According to a book proposal obtained by Toledo Free Press, Joe Kidd and Jon Stainbrook “rocked the political world” by exposing the illegal actions of Tom Noe, who pleaded guilty May 31 to charges he illegally funneled contributions to President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. The proposal credits Kidd, former deputy director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, and Stainbrook, an unsuccessful candidate for Toledo City Council and Lucas County auditor, with being the sources “directly responsible” for exposing the deeds of Noe that led to The Blade’s Coingate series, which earned the newspaper a nomination for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize.

The proposal for “Bush League,” which is credited to Kidd and Stainbrook, states, “Joe revealed the corrupt underbelly of the Republican Party to [The Blade] through his friend and colleague, Jon Stainbrook. In ‘Bush League,’ Joe and Jon, the John Dean and Deep Throat of Coingate, tell the true story of the lies, betrayal, power, sex and the love of money that will forever change our country’s future. … This is also the story of how, with the help of the Republican establishment, Karl Rove stole the election for Bush and how Joe and Jon nearly stopped the Bush campaign cold.”

Kidd did not respond to calls requesting comment. Stainbrook sent an e-mail to Toledo Free Press at 6:44 p.m. May 30 that did not verify authorship, but suggested legal consequences would follow if Toledo Free Press published a story on the book proposal.

In a then-anonymous letter to the Pulitzer Prize board, former Blade reporter George Tanber wrote that Stainbrook and Kidd became the newspaper’s key sources as it began its investigation. Though Tanber’s depiction of the duo fit with the one presented in the “Bush League” proposal, Blade Executive Editor Ron Royhab wrote in response to Tanber’s letter that the Coingate series was the result of public records requests and interviews by reporters Jim Drew and Mike Wilkinson and not Kidd’s and Stainbrook’s testimonials to the newspaper.

“Stainbrook and Kidd provided additional tips that helped Coingate reporters expand the investigation into areas that have nothing to do with the federal investigation into Noe laundering money to the Bush-Cheney campaign,” Royhab wrote.

The book proposal states that Kidd lost his job at the county elections board because of a spat between him and Lucas County Auditor Larry Kaczala, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2004 against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

After Kidd and Kaczala traded barbs in the local media, the proposal states, Bernadette Noe, Tom Noe’s wife and former elections governing board chairwoman, came to see Kidd in his office in January 2004 to ask for his immediate and unconditional resignation.

“She was pissed. That was obvious. Joe had inflicted a bloody wound on her handpicked congressional candidate, but Joe shot himself in both feet at the same time,” the proposal states. “… When Joe refused to leave his post voluntarily, Bernadette with deadly intentions took a page from the Karl Rove dirty tricks play book and went to the county prosecutor, a Democrat, with an unsubstantiated rumor that Joe was taking bribes from Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and that he was (just for good measure), a drug addict and alcoholic.”

According to an April 27 Blade article, the elections board fired Kidd for a “disengagement” in the day-to-day management of the office.

Bernadette Noe repeated allegations about Kidd to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett, to name a few, according to the proposal.

“She used Joe’s failing marriage against him, recruiting Joe’s wife in a conspiracy to completely undo him,” the proposal states.

According to the “Bush League” document, Kidd secretly met in January 2004 with former Blade political writer Fritz Wenzel in an effort to protect his credibility and prevent the newspaper from publishing charges against him. Kidd explained in a two-hour meeting with Wenzel, the proposal states, that Bernadette Noe had gone to the prosecutor’s office with false claims. He also revealed to Wenzel that the Noes were involved in a conspiracy to funnel money to the Bush campaign, the proposal says.

The “Bush League” proposal alleges Wenzel sat on the story of Noe’s illegal activity because Wenzel and the Noes maintained a close friendship.

“… Joe began to suspect that the reason the paper was silent was that its all-star political reporter was on the Noes’ secret payroll,” the proposal states.

Wenzel did not return calls seeking comment.

The first articles in the Coingate series ran in 2005. Despite the proposal’s claim that Stainbrook pleaded for more than 18 months with Wenzel for an investigation, members of The Blade’s management team denies the newspaper knew of any wrongdoing on Noe’s part until 2005,

“… The Blade has no knowledge, that Wenzel was told about Noe’s rare-coin investment with the state of Ohio,” Royhab wrote in his letter to the Pulitzer board. “Wenzel was not involved in any aspect of the Coingate project.”

Bernadette Noe offered a brief statement via e-mail after being presented with excerpts from the “Bush League” document involving her and her husband.

“Having read the synopsis provided to me by [Toledo Free Press], I’d give it a D-minus and file it under ‘local fiction,’ ” she wrote.

Authors request court order against TFP

Jon Stainbrook and Joe Kidd filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction June 6 in the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas against Toledo Free Press LLC to prevent the newspaper from publishing a story that quotes a book proposal credited to the duo.

As of press time, a 2 p.m. June 6 hearing was scheduled before Judge James Jensen.

Visit www.toledofreepress.com for updates.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under TFP Version 1.
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