How much does Strickland's office hate e-mail right now?

First we have the Troopergate e-mails between Chief Counsel Kent Markus and Public Safety Director Cathy Collins-Taylor that show, to put it lightly, very suspicious meddling in a criminal case.

And now, more e-mails confirming involvement of the Governor's office in using Ohio taxpayer dollars to create a job in order to clear out a Democratic primary.

From the Cincy Enquirer:

E-mails between the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and a top lawyer in Gov. Ted Strickland’s office indicate the governor’s staff was more active in helping Cincinnati Councilwoman Laketa Cole land a high-paying state job than previously reported – a move that averted a Democratic primary the party wanted to avoid.

For instance, a Feb. 4. e-mail from Christine Emch Thompson, deputy legal counsel in the governor’s office, sent to PUCO and three other state agencies, read: “I am interested to know if you have anything in your agency around 70-80 k range based on the attached (Cole) resume?”

In a March 1 e-mail – four days before the deadline for Cole to get out of the primary – Thompson persisted: “Any word back on this?” Thompson wrote to Kathleen C. Madden, an administrator with the Department of Administrative Services. “We really want to move it along.”

Later in the article Strickland spokeswoman Amanda Wurst states the Governor's office involvement in matters like this "is not unique".

Um, Amanda. That's not exactly something you want to publicize.

Either way, this kind of clear abuse of the office is something that has become a clear trend in the Strickland Administration. You'd think a Governor who rode into office on the tails of a political scandal would be more careful and go out of his way to keep his nose clean.

Instead, it seems to have only gotten worse.