With Ohio gubernatorial candidate Republican Ken Blackwell trailing by double digits in almost every poll, his campaign has tried to link his opponent to child sex predators, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. The campaign of Democrat Ted Strickland said the GOP ought to be “ashamed.” In a televised debate, and again in a press release, Blackwell charged that Strickland should have known that a man arrested for exposing himself to children was on his congressional payroll. He suggested Strickland backed a U.S. House resolution supported by a group supporting pedophilia.
Blackwell’s campaign released three Athens, Ohio, police reports, with identifying information blacked out, to claim that Strickland had “covered up” an aide’s 1994 arrest, failing to fire him. “It is fair turf because it does call into question Ted Strickland’s management ability and his decision-making,” said John McClelland of the Ohio Republican Party. Marc Mezibov, a Cincinnati attorney, said he plans to take legal action against anyone who causes harm to his client. Mezibov said. “We are concerned that a record which has been judicially ordered as expunged, and the arrest records and related records sealed, has been disseminated by a public official. That is a matter which we do not take lightly.”
Link: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/NEWS01/610180374