Judy Hanna for Ohio State Senate

In today's mail, I found a glossy full-color smear ad from the Ohio Republican Party:

"Lawmaker or lawbreaker? Vote No on Judy Hannah, " is written in red on the address side of the fold. The other side of the fold is an imposing photograph of the steps leading into the Ohio Assembly in Columbus with white lettering stating: IN th state Senate, We need a Lawmaker... Open the fold and we see a very ugly photograph of Judy, obviously doctored to look like a criminal ID photo. At the top in huge red letters: ...Not a Lawbreaker. Underneath her face in bright red letters: Guilty.

The rest of the inside states:

The Facts:

On September 7, 2006, the bi-partisan Ohio Elections Commission ruled that OHio Senate candidate Judy Hanna, violated Ohio election laws.

Hanna was found guilty of making false and misleading statements to voters.

Source: Ohio Elections Commission, September 7, 2006, Case #2006E-026.

How can we send Judy Hanna to be a Lawmaker when she's a proven Lawbreaker?

On November 7th, vote NO on Judy Hanna.

So what's the deal here? What heinous crime has Judy committed? I had a chance to talk to Judy over the summer. She volunteered the information that she was going to be brought up before the Ethics commission because some of her campaign literature had left out the "for" in the slogan ``Hanna, state senator, 27th district.'' It was an inadvertant mistake. When she found out that she was in error, she immediately had a new web site created and new campaign materials printed. She certainly wasn't trying to claim that she was already state senator. How absurd would that be! We all know who our current state senator is -- Kenneth Coughlin, and it is definitely time to retire him and a whole bunch of Republicans.

So anyway, Coughlin turned her into the ethics board who found her in violation but refused to fine her or press any charges. In other words, they saw no intent to fool the public. (Akron Beacon Journal report here.)

Polls show newcomer Judy in a dead heat with incumbent Republican Coughlin. Check out the committees he's on and ask yourself, how has Ohio done in these areas during the long years of Republican control:

From his web site: Senator Coughlin is Chairman of the Health, Human Services & Aging Committee. He also serves on the Energy & Public Utilities Committee and the Highways & Transportation Committee. He is also a commissioner representing Ohio on the Midwestern Higher Education Compact.

You can go to Judy's web site and check out her background and her experience. She looks like just the woman we need in politics around here. Donate a few bucks while you are at the site. The only way to take away corporate control of our elected officials is to get a bunch of the little folks to toss in what they can afford to donate. One day, we may have public funded elections, but until then -- give to the little guys so they won't be beholden to the big boys.