Duffer

Bob Taft, the governor of Ohio, is finding out that even a round of golf can be a political liability.

As a widening scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation threatens his administration, Gov. Bob Taft last night admitted that he had failed to include golf outings on his annual financial disclosure statements filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission.

A source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, yesterday said that Tom Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer at the heart of the state investment scandal, told him at Toledo’s Inverness Club in 2002 that he was playing golf there with Governor Taft.

The source, who had played golf in the morning, said Mr. Noe told him he would play golf with the governor that afternoon. The source told The Blade that he did not see Mr. Taft, but heard later there may have been other occasions when Ohio’s governor played the Inverness course with Mr. Noe.

Mark Rickel, Mr. Taft’s press secretary, refused to confirm or deny that Mr. Taft had failed to list one or more golf outings involving Mr. Noe on his financial disclosure statements.

He also would not say how many golf outings Mr. Taft had failed to disclose since taking office in 1999.

State law requires officeholders to list each source of gifts over $75. A round of golf at Inverness for a guest is about $140.

[...]

The governor attached to the statement a letter dated June 14 to Merom Brachman, chairman of the Ethics Commission.

“It has recently come to my attention that I failed to list a number of golf outings or events on my financial disclosure forms over the past several years,” he wrote.

It is a first-degree misdemeanor to knowingly falsify an ethics form, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

Mr. Taft has hired an attorney to represent him on the matter.

[...]

State Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) said Mr. Taft has done the “same thing he fired department heads over.”

“How many times do we have to forgive the blatant corruption?” Ms. Fedor said. “This is a serious indictment on how our state government is being run, and it is starting from the top.”

She said the governor notified the Ethics Commission only because he has been caught.

“It’s a cover-up. Obviously, he is covering his tracks,” she said.

Jason Mauk, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, declined to comment last night.

It just keeps getting better...