When then-state Sen. Jeffry Armbruster started asking Bureau of Workers' Compensation officials about reducing rates for his own company, the discussion made his legislative aide so uncomfortable that she walked out of the meeting.
Armbruster evidently felt no such anxiety. Nor did officials at the scandal-scarred bureau hesitate to help Armbruster. At the time, he was vice chairman of a committee that dealt with most bureau-related legislation.
Bureau officials met with him in his Senate office at least twice early last year as he discussed reducing rates for Armbruster Energy Stores, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Dispatch. Other discussions took place over.....('the phone' was on the fifth page).....The Columbus Dispatch did not mention that Armbruster was an Ohio Republican until page 5! The Dispatch, always regarded as a friend of the Ohio GOP, just did not want to reveal that little tidbit that Armbruster was yet another Ohio Republican in trouble because of dealings with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation under the former Taft administration. The Republicans must have used the Ohio BWC as their own personal cash machine!