Congressional Races: News and Notes

Senate: Sunday's Meet the Press debate is available online here. Selected video clips are also available here.

Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and wife of Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Avon), will discuss the Senate race on Wednesday, October 4th, at 12:30 p.m. in the first floor lounge of Kennedy Center at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. She will be introduced by 14th District Congressional candidate Lew Katz (D-Chesterland). Email SweeneyEA-at-hiram-dot-edu for more information.

1st District: John Cranley (D-Cincinnati) held a press conference today to call on Congress and opponent Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Cincinnati) to launch an independent investigation with a special prosecutor to discover what Republican House leaders (including Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)) knew regarding the Foleygate scandal, responding to news reports that such leaders knew about Foley’s activities up to a year ago. Cranley detailed how Boehner and Hastert changed their initial statements in response to Foley’s resignation Friday, and noted that Chabot is among the top five recipients of campaign money from Republican House leaders ($228,308 received as of June, 2006). For example, Chabot backed Boehner to be the new majority leader and took $10,000 from Boehner’s Freedom Project PAC after the resignation of Tom Delay last year.

2nd District: Vic Wulsin will appear at the "Voting Our Faith" event tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the Cintas Center, Xavier University, 1624 Herald Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio.

12th District: Yesterday former Congressman Bob Shamansky (D-Bexley) called on Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Genoa Twp.) to return $2000 in contributions from the leadership PAC of scandalized Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL). During the 2000 campaign, Tiberi accepted $2000 from Foley's Florida Republican Leadership PAC. "For someone who focuses on family values, Congressman Tiberi has an awful lot of ties to the GOP's most unsavory characters. As he has with contributions from other disgraced GOP figures like Bob Ney and Tom Noe, Pat should return Foley's tainted money immediately," said campaign manager Drew Tappan. "Foley's actions are despicable - and Pat must send a clear message that he and his party won't tolerate this sort of hypocritical behavior in the future."

14th District: Lew Katz (D-Chesterland) will appear in a taped interview on WEWS-5 TV (Cleveland) News tonight. The interview will air at approximately 6:15 p.m. Also, yard signs are now avialable. Sign up through the web site and have it delivered right to your door.

On Wednesday, Ohio 4th, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, Katz will be at a "Katz and Dogs" house party hosted by Phyllis Gulyas in Hiram, Ohio (6801 Hinsdale, two doors down from Bonney Castle). Email SweeneyEA-at-hiram-dot-edu for more information.

15th District: Yesterday Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) called on Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) to break her silence and tell Central Ohioans what and when she knew about the electronic communications between Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and a former page. However, Pryce told a Columbus Dispatch reporter on Saturday that she knew nothing until asked about it last week by a reporter. The Kilroy campaign responds: "If you take Pryce at her word, that the fourth ranking leader in Congress just found out about the Foley situation last week through a reporter, she still knew for a week and did nothing. She did not call for an investigation, she did not call on Foley to resign, she did not hold her colleagues accountable for their failure to take action, nor did she return the $5,000 in campaign cash Foley gave her in April," said campaign manager Scott Kozar. "She would rather us believe she is incompetent than complicit. Frankly, it stretches the bounds of credibility that she didn't know about this when the leadership knew about this as far back as last November."