One day after a Kentucky newspaper reported about the former blog of a lawyer named to head a new government office, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher scrapped plans for the office.

Fletcher had named lawyer C. Dodd Harris IV to direct a new Office of Merit System Referrals, which would look for political bias in merit job recommendations.

On Sunday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Harris is a Republican partisan who regularly attacked Democrats on his now-disabled blog Ipse Dixit. Harris discontinued the blog earlier this year.

Yesterday, the governor scrapped plans for the office, the Herald-Leader reported. The administration said its decision was not in response to the story about the blog.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.