MARC DANN

MARC DANN

Highs and lows

Attorney General Marc Dann has had his ups and downs during his first 11 months as attorney general. Here are some of the highs and lows for the Liberty Democrat.

HIGHS

Dann received positive national media attention from Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his aggressive tactics taken against lenders and brokers he considers predatory lenders.

The Times favorably compared him to former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, now that state’s governor, for taking on Wall Street. The May article, “In Search for a New Sheriff, One Stands Out,” calls Dann a “strong candidate for the new Spitzer.”

Dann revived an investigation in February of Marsh & McLennan, a major insurance broker, accused of violating the state’s antitrust laws.

He negotiated a settlement with AOL/Time-Warner in March to pay the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and five state pension funds $144 million to settle a securities fraud case.

Dann fought to bar New Century Financial Corp., a company he accused of being a predatory lender, from operating in Ohio. The company agreed to stop foreclosure payments in March pending reviews by Dann’s office and the Department of Commerce’s Division of Financial Institutions.

Along with attorneys general from seven other states, Dann sent a letter in May to MySpace asking for the names and states of all registered sex offenders with profiles on the Web site. After originally refusing the request, MySpace complied later that month.

Dann sued 10 mortgage companies in June accusing them of pressuring real estate appraisers to inflate home values.

He received a law enforcement award from the Humane Society of the United States in October for his involvement in breaking up a dogfighting operation in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas.

He issued subpoenas in November to obtain records from subprime mortgage lenders, who give adjustable-rate loans to those with poor credit.

LOWS

Dann’s received more criticism from newspapers in Ohio than any other statewide officeholder elected last year.

He spent more than $40,000 in taxpayer dollars to purchase a sports-utility vehicle in January from campaign donor Diane Sauer’s dealership in Warren.

Dann fired retired Youngstown police Detective Sgt. Rick Alli in April as his “top cop,” claiming Alli was improperly taking two public salaries.

He fired David L. Nelson as his deputy security director in May when a background check uncovered a 1976 involuntary manslaughter conviction. An initial background check didn’t reveal the conviction. It was only after a more detailed national check that the conviction was discovered.

Dann told a newspaper reporter in June to “go [expletive] himself” because of an article he said unfairly attacked a woman he reared like a daughter.

Fired Rick Houze, his top fiscal watchdog, in September for failing to disclose on his job application that he was no longer a licensed accountant. Again, a background check failed to uncover this. The Columbus Dispatch discovered the problem.

In November, Dann’s office released information with tips for holiday shoppers that listed a telephone number for what was supposed to be a help center. A staffer accidentally transposed two digits, and the number on the press release was for a phone sex hot line.

The Dayton Daily News published an article in November detailing Dann’s public e-mails, including one to Leo Jennings, his communications director, about an editorial that ran in The Vindicator. Dann wrote that six “nasty” posts on Vindy.com were all about Jennings. “Jesus had it better on Good Friday,” Dann wrote to Jennings. “In the e-mails, he sometimes comes off as vulgar, overscheduled and a publicity hound,” the Dayton newspaper reported.

Sources: Vindicator files and the attorney general’s Web site