Backers of TV ad implying Ohio justice is crooked remain cloaked

Thursday, October 19, 2000

By T.C. BROWN

and SANDY THEIS
PLAIN DEALER REPORTERS

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COLUMBUS - It looks like a political ad, sounds like a political ad and tries to persuade those who see it that Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick is crooked.

But the people behind the 30-second television spot argue the ad is not about politics, it’s about education, so the names of those paying for the commercial don’t have to be made public.

Resnick yesterday called the ad a false "vicious attack" and urged the special interests behind it to come forward.

"To suggest that I am, or ever have been, influenced by campaign contributions is simply not true," she said.

The Ohio Elections Commission is scheduled to hear arguments today from those who contend the ad is a false, thinly veiled campaign, as well as from those who say it is constitutionally protected political speech.

The commercial raises important political and constitutional questions.

%%JUMP%%RESNICK/4-B It is quickly becoming the most contentious issue in this year’s Ohio Supreme Court race between Resnick and her challenger, Cleveland Republican Judge Terrence O’Donnell of the 8th District Ohio Court of Appeals.

The $1.7 million ad campaign features Lady Justice peeking from beneath her blindfold to see which side is giving campaign donations. She sides with the givers as an announcer asks, "Is justice for sale in Ohio?"

A Chamber of Commerce-backed group known as Citizens for a Strong Ohio is paying for the commercials. Because the ads don’t directly advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate, the group contends it is not a campaign commercial and does not have to follow financial disclosure laws, said Chip McConville, the group’s spokesman.

The government watchdog group, Common Cause of Ohio, insists that the timing and content of the ad make it a political commercial that advocates Resnick’s defeat.

Common Cause is asking the elections commission to force the group to list its donors and to conclude that the commercials are false and misleading.

O’Donnell, who issued a public pledge to run a clean campaign, said he had no connection to the chamber group, but he made it clear he had no plans to ask the group to change its tactics.

"If I had control of [the ads] I don’t know if I would do it or wouldn’t do it, but this is a situation I don’t have control of," O’Donnell said. "I am not investigating it, I am not responsible for it and I am not engaging in it."

Asked if such ads taint the public’s view of the judiciary, O’Donnell said the independent campaigns could be held accountable through "libel or slander lawsuits."

A chorus of Democrats has criticized the ad.

"If your child came home and told you a story that has the truth quotient this ad has, you’d wash his mouth out with soap," Sen. Eric Fingerhut, a Cleveland Democrat, said during a news conference this week.

Republicans had little to say.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, who has a history of advocating for integrity and civility in the court, would not return calls seeking comment.

And Gov. Bob Taft, who has spoken out in the past on the need for campaign disclosure, was silent on the disclosure issue but stressed that he did not believe any campaign laws were being broken.

Plain Dealer reporter Robert Vickers contributed to this article.

E-mail: tcbrown@plaind.com

Phone: (216) 999-4213

E-mail: stheis@plaind.com

Phone: (216) 999-4213

©2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.