The cushiest job in Columbus might be the secretary of state's, an office ostensibly aloof from the hurly-burly of partisanship, charged with monitoring the apparatus of our democracy.
For a salary of $98,138, J. Kenneth Blackwell oversees an agency that certifies ballots, appoints county boards of election and keeps records on in-and out-of-state corporations, among other things. His job seldom requires fights with the General Assembly, and, except for occasionally having to make nice with the governor, he answers to no one.
Well, sure, he is accountable to the voters of the great state of Ohio, but they generally have only the murkiest idea what he does. Maybe he figures that because they elected him to count their votes, he has a complete mandate to do anything he likes.
This could be why in his spare time, which seems to be ample, he campaigns against things.
Recent examples include former House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, the temporary one-cent sales tax and gay people.
But nowhere in the League of Women Voters' excellent primer Know Your Ohio Government does it say the secretary of state is responsible for ensuring virtue in all the Bobcats and Buckeyes. Ours does, though. Blackwell, who battled impiety and vice since before his days as mayor of Cincinnati, has a branch dedicated specifically to rescuing Ohioans from wickedness.
The Ohio Center for Civic Character, which Blackwell's Web site (serform.sos.state.oh.us/sos/) describes as a collaborative
statewide civic education capacity-building project providing innovative adult learning
resources for local government
faith
education
service and business leaders
is not a big part of his department. With a staff of three, it's run by Assistant Secretary of State Monty Lobb, who himself crusaded for rectitude as president of Cincinnati's Citizens for Community Values. (In addition to hating gays, the group opposes letting people buy adult movies in their hotel rooms.)
In a phone interview Lobb said the three-year-old project accounts for about 1 percent of Blackwell's budget -so approximately $178,000 -and participates in fewer than 50 business or Rotary-type leadership seminars per year.
Lobb said the sessions are an appropriate mission for the secretary of state's office. Of course. They indoctrinate voters, or at least community leaders
with submissive, government-approved principles. Basically the foundation for citizenship is high character
and good citizenship is the foundation for healthy
vibrant communities
