Blackwell campaign rides free on I-80

His spokesman said the turnpike administration is inefficient.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- On a trip last week promoting the moneymaking potential of the Ohio Turnpike, gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell paid no tolls.
The State Highway Patrol, which drove Blackwell on the two-city tour July 6, asked for and got permission to travel the road for free, Turnpike records show. Two staffers who accompanied Blackwell in their own vehicles paid the $3.70 it cost to ride from Cleveland to Toledo.
Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state, has proposed leasing the 241-mile toll road, which he says will raise $4 billion to $6 billion he pledges to pour into a fund to promote economic development.
The request for "nonrevenue status" along the toll road came from the Highway Patrol, state documents show. Blackwell campaign spokesman Carlo LoParo said the campaign had no control over the transaction.
"The Highway Patrol is the Turnpike police force. They ride on the Turnpike gratis," LoParo said. "Their activities are not known by the campaign, and there is no reimbursement mechanism that I know of by which we could have reimbursed them for that toll. We let the Highway Patrol do their job, don't ask questions and try not to get in their way."
Lt. Rick Zwayer, a spokesman for the patrol, confirmed that Blackwell was transported by the Columbus-based Executive Protection Unit that day. He said the nonrevenue status was required for security purposes.
Accusations fly
Gary Cawley, a Turnpike superintendent of toll operations in the vicinity of the Blackwell events, said the status allows troopers not assigned to Turnpike duties more leeway for such movements as entries, exits and allowable U-turns.
U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, Blackwell's Democratic rival in the governor's race, called the act small but revealing.
"All the other citizens that drove the Turnpike that day -- I assume, except for under these very circumspect conditions -- paid their toll," he said. "I think little things reflect whether we consider ourselves to be in a special class or maybe have some kind of elite status."
LoParo said the Turnpike is a bloated bureaucracy with a history of corruption and accused Turnpike officials of alerting media about Blackwell's toll-free trip.
Turnpike Executive Director Gary Suhadolnik wrote Blackwell an angry letter on the day of his event warning against future use of the roadway for campaign events.