Hartmann learned the hard way that voters are more concerned with having their privacy protected than having elected officials serve the wishes of businesses outside their jurisdiction. Democratic candidate Jennifer L. Brunner produced a plan that promised to stop the outsourcing of confidential information to private contractors and return the responsibility of protecting Ohioans’ private information to Secretary of State employees.

Brunner ran televised ads exposing the Blackwell breach and showing over 100 victims of identity theft entering a courtroom to testify against criminals who had used Hartman's website to steal their identities. Brunner defeated Hartman by a margin of 55%. Blackwell, the republican hopeful in the gubernatorial race, received only 36.65% of the vote against Democratic candidate Ted Strickland’s 60.54%

Potential Flight Risk?

O’Malley’s troubles with women, Web sites and workers may have led to his guilty plea and resignation but court records and sources close to the story hint that he may also be a potential flight risk. WKYC Channel 3 News reported Thursday that O’Malley plans to leave the country. During the plea hearing Judge David D. Dowd Jr. released O’Malley on a $100,000 unsecured bond but required him to surrender his passport.

If O’Malley does leave the country, he won't be the first county official to run from justice when faced with serving time in a federal prison.

Last February former Texas Hidalgo County District Clerk Omar Guerrero was captured by Mexican State Police in Reynosa, Mexico where he had been hiding for two and a half months after a warrant was issued charging the Republican clerk with sexual crimes. The warrant charged Guerrero with sexual assault and with retaliation against a fifteen year-old-girl. Guerrero allegedly had sex with the young girl numerous times and the victim claims he threatened to use his political position to harm her and her family if she reported the assaults.

Five months after Guerrero's capture, Missouri State Police launched a statewide manhunt for former Butler County Clerk John Dunivan, 60, who disappeared after being accused of sexually abusing two children under 12 years of age. When the state police manhunt failed to produce Dunavan, A U.S. magistrate in St. Louis issued a warrant for "unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.”

Dunivan is still on the run and was featured last month on Fox TV’s popular series America’s Most Wanted.

O'Malley has a problem with women, web sites and patronage. The American people have a problem with elected officials who use their elected position to exploit the people who elect them.

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