Tuesday, December 07, 1999
Dems complain of Blackwell absences
Ohio official works for census, Forbes
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — As co-chairman of the Census Monitoring Board, Ken Blackwell has traveled to the Mississippi Delta and a crime-infested housing complex in Chicago. His job as national chairman of Steve Forbes' presidential campaign has taken him to five states.
He has been gone so much that state Democrats say the Republican cannot effectively do his job as Ohio's secretary of state.
Mr. Blackwell has been out of Ohio for 20 days for the census duties and seven days on the Forbes campaign. Coupled with a standard two-week vacation, Mr. Blackwell has been away from the office for at least seven weeks this year, the Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.
Mr. Blackwell has been gone so much that he ought to return his salary for the days he has missed, David Leland, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, told the Associated Press on Monday.
“He's being paid by the taxpayers of Ohio to go to New Hampshire and be Mr. Forbes' mouthpiece,” Mr. Leland said. The travel itself is paid for by the campaign, Mr. Blackwell's office said Monday.
“In the Democratic Party and in some parts of the Republican Party, his nickname is Ken "Bye-Bye' Blackwell because he's never home,” Mr. Leland told the newspaper. “The question is whether people want a part-time secretary of state or not. If they do, they've got one.”
Mr. Blackwell defends his travels with the Census Monitoring Board as an extension of his work as secretary of state and said his work for Mr. Forbes is no different from the campaigning he has done for previous Republican presidential candidates, including the team of Bob Dole and Jack Kemp in 1996 when he was state treasurer.
He said that when he leaves the state, he never leaves the job he was elected to last year.
“There hasn't been a week when the taxpayers of Ohio haven't got a full week's worth of work from me,” he told the newspaper.
Mr. Blackwell said his work with the board will help when it comes time to redraw Ohio's legislative districts after the 2000 Census.
By helping to ensure an accurate census, especially in central-city areas and Ohio's Appalachian counties, Mr. Blackwell said he is making sure Ohio gets its fair share of federal money. Any secretary of state who isn't ensuring that everyone is counted in the census “is not doing his job,” Mr. Blackwell said Sunday.
Mr. Leland said he has received complaints about slow service, bad treatment and inappropriate handling of records. But regular users of the secretary of state's office told the Dispatch that Mr. Blackwell has done a good job since taking over this year.
“He has a personal commitment to electronic campaign-finance disclosure that is excellent,” said Laura Yeomans, research director for Ohio Citizen Action, a government watchdog group. “Blackwell's staff is markedly more open than the previous administration's staff. I give him high marks for hiring good people.”
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