Two Democratic scandals get unequal treatment

Politics, personalities and circumstances made Dann an easy target.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Shortly after then-Attorney General Marc Dann held a news conference in May to answer questions about a sexual harassment scandal involving a top aide, the response from Democrats was quick and forceful: Resign or be impeached.

Yet two weeks have passed since the FBI in Cleveland raided the offices and homes of Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy DiMora and Auditor Frank Russo, and the Democratic Party’s response has been muted.

The party issued an initial statement that the two men should be held accountable if there was wrongdoing but has not supplied the almost daily pressure it did with Dann.

The FBI seized documents related to fundraising, travel and deals with contractors in the searches, which were also conducted at local businesses with county contracts.

What explains the differences in the party’s reactions to the developing scandals? After all, neither Dann, who did eventually resign, nor DiMora or Russo, have been charged with any crimes.

“Everyone should give these guys the benefit of the doubt as I would have hoped people would have given me the benefit of the doubt,” Dann said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Republicans have already begun criticizing Democrats for remaining silent on DiMora and Russo.

An intersection of politics, personalities and circumstances, however, made Dann an easier target for Democrats than the two longtime Cuyahoga County politicians.

Dann admitted during the May 2 news conference that he had been surprised to win election in 2006 and that he had failed in his management of such a large office. That forced the party to step up political pressure and demand his resignation. There are no similar admissions in the Cuyahoga County case, where very little is known about the impetus for the FBI raids.

While Dann had staunch allies within his own office, he had few elsewhere in state politics. That made him more expendable.

Russo and DiMora, conversely, built the most powerful political party in the state’s largest Democratic county, often hiring friends and allies into jobs.

“In some ways, this was a personality thing,” said Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action, a government watchdog group. “He [Dann] didn’t have the kind of friends, or network, or structures, or long-term relationships that DiMora and Russo have.”

That sentiment is echoed by Dann himself.

“I had a different approach,” he said. “I didn’t build up a lot of institutional support, which in fact cost me relationships and friendships in the political community.”

Dann was also a highly visible state officeholder viewed as second in power to the governor. He came into office on a pledge to clean up Republican scandal, setting himself up for a more precipitous fall.

While famous and powerful in Cuyahoga County, DiMora and Russo aren’t widely known to voters around the state.

Another difference: Democrats had time to pressure Dann to resign, then find a candidate who could run a solid statewide campaign months before the November election.

Pressuring DiMora or Russo to resign, on the other hand, would create turmoil in Cuyahoga government roughly 90 days before the party desperately needs local elected officials to turn out the vote on Nov. 4.

All these factors combined make staying silent about DiMora and Russo the only conceivable tactic for Democrats, said Grant Neeley, political science professor at the University of Dayton.

The Dann scandal began in the realm of politics and will end with the completion of a formal legal investigation. The situation with DiMora and Russo is beginning in the legal realm, when not much can be said, and could end up being political.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said many facts were known in the Dann case — that a top aide was accused of sexually harassing two female subordinates, and that Dann admitted he was ill-prepared for the job, for example — that distinguished his case from the Cuyahoga situation and enabled the party to move forward with a response.

“Rather than a rush to judgment we will take a look at the facts as they become available and respond accordingly,” Redfern said about DiMora and Russo.

Redfern also brushed off Republican criticism of his party’s response to DiMora and Russo, ticking off a laundry list of recent instances in which the GOP was mum when scandal developed.

No Republican called for then- Gov. Bob Taft to resign, for example, as a coin investment scandal developed and the governor became embroiled in ethical questions.

Taft remained adamant that he would not resign even after he pleaded no contest to ethics charges and was fined $4,000 for failing to report golf outings and other gifts on his disclosure forms.