Ken Blackwell

I have a few thoughts on the whole Ken Blackwell / Diebold stock issue. I don't know, and honestly doubt there were any improprieties but lets take a look at a couple of the issues involved.

First of all, to the layman, it looks bad. Buying an strange number of shares (178) with an amount that comes in at just under $10,000 has the smell of impropriety. It looks like he was trying to avoid some kind of reporting limit, especially when you're tight with the CEO, and allegations of him conducting inside trading have been made. In reality, it was probably part of a larger buy for other clients by the fund manager.

Secondly, this paragraph from the Dispatch:

Blackwell said that a past manager was given verbal instructions about stocks to avoid. But Blackwell changed managers at the end of 2004, and the new one did not follow those instructions and bought 178 shares of Diebold stock in January 2005 for $53.67 a share, or $9,553.

As an elected official, you don't do anything that is going to be on the up and up verbally. So this as well looks bad. When Blackwell switched fund managers, he damn well knows that he again should have submitted the stocks he wished to avoid in writing to cover his ass from any future problems like this. Also, unlike most politicians in a position to influence business, Blackwell's portfolio wasn't in a blind trust. It's just sloppy to not be concerned about the appearance of propriety of his portfolio.