OH-02 is the red-leaning district in which Paul Hackett (D) did very well in the famous 2005 special election, and in which Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) very nearly ousted national embarrassment Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt (R-Loveland) in 2006, a race that went to a recount before it was decided by about 2,500 votes. Dr. Wulsin is a terrific candidate and she is back to take another shot at Schmidt this year.
I learned from the Wulsin campaign yesterday that a spurious ethics complaint, which adversaries had turned into a sleazy assault on her character during the 2006 congressional contest and again during the primary early this year, has been closed -- hopefully bringing to an end to the despicable and baseless attacks.
You may have seen videos or links about this smear campaign, portraying Dr. Wulsin as some kind of gruesome mad doctor involved in evil-sounding "malariotherapy." The dismissal of the ethics complaint ought to put that nonsense to rest, but those videos and blog posts are still out there so I'm hoping to get the word out via this diary.
Details after the flip.
Cross-posted at Ohio Daily Blog.
Right-wing bloggers have continually flogged the ethics complaint against Dr. Wulsin (copy of the one-page complaint here), filed with the State Medical Board of Ohio in 2006 by a little-known Massachusetts-based group that purports to be a medical fraud watchdog. The complaint hung upon the slenderest of reeds -- Dr. Wulsin had performed a literature review in 2004 regarding controversial field testing in Africa by the Cincinnati-based Heimlich Institute of a procedure intended to boost the immune systems of HIV-positive individuals by exposing them to malaria, but did not participate in the testing and was promptly let go when she turned in a report critical of the procedure -- but the complaint was still technically pending during the primary early this year.
Dr. Wulsin's primary opponent Steve Black (D-Indian Hill), desperate at the end of an expensive but sagging campaign, turned the medical complaint into a phenomenally lurid television ad. The macabre scare tactic utterly failed, as Dr. Wulsin defeated Black by 28 points in the three-way contest and garnered over 15,000 more votes than Republican incumbent Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt (R-Loveland) in the three-way GOP contest in this red-leaning district.
Here is a statement from Wulsin campaign spokesman Kevin Franck, confirming that the ethics complaint is dead in the water:
"Dr. Wulsin voluntarily met with the State Medical Board of Ohio on April 24, 2008 to discuss an anonymous ethics complaint. The Board found that there was no merit whatsoever to the complaint and declined any further action on the issue. These false allegations represented the lowest form of sleazeball politics. Fortunately for the voters of the 2nd district, the truth prevailed."
"The real issue in this campaign is Jean Schmidt. In her first full term in Congress, Schmidt has voted against increasing benefits for American veterans, providing healthcare to poor children and reducing interest rates on student loans. Those are facts worthy of debate."
Dr. Wulsin has a distinguished career of service and leadership in the field of public health, so it is especially gratifying to be able to spread the word that the attacks on her medical ethics were completely groundless.