90 cutlass supreme coupe

Just assumed ownership of this car, for the second time, and when I turned the key to start it, there was a faint smoke emitted from the steering column. any ideas?

I would bet your ignition switch took a dump on you.

it's probably tied into that in some way, but it still cranked over and started, so i know it didn't dump out completely.

I had that happen in an old 74 ford p/u I had in high school. In that instance the steering wheel wore thru the insulation on a wire from the turn signals. It blew some fuses, and I had no turn sigs for a while. If I remember right, it kinda screwed up quite a few things in there.