Overlawyered readers may well recall the travails of disgraced former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.  Dann dropped off the radar earlier this year after he was driven from office amid allegations of sexual harassment and workplace affairs within his office.  Before stepping down, Dann touched off a brief constitutional crisis in Ohio, similar to what Illinois is now experiencing thanks to Rod Blagojevich.

Now Dann is back in the news, with a less sexy scandal involving campaign finance expenditures:

Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports.

Interestingly, beyond the expected “lies all lies!” defense, Dann responds that while he didn’t do it, if he did do it, he did it on the advice of counsel:

“The allegations that have been made in these complaints are either false or they lack a basis in law,” Dann said. “We operated the campaign committee lawfully, and all the expenditures were made with the advice of counsel and were appropriate.”

It would be nice to know which counsel advised the former attorney general that home repairs and family vacations were appropriate campaign expenditures.  Assuming that the counsel wasn’t Marc Dann.

Via Instapundit, who observes that the AP’s treatment of this story leaves the reader puzzled as to Dann’s party identity.  Perhaps Marc Dann was an independent.

Filed under: campaign regulation, Marc Dann, Ohio