Outrageous Republican Ad Smears Dee Gillis With Outright Lies — Where Is The Public Backlash?

The Republican ad smearing Dee Gillis shows her as a cigar smoking, martini swilling politician who voted herself a big raise. The DDN article points out her vote "would actually cost her $13,078 annually in lost compensation."

The Republican ad smearing Dee Gillis shows her as a cigar smoking, martini swilling politician who voted herself a big raise. The DDN article points out her vote “would actually cost her $13,078 annually in lost compensation.”

I loved The Sunday DDN article written by Laura A. Bischoff and Lynn Hulsey — Law’s limbo means gloves off in hot race — about the outrageous lies told by the Republicans in the contest for the Ohio Senate’s fifth district.

Four years ago Republican Bill Beagle become senator for the fifth district by pouring money into negative ads against Democrat Fred Strahorn. Beagle raised only about $12,000 but the Republican Party and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee poured in over $900,000 more. Strahorn had only $341,089 to spend and couldn’t keep pace in the TV war. Beagle won 49,339 to 47,681.

Now seeking reelection Beagle has a strong challenger in former Tipp City mayor, Dee Gillis. The 1976 Ohio law that prohibited outright lies in political campaigns has recently been ruled unconstitutional and any restraint the law may have provided is now gone. The DDN article points to an ad produced by the Republicans that is almost funny in demonstrating how far a political party will go to slime an opponent. It is funny and also shameful — and in a democracy with any validity would cause such a howl of protest, it would backfire and work to hurt the Beagle campaign.

The DDN article says:

“Democrat Dee Gillis is a retired beauty salon owner and grandmother who served side by side with Republican Bill Beagle on the Tipp City Council. But their race for the 5th District Senate seat in Ohio has been anything but congenial.

An Ohio GOP-backed ad that hit mailboxes last week uses a doctored photo to paint Gillis as a cigar-smoking, martini-swilling politician who snatched a whopper pay raise at taxpayer expense as the city’s mayor. 

Gillis doesn’t smoke, isn’t keen on martinis and didn’t really vote herself a city pay raise. In fact, if she is re-elected and still on the council in 2016, her vote would actually cost her $13,078 annually in lost compensation.”

See my recent post:

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