Sex scandals In Ohio

Ohio has had its share of political sex scandals. Among them:

Republican Warren G. Harding, the 29th president (1921-23) and a Marion native, carried on a long affair with Nan Britton, who in her 1927 book, The president’s daughter, claimed that Harding was the father of her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, born in 1919.

U.S. Rep. Wayne Hays, a Democrat from St. Clairsville, hired his mistress, Elizabeth Ray, to be his secretary when he was chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee. Ray famously admitted that she couldn’t type. The scandal led to Hays’ resigning from Congress in 1976 after 27 years. He died in 1989.

Former Gov. Richard F. Celeste was being mentioned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 when The Plain Dealer published a story quoting unnamed sources stating that Celeste had extramarital affairs with unidentified women. Celeste denied the report, but it was enough to kill his presidential chances. Celeste is president of Colorado College.

U.S. Rep. Donald E. “Buz” Lukens, a Middletown Republican, paid a 16-year-old Columbus girl $40 for sex in 1988 and was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the unruliness of a minor. Lukens resigned from Congress in 1990 after a House elevator operator complained that he had fondled her.

Sources: The Ohio Politics Almanac, Dispatch files