Going Negative: Ads attempt to link GOP judicial candidates to big business
After undergoing major media criticism for considering a proposed direct-mail campaign attacking two Republican candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court, leaders of the political action committee Citizens for an Independent Court vowed just two weeks ago to junk the proposal.
Yesterday, the PAC began airing commercials in all major Ohio media markets that link the candidates to big business. The ad shows men laughing inside a limousine versus a family seated at a picnic table. "Their side," a voice says, linked to video with the limo. "Maureen O'Connor and Eve Stratton put large corporations ahead of working families."
Republican Ohio Supreme Court candidates Evelyn Stratton and Maureen O'Connor yesterday asked their Democratic opponents to request that a negative television ad be pulled off the air.
So what do the Democrat candidates have to say about these ads, which are designed to benefit them? Janet Burnside, who had not seen the ad but had the transcript read to her, would not say if she will denounce the commercial. Tim Black, a trial attorney, declined to comment on the request, other than to claim he hadn't seen the commercial.
Commentary by Chad D. Baus:
Citizens for an Independent Court, a group made up of trial lawyers and union leaders, has clearly decided their promise wasn't a promise, invoking memories of other such lawyers trying to determine what the definition of "is" is.
These big business charges (and even the name of the PAC that is paying for them) ring a bit hollow, considering the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Toledo Blade, Canton Repository, and the Columbus Dispatch have all pointed out the very reason they are endorsing Stratton & O'Connor is because they DO represent the best opportunity for an independent court.
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