- The Ethics Commission already ruled on deferred compensation, back during the Strickland administration. It found that there was no conflict of interest for such situations where deferred compensation was already agreed to.
- Kasich would have received that compensation whether or not he was elected governor, whether or not there was a JobsOhio, and whether or not Worthington Industries received tax credits for creating jobs.
In other words, this is a complete non-story. It’s all a bunch of noise cooked up by Ohio Democrats and the candidate they are stuck with, diva Ed Fitsgerald.
Fortunately, the Ethics Commission recognized that, too.
“The commission does not want to be put in a position of conducting political theater, and by (FitzGerald) asking us to look at something that is off limits by statute, this is posing a red herring,” Brachman said.
With the state of Ed’s sad campaign and the lack of enthusiasm behind it, Ed is clearly flailing now, trying to do some sort of damage to Kasich. Apparently, this is the best he can do.
