You know I’m not fond of Ohio election conspiracy theories, but you don’t need a conspiracy to see conflict of interest in Ohio politicians. And there’s conflict aplenty in the case of Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor in 2006:

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell revealed Monday he accidentally invested in shares of voting-machine manufacturer Diebold Inc. last year, a period when he was sued by other manufacturers over contracts that Diebold was up for…. He said a manager of his investments account at Credit Suisse First Boston bought 178 shares of Diebold stock at $53.67 per share in January 2005….

January 2005 also was the month Blackwell ordered that counties should use optical-scan voting machines rather than more expensive touch-screen systems.

The North Canton-based company predicted it would earn less money in 2005 because of Blackwell’s decision. That didn’t stop Texas-based Hart Intercivic Inc. from suing, saying the order left two rivals, Diebold and Election Systems & Software, eligible for bidding.

Blackwell reversed his decision in April and announced a deal with Diebold of $2,700 per touch-screen machine.

That prompted a lawsuit from ES&S saying the decision eliminated the opportunity for counties to choose from more than one touch-screen vendor.

Blackwell has said the Diebold machines are the only electronic machines to meet federal and state standards under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

There are two possibilities here: Ken Blackwell knowingly invested in Diebold while making decisions favoring Diebold, or he couldn’t keep track of his own investments.

Do you want a corrupt governor or an incompetent governor?

Hint: It’s O.K. to answer “no” to both.