Panel dismisses complaint in race

The complaint said the information in the ad didn't appear in a newspaper.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- A panel of the Ohio Elections Commission dismissed a complaint from Republican Mary Taylor that accused Democratic state auditor candidate Barbara Sykes of making a false statement in a campaign ad.
Commissioners Catherine Cunningham, William Ogg and Harvey Shapiro unanimously dismissed the complaint Thursday at a hearing.
Taylor is challenging Sykes for the state auditor's job.
The complaint said that a Sykes television commercial contained statements allegedly from the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper that never appeared in the paper.
In its complaint, the Taylor campaign says the quotation: "Taylor ... kowtowing to party bosses cost taxpayers" never appeared in the newspaper on the date cited.
The quote had appeared in ads that began airing around the state this week. The general election is Nov. 7.
Percy Squire, a lawyer representing the Sykes campaign, said the Sykes campaign simply made errors both in the date cited as well as the wording of the quote.
What was in newspaper
The actual wording, from an editorial related to the creation of a Summit County judgeship, referred to both Taylor and John H. Widowfield, both state representatives from suburban Akron, as well as Alex Arshinkoff, the Summit County Republican Party chairman.
The editorial said, in part, "... their kowtowing to the party boss costs taxpayers in the form of escalating expenses of visiting judges."
"This really boils down to a concern over two typographical errors," Squire told the panel.
Squire, a Youngstown native, also told the panel the Sykes campaign was correcting those ads and one other error and was reissuing the campaign advertising. Sykes is a state representative from Akron.