Monday, November 06, 2006

In the Senate 27th, Last Minute Crap from Coughlin

Came home tonight to find a new robocall on my answering machine:



The call reiterates the long-debunked assertion that Judy Hanna was a "leader" in the Green Party.

I've been meaning to blog more on this race and just haven't gotten to it. I was going to just live with the regret and hope everything works out OK for Judy tomorrow.

But now I'm mad. I'm sure "Megan" is entirely fictitious, just as I'm sure it's a coincidence that "Megan" shares a name with Judy's campaign manager. Apparently the Ohio Repubs have launched more than one of these faux-Dem attack calls tonight, based on this entry on BSB.

Kevin Coughlin has been one of my betes noir for years. In particular, he's been a stated enemy of school funding reform. In the past he has claimed that the State is doing a fine job of supporting schools and it's just the fault of local school districts that they keep asking for levies. Now that he's in an election fight, he's Mr. Funding Reform, but in fact, he's not that guy.

Judy has gotten a lot of grief, including from this blog, for things she has written or said. Fact is, she often uses a word of phrase just a shade off from her meaning. Having spoken to her on many occasions, I'm convinced that she's just one of those people whose brain races ahead of her tongue or pen. In fact, she's very bright, and is committed to education, election integrity and the environment. No wonder Republicans are pulling out the stops to keep her out.

I'm hoping that people getting these calls remember the Ted Strickland robo supporting her that went out over the weekend. "Megan" might think Ted good/Judy bad, but Ted doesn't think so.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm voting for Strickland but not Judy Hanna."

"Paid for by RSCC"

I wonder how many people out there are going to know who that group is? I don't think using an acronym is specific enough identification.

(Is that even the Ohio GOP campaign committee's name?)

Anonymous said...

Must be this group:

Republican State Central & Executive Committee

http://www.ohiogop.org/Committee.aspx

You have to be pretty sophisticated to recognize who that group is based on the acronym. How embarrassing for them that they have to knife their own top-of-the-ticket candidate, Ken Blackwell, in order to try to fool people into voting for downticket Republicans.

Scott Piepho said...

It's the Republican Senate Caucus Committee. No, I don't think a lot of people know what it is -- I in fact may be off on the exact translation of the acronym. I think it's probably legal as a disclosure statement, tho Staff is right that they have crossed the line if "Megan" doesn't exist.

I am hoping that hearing the "R" is enough for most people to know something is afoot.

Village Green said...

It sure is worth a lot of money to someone or some corporation(s) to keep Kevin Coughlin in as Ohio state senator. Lots of contracts to give out to lots of Very Important Patrons. Have received more mail from the Coughlin campaign than from any other, and now this.

Any word on how this race is polling?

Scott Piepho said...

VG:

We can bet that the race is polling tight in the Repub internals for them to be dumping money into this. I also got a mailer from Kev over the weekend. I've heard that Judy is polling well, but no one will divulge officially what "well" means.

Anonymous said...

Coughlin released a poll last week showing he had a double digit lead.

Hanna's Green affiliation has not been debunked. It's been confirmed. She tried to get the Elections Commission to take the ads off the air, but they voted unanimously to dismiss her complaint, saying that Coughlin's ads are true.

I think the video of Hanna introducung herself as the Green party coordinator for Summit County and the GReen PArty filing with the board of elections designating her as their official rep in Summit did her in.

Scott Piepho said...

Mike:

Judy Hanna worked with the Green Party in the 2004 recount effort only. To work in that, you either had to work with the Greens or the Libertarians. Lots of Dems did the same. If you had clicked through the link, you would have known that.

The call makes it sound like people have a problem with Judy's work with the Greens. It's not true. That's what makes this sleazy.

On the other hand, if you want to introduce me to Megan, I might be persuaded otherwise.