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Questions Arise About Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's Former Employees

Photo of Taylor
Jo Ingles
/
Ohio Public Radio

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 chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party in June 2014, Chris Redfern accused a former top employee of Taylor's of campaigning while on the payroll for her state job.

“The chief of staff was not working because she was attending to activities over at the Kasich re-election headquarters,” said Redfern.

Ohio’s Inspector General issued a report last week that found that employee and another did personal business on the state's time. 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.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.