The noose tightens around Jim Petro's neck...

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Wednesday March 01, 2006 · 9:49 PM PST

2006/03/01 · 21:49

According to today's (March 1) Cleveland Plain Dealer, e-mails detailing Ohio attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Jim Petro's role in strong-arming the University of Akron into replacing its legal counsel with GOP cronies have surfaced.

Just days after taking office in 2003, Attorney General Jim Petro ordered the University of Akron to replace four law firms, even though the university's top lawyer had warned that the changes would be costly and inefficient.

Petro dismissed the university's concerns and ordered much of the legal work, including patent cases, transferred to Roetzel & Andress, a politically wired firm that had to scramble to assemble a patent law department. At least two of the firms said they believe they lost the work because they refused to contribute to Petro's campaign.
The disagreement is detailed in never-before-disclosed e-mails in which university general counsel Ted Mallo pleaded with Petro to keep the four firms, which had represented the university for years. The university's board of trustees voted unanimously to release the correspondence Tuesday in response to a public records request from The Plain Dealer.
After the newspaper asked for the records, Petro advised the university that they were not public.
He said they fell within attorney-client privilege.
Trustees agreed the privilege applied but should be waived.
The e-mails reflect Mallo's frustration as he tried to persuade Petro to change his mind.

And here's the money quote...

Petro has suggested that [Akron lawyer Jack] Morrison manufactured his story at {Summit County Republican Party Chairman Alex} Arshinkoff's behest.
Morrison is Arshinkoff's personal lawyer, and Weber has been a reliable donor to the Summit County GOP.
The other two firms that were replaced are Brouse McDowell and Roderick Linton.
To help counter Arshinkoff's clout in Summit County, Petro formed an alliance with Roetzel, a powerful law firm that sits atop Arshinkoff's enemies list.
The firm has hosted fund-raisers for Petro, and its lawyers gave $53,500 to Petro's campaigns from 2002 to 2004. Once Petro became attorney general, the firm became one of the leading recipients of state legal contracts. In fiscal 2004, Roetzel placed No. 3 in total state legal business, getting $1.6 million in work. It had never before placed in the top 10.
Morrison's firm, Amer Cunningham, saw its special counsel work drop from $356,827 in fiscal 2003 to $29,368 last year, state records show.

Meanwhile, we're waiting for the Petro campaign to start firing back at Ken Blackwell.

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