Cong OH-18: Padgett (R) Stands By House Speaker Hastert

The campaign of city law director Zack Space (D-Dover) has sent out a stinging press release about the unwillingness of State Sen. Joy Padgett (R-Coschocton) to call on House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to step down over Predatorgate, and revealing that Padgett failed to stand up for abused children in the Ohio General Assembly in 2003:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who has been accused of ignoring warnings about former Congressman Mark Foley's inappropriate interactions with congressional pages, pulled out of Padgett's fundraiser that was scheduled for today. Padgett, who was supposed to hold a $250 per couple fundraiser with Speaker Dennis Hastert today, still has not returned a $10,000 campaign contribution from Hastert's Keep Our Majority PAC.

Padgett's unwillingness to call on Hastert to step down from leadership for his neglect in the Foley scandal, once again shows that she will be part of the politics as usual in Washington. In an interview with the Associated Press she confirmed that even after the scandal, she would welcome Hastert saying, "I have not disinvited him."

According to Zack Space, "Padgett continues to represent the wrong kind of leadership for the 18th District. Despite mounting evidence of Hastert's negligence in the handling of 'Foleygate,' Padgett maintains a wait-and-see approach. It's hard to ignore the handwriting on the wall; Hastert looked the other way when the safety of children was at sake."

He continued, "A Congressman should be protecting our children from sexual predators, not preparing for $500 photo-ops with political patrons who cover up this type of criminal behavior."

Hastert is not alone in failing to stand up for children. In March of 2006, as a State Senator, Joy Padgett voted for a watered down sexual abuse bill that was stripped of a 'look back' provision that allowed victims to hold churches accountable for covering up past abuses. According to an article in The Columbus Dispatch on March 30th, under political pressure Joy Padgett and her Republican colleagues backed down from a standoff with the Ohio House that would have included the 'look back' provision in the bill.

"Joy Padgett chose political expediency over principal. Much like Dennis Hastert, Joy Padgett failed to take the strongest stand against sexual predators, and the last thing we need in Congress is another go along, get along politician," said Space.

The missing look-back provision would have given victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file a lawsuit for abuse that occurred as long as 35 years ago.