Mob-Style Corruption In Ohio
The guilty plea on state and federal corruption charges from Terrence W. Gasper, the former Chief Financial Officer at the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation (BWC), masks a much greater scandal involving the systematic corruption of Ohio politics dating from former governor George Voinovich’s administration. As the Columbus Dispatch showed today, Gasper was hired at the direction of the late Paul C. Mifsud. Mifsud, who was Voinovich’s Chief of Staff, had direct ties to the Bush family. Mifsud was a former military intelligence officer who liked to brag of CIA connections and controlled a shadowy group called the Maltese Benevolent Society. Mifsud ran George H.W. Bush’s 1980 campaign for president in the Buckeye State as well as co-managing his 1988 run for president as well. Voinovich allowed Mifsud to essentially use Mafia-style “bust-outs” to collect political slush funds to bring the Republican Party to dominance in Ohio.
Mifsud saw the Ohio BWC as a cash cow and directly recruited convicted felon Tom Noe, a hobby shop owner from the Toledo area who sold baseball cards, beanie babies and a few old coins to secretly administer a $50 million rare coin fund. It was no surprise when he pleaded guilty to federal charges for laundering more than $40,000 into the 2004 Bush campaign. Much of this is outlined in my book “The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal.” The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists awarded “The V Report” first place for coverage of government in Ohio. Basically, I detail former governor Voinovich’s corrupt activities through the legendary duo Paul and Pauly, that is, the late Paul Mifsud with his murky CIA ties and the late Pauly Voinovich, George’s brother, with ties to the mob.
The Democratic Party, with corruption scandals in the 1980s were unwilling to take on the blatant corruption of the Voinovich and Taft administrations in the 1990s and today. As governor of Ohio, I will have a proven track record of documenting and proving government corruption in the state. As long as we allow the two parties to steer contracts to their friends, the business climate will never improve in Ohio.
The Fitrakis Files: The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal
Talk about universal health care
talk about living wage
talk about everthing Ohio and compare
how people join when you get off
the voting 2004 page—
and start be future consistance chair
man
A friend of mine from the Dean campaign has been trying to fight corruption in Alachua County, Florida, and officials there are using some extreme intimidation. Please read about it here, and help if you can.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/9/183854/9104
I think Bob should talk about education, healthcare, etc, but ALSO remind us about the 2004 election and other scandals. Somebody has to keep that stuff in the public eye.
I just read the Alachua County info, and the intimidation by Florida state officials is quite astounding. Be sure to go to Renee’s link and give money to the defense fund.
While I agree with Dave that we should focus on forward-looking issues, we cannot let these bastards intimidate and steal elections from us!