'No Contest' Plea For Ohio Gov.

Gov. Bob Taft Enters Plea To 4 Misdemeanor Ethics Charges

(CBS/AP)  Taft's golf partners included John Snow, then the head of transportation company CSX Corp. and now the U.S. Treasury secretary; and Tony Alexander, president and chief executive of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp.

Some partners have said Taft paid for the golf; others have said they picked up the tab.

Taft's former chief of staff Brian Hicks pleaded no contest last month to failing to report stays at Noe's million-dollar Florida home. He was fined $1,000.

Noe has acknowledged that up to $13 million is missing from the rare coins fund, and Attorney General Jim Petro has accused him of stealing as much as $4 million.

Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006, said the charges are part of a "culture of corruption" in Ohio.

Politically speaking, the GOP governor comes from a royal bloodline. His father and grandfather were senators and his great-grandfather, William H. Taft, was president of the United States and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other Ohio governors have come under investigation, including Republican George Voinovich, investigated for unproven allegations he laundered campaign money, and Democrat Richard Celeste, whose connections to a contributor who owned the failed Home State Savings Bank were examined.

Some residents also are fed up with the corruption.

"It's a sad state of affairs," said Bruce Lively, a Maumee resident who said he had backed Taft in the past but now thinks he should step down.

Taft was elected governor in 1998, following the most expensive campaign in state history. He also had been secretary of state, a state representative and a county commissioner in his hometown of Cincinnati.