Confidant: Dann is going to help his wife sell dinnerware over the Internet.

By David Skolnick

Confidant: Dann is going to help his wife sell dinnerware over the Internet.

YOUNGSTOWN — During his inaugural address as attorney general Jan. 8, 2007, Marc Dann said he would work to “help restore the public’s trust in our government.”

With his honesty and integrity in question, Dann resigned Wednesday facing a political scandal in his office and possible impeachment.

Republicans and his fellow Democrats called for Dann’s resignation after a May 2 internal attorney general investigation described the office as filled with cronyism, poor management and lacking proper oversight.

Dann refused to step down.

“He was struggling with the reality of the situation,” said Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland lawyer who lost the 2006 Democratic primary for attorney general to Dann.

Dann said he could move past the scandals in his office and be effective. But reality finally set in.

“My conduct has caused the creation of a firestorm of negative publicity that has reached a point where it is preventing the great professionals in the office from doing their important work,” Dann wrote in his resignation letter to Gov. Ted Strickland, who had demanded he quit or be impeached.

“The only way I can ensure that the great work in the office can continue is to take responsibility by resigning,” he added.

So what’s Dann going to do now that he’s no longer attorney general?

He’s going to work for his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, who sells Fiestaware on the Internet as a side job, said Mike Harshman, Dann’s attorney and a confidant.

Harshman said Dann told that to an attorney general office staffer as he left the office Wednesday. It was a light-hearted comment, but a truthful one, Harshman said.

There are false rumors that Dann is going to work for a Cleveland law firm, Harshman said.

Dann’s world started to crumble when two female staffers filed sexual-harassment complaints March 31 against Anthony Gutierrez, then Dann’s director of general services and a longtime friend.

It got worse when The Columbus Dispatch published an article April 6 on the complaints.

That article led to dozens of others from numerous newspapers — particularly The Dispatch, The Plain Dealer, The Vindicator and the Dayton Daily News — about the complaints and other problems in Dann’s office.

The office released a report May 2 that caused Dann to fire Gutierrez as well as force the departure of two top-level staffers. It also led to additional articles and pressure on Dann to resign.

Dann said he blamed himself for the problems, adding his extramarital affair with his former scheduler contributed to the unprofessional work environment.

But he refused to resign, saying the humiliation and embarrassment he faced was enough punishment.

Dann also admitted he was overwhelmed by a job he never thought he’d win and wasn’t prepared to handle its great responsibilities.

“You have to give Marc Dann credit for admitting he wasn’t qualified to be attorney general,” said Mark Weaver, a prominent Republican strategist. “He owed it to voters to say it before the election.”

Weaver ran the 2006 attorney general campaign of Betty Montgomery, who lost to Dann in what political observers considered a major upset.

Dann ran a populist campaign railing against a “culture of corruption” in Columbus created by Republicans, who controlled state government at the time.

Dann’s statements about his affair and not being ready to be attorney general hurt him, Weaver said.

“For some reason, he thought those were helpful statements,” Weaver said. “In what warped world does acknowledging you weren’t equipped for the job become something positive?”

Other Republicans also piled on Dann and Democrats after the resignation.

“The only thing Marc Dann did right as attorney general was resign,” said state Republican Chairman Bob Bennett.

There were numerous problems from the moment Dann started at attorney general including poor hires, a public blowup at a reporter, problems with legal filings, questionable expenditures and an overall unprofessional atmosphere, Weaver said.

But state Rep. Mark Okey, instrumental in preparing nine articles of impeachment against Dann, said Democrats handled a difficult situation extraordinarily well.

“It took a lot of courage for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus to call for his impeachment,” said Okey, of Carrollton, D-61st, who represents southern Mahoning County in the House.

“Impeachment hasn’t been done in about 200 years, yet we filed articles of impeachment against one of our own,” he added. “That was like the knockout punch. He was a boxer nearly out on his feet, and his allies, his fellow Democrats, gave him a pretty serious blow.”

Paul Sracic, chairman of Youngstown State University’s political science department, said Strickland “did a masterful job of handling this situation.”

Dann’s inexperience directly led to his fall, Sracic said.

“The story is about inexperience and mismanagement from somebody who came from nowhere,” Sracic said. “Everything got out of hand because he didn’t have experience.”

John Camillus, co-counsel to the two women who filed the sexual-harassment complaint that eventually led to Dann’s downfall, said Dann made the right decision to resign.

“A lot of this goes well beyond the allegations and concerns of my clients,” he said. “All of the investigations, scrutiny and media attention led to the attorney general’s not being able to function properly.”

Vanessa Stout and Cindy Stankoski, Camillus’ clients, “want to have a normal work environment, and that hasn’t happened yet. There isn’t any way for things to be back to normal right away. They won’t be for quite some time. They’re anxious for all of this to be behind them.”

The past two days were extremely chaotic for Dann.

Hours before Dann resigned Wednesday, about a half-dozen Ohio attorney general officials had their computers and Blackberry devices seized as part of the Ohio inspector general’s investigation of the office. In all, about 10 to 12 computers and electronic devices were seized.

The Legislature and Strickland approved that investigation Tuesday over Dann’s objections.

Dann had offered to resign Tuesday if the inspector general investigation was delayed for 90 days. Republican legislative leaders refused the request.

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers, working with the inspector general, as well as inspector general investigators, piled the equipment onto push carts about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Ted Hart, deputy communications director, was among the attorney general officials to have his computer and Blackberry taken as part of the investigation. Hart said he didn’t know why the troopers took his items because he’s done nothing wrong.

Dann also had his computers and his Blackberry taken as part of the investigation, according to sources in the attorney general’s office.

Before the computers and Blackberries were seized, troopers were in the lobby of the Rhodes Tower, where the attorney general’s office is located, checking bags and purses in an effort to make sure nothing of importance was being taken out of the building by attorney general employees.

skolnick@vindy.com

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