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More Questions About Lieutenant Governor's Former Employees

Statehouse News Bureau

A recent report by the state Inspector General that looked into the work activities of two former aides to Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor is being questioned. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles explains why.

When he was chair of the Ohio Democratic Party in June 2014, Chris Redfern accused a former top employee of Taylor of campaigning while on the payroll for her state job.

Credit Statehouse News Bureau
Former Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern on Election night 2014

“The Chief of Staff was not working because she was attending to activities over at the Kasich re-election headquarters.”

Ohio’s Inspector General issued a report last week that found that employee and another did not use state paid time appropriately. But the Columbus Dispatch is reporting that top employee, Laura Johnson, was spending state paid time with the Kasich campaign, and the paper also suggests a cozy relationship between the I.G. and Taylor. IG spokesman Carl Enslen says there is no basis to support that assertion and adds the office stands by the report it has issued.

Contact Jo Ingles at jingles@statehousenews.org.