Bob Taft

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Robert Alphonso Taft III (born January 8, 1942) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 67th governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Ohio secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981. Taft is a member of the prominent Taft political family; his father was Senator Robert Taft Jr., his grandfather was Senate majority leader Robert A. Taft, and his great-grandfather was President William Howard Taft. He was raised in Cincinnati and graduated from Yale University, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He represented the 65th district in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981, then served as a Hamilton County commissioner from 1981 to 1990. After an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 1986, he was elected secretary of state in 1990 and reelected in 1994. Taft won the 1998 Ohio gubernatorial election against Democrat Lee Fisher by 5 percentage points and was reelected in 2002, defeating challenger Tim Hagan by more than 19 points. During his first term, Taft focused on economic development and education reform and maintained high approval ratings. In 2005, amid the Coingate scandal, he was indicted on four misdemeanor charges related to undisclosed gifts and illegal campaign contributions, becoming the first sitting Ohio governor charged with a crime. He pleaded no contest, was fined $4,000, and remained in office until the end of his second term in 2007. After leaving office, Taft became a faculty member at the University of Dayton beginning in 2007.