43
Ohio Bar Association asks O'Donnell to pull ad
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Bar Association asked a candidate for Supreme Court to remove a television ad deemed contrary to a “clean campaign pledge” he signed earlier.
The group’s Election Campaign Advertising and Monitoring Committee determined the ad by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell crossed the line and “falsely implied justice is for sale in Ohio.”
“The committee found that your ad includes the phrase, ‘she is in the pocket of big utilities,’ and then shows cash behind the candidate’s picture,” the group wrote in relation to an ad attacking incumbent Justice Judith French. “Therefore, the committee now asks you to immediately remove this ad from the air and refrain from including statements that impugn the court’s integrity and imply that justice is for sale in your campaign materials.”
It added, “Ohioans are better served by learning about judicial qualifications and experience.”
O’Donnell is challenging French, an incumbent appointed to the bench by Gov. John Kasich.
Both have received “highly recommended” ratings from the state bar association, and both signed a clean campaign pledge, agreeing to “take personal responsibility for the content of advertisements or statements they or their authorized committee issue” and “publicly disavow ads from other sources that impugn the integrity of the judicial system or the integrity of a candidate for Supreme Court.”
The O’Donnell ad blasts French for supporting a ruling that favored American Electric Power and accepting campaign donations from the utility.
The head of the Ohio Republican Party praised the bar association’s position on the ad.
“John O’Donnell has proved that he should not be trusted to serve on the Supreme Court of Ohio,” Chairman Matt Borges said in a released statement. “He has deliberately lied to the voters and has been condemned by his colleagues.”
But in a separate released statement, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern called the ad “factual.”
“This factual ad merely references what multiple papers have noted is very troubling about Gov. Kasich’s appointee’s short record on the court, something that the First Amendment gives Judge O’Donnell the right to highlight information about his opponent that both his campaign and newspapers believe is relevant for voters to know about the race,” he said.