(ePMedia OhioNews Bureau): While the loss of state data contained on a computer back-up device is an embarrassing thorn in the side of Ohio’s new Democratic governor, Ohio Republicans, who lost all but one statewide office last year, are seizing on the mishap as a political godsend to chip way at Ted Strickland’s rising popularity among Ohio voters.
Thursday's announcement by Strickland, the first Democrat to fill the office since Richard Celeste departed in early 1992, revealed that additional sensitive data for individuals, former state employees and vendors was on the device stolen from the trunk of an intern’s car in June.
Strickland, a trained prison psychologist and minister, said that while the state continues to believe it is highly unlikely that the information contained in the stolen device has been accessed, his spokesman, Keith Dailey, said all new people will be contacted and that they will be offered free identity theft services. So far, of the nearly 860,000 individuals now confirmed to have personal information on the device, only 58,391 have enrolled in protection services under the state of Ohio account.
NEW DATA SURGE HIGHLIGHTS
- The Names and Social Security Numbers of Approximately 576,000 Individuals.
- The Names and Social Security Numbers of Approximately 8,123 Former State Employees
- The Names and Tax Identification Numbers of Approximately 86,986 Vendors
REPUBLICAN OUTRAGE OVER STRICKLAND MISHAP
The deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Kevin DeWine, second cousin to former Ohio U.S. Senator Mike DeWine and a sitting member of the Ohio House of Representatives, said he was outraged that "Ohioans are still learning that they are affected a month after the left was announced."
Heir apparent to Bob Bennett, the Ohio GOP’s venerable leader since 1988, DeWine’s manufactured concern was designed to deflate Strickland’s rising balloon of popularity. Telling Strickland loyalists that they should be "eating" their words of support now, DeWine, who was unable to cite one real person who has had their identity stolen from the incident, he said this in a prepared statement:
Gov. Strickland should be embarrassed at how badly this breach has been mismanaged. Continuing, he said, "Yet all we get is another empty assurance that there’s nothing to worry about. That would be easier to believe if every week didn’t bring a new surprise that puts another half-million Ohioans at risk.
Kevin Coughlin, a term-limited Republican looking for a statewide office to run for in 2010, also took a shot at Strickland, calling for the Ohio legislature, still controlled, by and large, by Republicans, to explore the option of an independent review of both the theft and the Governor’s handling of the incident.
Since the theft I have reserved judgment and given Governor Strickland the benefit of the doubt as the case developed. As details emerge from the investigation, Ohioans have the right to question Ted Strickland and his ability to effectively run our state government.
Dailey, doing what he's paid to do, said, "every imaginable effort and resource" has been dedicated to determining what's on the tape and informing Ohioans before a problem occurs."
"It's unfortunate that some continue to try to exploit the situation to score political points," Dailey said.
THE COST OF COVERAGE
The mounting cost of using "every imaginable effort and resource" could soon reach $2.2 million. When the incident first happened, $630,530 was set aside, but now it appears an additional $890,000 may be needed, according to Hugh Quill , director of the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, who noted that only about 17 percent of those eligible have signed up to date.
OHIO SOS CAN’T SUE COUNTIES TO COLLECT FUNDING FOR ELECTIONS
Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s new secretary of state, told officials of Ohio’s 88 boards of election earlier this year that if they needed help squeezing money out of county commissioners to fund their voting operations, they could come to her and she’s go to bat for them.
Setting up a battle between her and the association representing Ohio counties, one of Ohio’s most powerful groups, was a battle that sounded good but one she couldn't deliver on. Brunner was shut down by the legislature in the recently concluded budget process in gaining the authority to sue counties, many of whom have budgets stretched as thin as a paper ballot.
In a piece written for the Chillicothe Gazette by state senator John Carey, R-Wellston, about his role in negotiating the state's new $52.3 billion budget, the loquacious, silver-haired senator said carving out $15,000 for each of two counties, Vinton and Morgan, both located in Appalachia, would be more cost effective than letting Brunner, a lawyer and former judge, sic her beefed up crew of lawyers on financially strapped counties for funds they don’t have.
We did not give her that authority, but earmarked $15,000 for each county out of Help America Vote Act funds to take care of the needs those counties could not pay. This is cheaper than suing those counties for money they do not have.
Brunner made her bones earlier this year when she beheaded the entire Cuyahoga County Board of Election, replacing them with four new people, two of whom she selected herself and two who were submitted by the Republican Party. In Ohio, political parties run the gears of government.
If Brunner really wants Ohio elections to be free, fair, open and honest, she might spend more time on the real problem, which has been and is today, allowing, by law, partisan political parties to run Ohio’s election apparatus.
But she already signaled her aversion to this sensible approach, a reality in other democracies around the globe, when in 2005 she came out in opposition to Issue 5, one of a package of reform amendments to the Ohio Constitution. The amendment would have created a new independent State Board of Elections. Once created, the secretary of state would have defaulted to its second mission: chief record's keeper.
With her opposition to Issue 5, she effectively helped Republicans, who fought tooth and nail against them, to defeat the entire package. Sadly, Ohio voters swallowed their self-righteous rationales hook, line and sinker.