Contributions play no role in Appointments.

(This article was written for the Carnival of Ohio Politics sponsored by Paul of Northwest Ohio Net...be sure to visit tomorrow morning to read the rest of the offerings by some of Ohio's best bloggers)

That's what Governor Taft and his staff as well as Republican Party officials would like you to believe. I'm sure if the position was reversed it would also be what Democrats would want you to believe since there have been local appointments here in the Democratic stronghold of my area that are also "questionable". I think most of us realize that with the exception of a few like Marc Dann the reality is the system that is the problem no matter the party.

About 80 percent of current governor-appointed trustees and their spouses have contributed to political candidates, pouring nearly $3 million into the state’s political money machine since 1990 — contributing overwhelmingly to Republicans.

Currently, about 250 governor-appointed trustees sit on the boards of Ohio’s 13 public universities, 23 community and technical colleges, a medical school, and the Ohio Board of Regents. All of the trustees were appointed by Mr. Taft or his predecessor, George Voinovich.

Under state law, it is not illegal for trustees to contribute to political candidates, including the governor. In the past year, lawmakers quadrupled contribution limits to $10,000 per election cycle, $20,000 per election year.

While I'm sure some of these 250 are well qualified to sit on the various boards, I can't help flashing back to an article written by the BG News.... October 27, 2005....Noe — who lived in Bowling Green for 19 years — was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1991 by then Governor George Voinovich. The Republican governor decided to appoint Noe — a BGSU dropout — over a banker and a civic leader.

To expect us to believe it's just some coincidence that two of the new appointees to the OSU Board donated more than $1.3 million to state Republican candidates and causes is a bit farfetched. Wexler who was thanks to a change by the Republican Majority in Ohio Congress reappointed. Until the law changed once your term was done you were done. Surely there were other candidates who have never served that could have or were the 1.179 million reasons just overwhelming in favor of Wexler?

Yet, that's what is being said..."The governor takes a lot of different things into consideration, and at no time is he even aware of their campaign contributions when he is making that decision," Mr. Rickel said.

I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to believe that Governor Taft is not aware of who his major campaign contributers are. I realize he has had problems in the past remembering such trivial things as golf outings, but I think I would probably attempt to remember the names of a select group of people who had given me over $500,000 in campaign funds. At least to say thank you...but then again? It appears he did.