Auditor: Sykes (D) Civil Rights Suit Against Taylor (R) Allowed to Proceed

Eric at the great new blog Progress Ohio reports that a federal judge ruled this morning that State Auditor candidate Rep. Barbara Sykes (D-Akron) "has cause to proceed in her lawsuit alleging that her opponent [Rep.] Mary Taylor [R-Green] used a race-baiting push poll against her" in violation of a federal civil rights statute that prohibits conspiracy to deprive any person of equal protection under the laws. As Eric notes, "Taylor’s push poll asked voters whether they would be more willing or less willing to vote for Sykes if they knew she was President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus." The case will now proceed to the discovery phase "to allow Sykes to find out the impact and damages of the calls."

UPDATE: From a press release sent by the Sykes campaign:

Judge James Gwin of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Ohio ordered an expedited hearing for Friday, September 29th and found cause to proceed with discovery. Taylor’s campaign will have to comply by cooperating with depositions and releasing information to the court including:

1. A copy of the questions posed to persons called; and

2. A list of all individuals polled by the Taylor campaign.

Taylor’s campaign suspended the push poll after Sykes filed a federal lawsuit based on equal protection under the 14th amendment. The judge did not issue a temporary restraining order as requested.

“It is unfortunate that I had to go to a court of law in the year 2006 over race-baiting that one would have thought would be unacceptable in this day and age,” said Sykes.

I'll say.