YOUNGSTOWN GOP ad raises ire of Ryan campaign

Womer Benjamin's campaign says it had nothing to do with the ad.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio Republican Party is standing by a new television advertisement that uses images of the rubble at ground zero as the backdrop for an attack on Tim Ryan, a Democrat running for Congress.
Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said that the party stood behind the ad "100 percent," and that the images symbolized President Bush's war on terror. Mauk said he hadn't seen the ad and wasn't sure who created it.
In a press release, Ryan's campaign called for his opponent, Republican Ann Womer Benjamin, to "instruct her political allies to pull the ad immediately and apologize to the victims of the tragedy."
Ryan and Womer Benjamin are running for the 17th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ryan spokesman Pat Lowry called the ad "despicable." Ryan's campaign said it was paid for by the Ohio Republican Party.
"This is such an act of desperation ... a dishonorable act of desperation," he said.
Response
Womer Benjamin spokesman David All stressed that her campaign had nothing to do with the ad, which he hadn't seen. All said he wanted to see the ad before commenting further.
Lowry said the ad features a narrator questioning Ryan's positions on homeland security and the war on terrorism over images of the rubble that had been the World Trade Center towers.
Mauk said the ad points to the fact that Ryan has said he wouldn't have voted for the Congressional resolution that gave Bush the authority to attack Iraq.
"The real national tragedy is that Tim Ryan has said repeatedly ... that he does not support the president's war on terrorism," Mauk said.
Lowry responded that Ryan believes "there are a lot of questions about the war that have yet to be answered.
"The war should not be a campaign issue."
The release from the Ryan campaign states that Ryan supports the war on terrorism and increases in defense spending to address threats to homeland security.
hill@vindy.com