Auditor: Sykes (D) Adds OEC Complaint to Federal Civil Rights Suit Against Taylor (R)

State auditor candidate Rep. Barbara Sykes (D-Akron) has filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission over the same push polling by opponent Rep. Mary Taylor (R-Green) that is the subject of her federal civil rights lawuit filed in Cleveland on Wednesday.

In the lawsuit Sykes charges her opponent, her opponent's polling company, and ten unnamed others with a conspiracy to incite racism. That suit is based on the part of the poll that asks how the respondent's opinion of Sykes is affected by learning that she is the head of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Thanks to Russell of BSB, the seven-page complaint can be downloaded here.

The lawsuit alleges that "in an effort to bolster sagging poll numbers, Defendant Taylor has resorted to a morally repulsive form of race baiting intended to incite racial bigotry." Sykes, as quoted in the Akron Beacon Journal, said "I can compete on qualifications and ideas. Race baiting I can't compete with, it's unfair. I just want it to stop."

Last night a Sykes campaign staffer told me that Sykes filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission about the poll yesterday. In addition to the black-caucus question, the OEC complaint targets a part of the poll that refers to Sykes having been reimbursed by local government for about $400 in babysitting expenses for Sykes' children. The staffer tells me that Sykes has obtained verified evidence that the premise of the question is false.

As of last night, Sykes had not yet received word on whether the judge in the federal case had signed the requested temporary injunction against the polling, or set the matter for a hearing on her request for a preliminary injunction.