Frank Russo

The leader of Cuyahoga County's Republicans think his party has the best chance in 16 years to win a countywide office this year in the race for county commissioner, which would help bring the party out of the cold in Ohio's most Democratic area.

Cuyahoga Co. Republican Party chair Rob Frost said he believes Mayor Debbie Sutherland (R-Bay Village) can beat him Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones (D-Cleveland) because of Lawson Jones' connections to federally indicted Commissioner Jimmy Dimora.

Dimora and county auditor Jimmy Russo are under investigation for exchanging government jobs and contracts for personal favors.

A must read today is Mark Naymik’s analysis in the Plain Dealer: “Some prominent Ohio Democrats want Jimmy Dimora to resign as Cuyahoga County's party chairman, at least until a federal public corruption probe targeting him and County Auditor Frank Russo is concluded.”  Click here to read.

Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine is calling on Ohio treasurer Richard Cordray (D-Grove City) to return "scandal-tainted" campaign contributions totaling "more than $20,000" from Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo and Commissioner Jimmy Dimora.

The Cordray campaign says that Cordray never received the contributions in question.

Russo and Dimora were both prime targets in a federal public corruption probe that culminated in around 200 FBI and IRS agents executing search warrants at the Cuyahoga County administration building, data center, engineer's office and the homes of Russo and Dimora.

No charges have yet been filed against Russo or Dimora.

Cordray is running for Ohio Attorney General against former U.S. Attorney Michael Crites (R-Powell).

DeWine also called on Cordray to call for the resignation of Russo and Dimora.

Following the raids on the offices and homes of several Cuyahoga County officials last week by about 200 federal officers, Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine is now calling on presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to ask two of those officials to resign.

Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo and County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, both Democrats, were targeted last week as part of the federal corruption probe. DeWine said that Obama's visit to Ohio Tuesday is the perfect opportunity for him to speak out against the "culture of corruption," a term Democrats used against Ohio Republicans in 2006.

"These two public officials play a major role in Cuyahoga County politics, and Sen. Obama should decide right now whether he wants them associated with his campaign," DeWine said in a statement. "He should call for their resignations and demand that they and their associates immediately remove themselves from the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party while under the taint of scandal."

DeWine said later in the statement that he didn't expect Obama to "provide any bold leadership here." DeWine also called Obama a "Chicago politician," and said he's good at denouncing corrupt allies when it's "politically expedient."

As many as 200 agents from the IRS and FBI, including the entire Northeast Ohio IRS criminal unit, are involved in executing search warrants as part of an investigation of corruption in Cuyahoga County government.