Ohio Bd of Ed 7th: Fink (R) Unloads Smear Campaign Against Sawyer (D)

In yet another descent into mud-slinging by desperate Republican candidates at the end of this election cycle, Debbie Owens Fink (R) is dumping much of her extraordinarily large war chest (about $90,000, incredibly huge for this kind of race) into an ugly and misleading negative campaign of mailers and robo-calls, claiming that Tom Sawyer (D) failed to pay taxes while he was a member of Congress. This distorted charge is debunked in an editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal here, explaining that Sawyer and his wife did fall behind in paying state income taxes through an oversight but paid the bill when the error was discovered.

The editorial points out that this tactic (a slick, below-the-belt mailer at the last minute, when the adversary doesn't have time to adequately respond) is typical of the notorious Summit County Republican Party boss Alex Arshinkoff. Fink is financed in this nastiness to the tune of $10,000 by David Brennan, the operator of academically-challenged but profitable charter schools. Brennan's schools bleed millions from public school districts every year, and he bankrolls Republican campaigns in order to keep this cash cow mooing to the detriment of Ohio's children.

Fink is a proponent of requiring Ohio teachers to criticize the theory of evolution and teach junk science like "creationism" or "intelligent design." She dismisses respected biologists as kooks and disregards the consensus of the scientific community as so much baloney. She is a tool of extremists and special interests, and she's trying to pull off this election with underhanded tactics. It's now up to the voters to prevent her from getting away with it.