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ORGANIZATION ISSUES MONEY/POLITICS NEWS INDEX |
Sawyer, Keith, McDaniel, Wood
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For immediate release Contacts: AKRON, OH -- At a point in the election season when campaigns may have a tendency to sling mud, the candidates in one Ohio congressional race want to assure voters in their district that those tactics are not in their plans. Today, the Ohio Project on Campaign Conduct announced that candidates for Ohio's 14th Congressional District have joined its code of conduct effort by reaching an agreement to fight fair. Democrat Tom Sawyer, Republican Rick Wood, Libertarian William McDaniel, Jr., and Natural Law Party candidate Walter Keith III have all vowed to remain committed to principles such as honesty, fairness, and responsibility, when campaigning through the election on November 7. "By reaching an agreement on a code of conduct, the candidates in this race are sending the message that they realize the importance voters place on issue-oriented, substantive campaigns," said Brad Rourke, vice president, public policy at the Institute for Global Ethics and Director of the Project on Campaign Conduct. The Project represents a partnership between the Institute and Ohio Citizen Action, the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer and environmental organization in Ohio. "By signing this code, candidates in the 14th Congressional District are setting an example other Congressional candidates should follow," said Laura Yeomans, research director for Ohio Citizen Action. Yeomans led negotiations between the candidates that resulted in the code signing. All four candidates expressed enthusiasm about the code. "I have always been committed to clean, issue-oriented campaigns," said Democratic candidate Sawyer. "And I will continue to abide by these high standards in this election." "I am grateful to the Ohio Project on Campaign Conduct and Ohio Citizen Action for taking a leading role in brokering this agreement between the candidates," said Republican candidate Wood. "I feel that the voters want straight talk and real solutions, rather than baseless accusations and half-truths." "Voters are turned off by negative campaigning," said Libertarian candidate McDaniel. "It is refreshing to see candidates banding together to stay civil and bring campaigns back to where our founding fathers meant them to be." "One of the themes of the Natural Law Party is conflict-free politics and taking advantage of the good ideas of everyone irrespective of party," said Natural Law Party candidate Keith. "Therefore a code of conduct would naturally support this theme." Highlights of the candidates' code include the following:
"In an era of negative campaigning, it is gratifying that the candidates in the 14th Congressional District have chosen to engage in a civil and productive debate," commented John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron and member of the Ohio Project's Advisory Council. Candidates in Ohio's 3rd and 11th districts have also signed similar codes of conduct. The Project on Campaign Conduct is seeking to negotiate such agreements in every Congressional district throughout the pilot states of Ohio and Washington. It is led by the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Maine and funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Joining in this effort to reduce negative campaigning and attack advertising in the 2000 electoral races are: the League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund; the Council for Ethics in Economics; The Kettering Foundation; Ohio Citizen Action; the Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron; and the Citizens League of Greater Cleveland. Voters have come to expect that most political campaigns will engage in the behavior they find offensive but also believe the conduct of candidates and campaigns can and should be better. This is among the most important conclusions resulting from a bipartisan poll of the American public conducted by the Project. Over a third of the citizens surveyed (39%) think that most or all candidates lie to the voters, and even more (43%) believe that they make unfair personal attacks. That percentage is similar to the percentage of Ohio voters who believe candidates lie, 46%, from a survey by the Project in 1998. "As we intensify our public awareness campaign, asking people to pay attention to the way candidates behave and to vote for clean campaigns, I am glad that another race has pledged to give them the opportunity to do so," said Project director Rourke. "Voters in Ohio's 14th Congressional District and throughout the state want the kind of vigorous debate on the issues of importance to them that can take place when a race is free of the unfair, illegitimate attacks that they despise." The Project on Campaign Conduct is working to change those expectations by encouraging voters to let candidates, the media, and other voters know that they care about clean campaigns. They do not expect and will not tolerate the mudslinging that has become commonplace in so many of today's campaigns. By paying attention and holding candidates accountable for their campaign behavior, the Project believes that voters can and will make a difference, improving the quality of political campaigns. The Project's free Voter Action Kit provides information about ways in which voters can be heard on and before election day and is available by calling 1-888-3GO-VOTE or by visiting the Project's web site. The Institute for Global Ethics, is a nonprofit organization promoting ethics through public discourse and practical action. The Institute, with offices in Camden, Maine and London, England was founded in 1990 and is supported by members throughout the world. It publishes a weekly online newsletter, Business Ethics Newsline and a quarterly periodical, Insights on Global Ethics, consults with corporations and educational institutions in the United States and overseas, and conducts frequent ethics seminars. ###
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