If the Columbus Dispatch is down on Blackwell he's in real trouble.... The Dispatch urged in a Sept. 6 editorial that the four debates between Strickland and Blackwell dispense with the petty attacks and instead be an airing of different approaches to solving Ohio's economic slump, school funding and other issues critical to the state's future. For the most part, the debates have been that. But, because of Blackwell's poor judgment, the debates ended on a sour note.
Mud splashes back
Blackwell errs by firing tired accusations at opponent Strickland
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell didn't do his campaign or the Republican ticket he leads any favors by dredging up old stories about his opponent, Democrat Ted Strickland.
Absent any new revelations, these accusations are leftovers from Strickland's congressional races and from Bryan Flannery, Strickland's Democratic primary opponent this year. U.S. Rep. Strickland, of Lisbon, already has answered the charges, and so far Blackwell's campaign hasn't introduced anything new that calls into question Strickland's integrity.
Campaign mudslinging worsens every year. Candidates, particularly those trailing in the polls, roll out accusations in the final weeks because they see that as a way to reverse the momentum. Voters can change that by voting against candidates who "go nuclear" against their opponents.
Is it too much to ask of a candidate for Ohio's highest office to conduct himself with dignity, class and responsibility?
Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell's latest dollop of mud concerns a Strickland aide who was convicted in Athens in 1994 of public indecency. Strickland has said that he did not know of the aide's crime when he later hired him, and no one has offered evidence to contradict this.
Stacy Hinners of Cincinnati, the aide's attorney, said her client received psychological treatment after his conviction and now is a husband and father working in Chicago. Although some blogs have identified him, The Dispatch won't do so because his conviction was expunged in 2002 by an Athens County court.
The only fair criticism of Strickland -- and it has the benefit of 20/20 hindsight -- is that he didn't independently investigate the aide's background during his 1998 re-election campaign after receiving an anonymous letter mentioning the indecency charge. Strickland said he discounted the accusation after the aide denied it.
Blackwell, using the final of four debates Monday as his forum, also resurrected a worn-out accusation that Strickland refused to condemn sexual relations between adults and children. Strickland, who is a psychologist and ordained minister, explained in 1999 why he voted "present" instead of `'yes" on a congressional resolution condemning an article by the American Psychological Association that suggested sometimes sex between adults and children might be positive. Strickland said he abstained during the vote because he differed with a section of the resolution that said sexually abused children cannot become healthy, affectionate adults.
This mudslinging is a diversion from the real issues affecting Ohioans.
See: http://www.dispatch.com/...