Columbiana Co. GOP chairman criticizes Dems

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Dave Johnson

By David Skolnick

Columbiana County Republican Chairman David Johnson is warning John McCain supporters that the Barack Obama campaign and “radical groups” that support him “are doing their level best to steal this election.”

In a letter sent primarily to Columbiana County Republicans, Johnson strongly criticized the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a voter outreach group.

They are “signing up folks from homeless shelters, from inner-city projects, from bars and from virtually anywhere else they can find a willing soul to register and to vote,” Johnson wrote of Obama’s campaign and ACORN.

Alex Goepfert, an Ohio Democratic Party spokesman, criticized Johnson for the letter.

“The clear appearance here is that of a cynical attempt to play upon old divisions in the hopes of distracting voters from the real issues in the election,” he said.

It’s the latest volley between the two major political party candidates about race and ACORN.

Johnson said Friday that he stands by what he wrote in the letter. Johnson also said he strongly objected to any implication that he’s a racist because he wrote about “inner-city projects.”

He points out that he was a regional chairman of J. Kenneth Blackwell’s failed 2006 gubernatorial campaign, and that he contributed money to the campaigns of Blackwell and Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, who are both black.

“It is not a racial thing for me,” Johnson said. “My record speaks for itself.”

In the letter, Johnson asked Republicans to help turn out the Columbiana County vote for McCain by volunteering time to make telephone calls, help mail campaign literature and canvass neighborhoods.

Obama’s campaign and ACORN “are working around the clock to try to steal this election. We must counter this by merely getting our side to the polls ... or getting them an absentee ballot,” Johnson wrote.

As for ACORN, Johnson said the organization, which supports Obama, is accused of filing fraudulent voter registration forms in a number of states.

The McCain campaign released a Web ad on Friday attacking Obama’s involvement with ACORN.

“At a time when Ohioans are yearning for vision and leadership, the McCain campaign and their allies in the Ohio Republican Party have driven this race into the gutter with an endless mudslide of angry, hate-filled, personal attacks,” Goepfert said.