Congressional Races: News and Notes UPDATED

Items of interest in Ohio's Congressional races:

Senate: Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Avon) has an excellent new commercial out today. Watch it here. The ad contrasts Brown's support for tax cuts for the middle class with the support by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Cedarville) for tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the wealthy.

DeWine also has a new one out, called "Independent," that uses quotes from newspapers to portray him as "courageous" and an "independent thinker" and "problem solver" -- exactly what he is not. The man voted for the Bush agenda 96% of the time his first term and has supported all of Bush's wingnut judicial nominations, and Karl Rove calls him a "loyal stalwart." Does DeWine calling himself an independent really fool anyone, especially with Bush zipping into the state to raise money for him all the time? In any event, the ad has another inaccuracy built into it, aside from the basic assertions being wrong. The ad makes it seem like the Dispatch called DeWine "courageous," when actually it was a person quoted in the paper.

2nd District: The campaign of Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) issued a press release today pointing out that an op-ed recently published by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) is almost identical to a press release issued by Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) on July 10. Thus, Schmidt adds plagiarism to her recent record of documented falsahoods, including false claims on her campaign web site for which she has been sanctioned. "If we can't trust Jean Schmidt to give us her own opinions on basic political questions, then we can't trust her to represent us in Congress," said Wulsin. "This blatant act of plagiarism isn't just embarrassing, it's downright insulting to the voters in this district. Jean Schmidt has absolutely nothing original to say. She can only regurgitate what the Republican Party tells her to say."

5th District: Robin Weirauch (D-Napoleon) is heading out on a Tour to Clean Up Congress. She'll be spending a day in each of the following areas to talk to as many people as we can, and blogging about her travels here:

September 20, Bryan/Montpelier
September 21, Fostoria
September 23, Bucyrus
September 24, Norwalk
September 25, Fremont
September 26, Tiffin
September 27, Defiance
September 28, Perrysburg
September 30, Woodville/Gibsonburg
October 1, Wauseon
October 2, Upper Sandusky/Sycamore
October 3, Napoleon

Weirauch has raised almost $2,000 specifically for radio advertising. Click here to support her radio drive.

13th District: Scott at Word of Mouth Blog has an amazing post up about Craig Foltin (R-Lorain). Foltin indicated on the Cleveland Plain Dealer blog "Openers" that he already has a buyer for the closed Ford plant. After Scott contacted Lorain officials for more information, that part of the PD post was scrubbed. What's going on??? Saving the good news for maximum political advantage, or was it an untrue statement, or what? UPDATE: Foltin responds, claiming that he pulled the paragraph because he didn't want to jinx a potential purchase of the plant. So why did he say he "had a buyer"?

14th District: Lew Katz (D-Chesterfield) will be at Gaynor Family Farm, 6556 Dawsey Road, Rock Creek, Ohio 44084 tonight from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tomorrow he's having lunch with the Lake County Democratic Women's Club at Cappelli's, Comfort Inn on Rt. 306 in Mentor, and then he marches in the Grape Jamboree Parade in Geneva at 1:30 to 3:00 pm. Sunday he'll address the congregation at Cleveland Church of Christ, 1035 East 105th St., Cleveland.

UPDATE - 15th District: Eric at Progress Ohio has amazing video of Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) avoiding seniors protesting the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D by crushing actual donut holes outside her office. Pryce staffers try to intimidate the protesters, and one says "I don't care about your statement." Precisely. Sign a petition here to say that you care about seniors' problems with Medicare Part D, and Pryce should care too.

18th District: I'm not sure where Russell at BSB got his information on this one, but he says that Law Director Zack Space (D-Dover) is leading State Sen. Joy Padgett (R-Coschocton) in a poll by 45% to 31%, with 24% undecided. Among people who recognize both candidates, Space leads 58% to 26%. Space is more popular among people who recognize him than Padgett is among people who recognize her.