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Hagan told to drop suit over contracts, or else
Ohio’s attorney general sent a not-so-subtle message to Democrat Tim Hagan: Drop your corruption case against Ohio Republicans or we’ll come after you. Hagan, the Democrats’ unsuccessful 2002 candidate for governor, offered a counterproposal: He’ll withdraw the lawsuit – if Republicans pass a law banning the use of no-bid state contracts. Although a complete ban is unlikely, some reforms are under review, said House Republican spokeswoman Karen Tabor. “With or without the lawsuit, procurement reform is something we’re looking into,” she said. Contracts that are not competitively bid are at the heart of Hagan’s case. The lawsuit, filed in August 2004, contends that Gov. Bob Taft, Attorney General Jim Petro and other Republican officeholders awarded billions of dollars in unbid contracts to vendors who artificially inflated their prices to cover contributions they kicked back to GOP political funds… Christopher Fairman, an associate professor of law at Ohio State University, said it’s too early to tell whether the case is frivolous, but added, “The fact that the judge allowed the case to proceed signals that he thought there might be something there.” Lawyers and their clients can be sanctioned and assessed legal fees if a judge determines they did not have a good-faith basis to pursue the case, Fairman said.
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