Ohio News |
Article published Thursday, October 31, 2002
Insurers back ads touting Stratton
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - Insurance companies continue to be
the major benefactors of an independent radio issue-ad campaign
designed to encourage the re-election of Ohio Supreme Court Justice
Evelyn Stratton on Nov. 5.
Citizens for a Strong Ohio, a
nonprofit issue-advocacy arm of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce,
voluntarily disclosed who funded the latest two ads saying Justice
Stratton "makes Ohio proud."
Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 28,
the group raised $587,500, contributing to a total raised for the
radio effort of a more than $1 million.
Insurance interests
represented $290,000, or 49.4 percent, of the amount raised in the
last month. The biggest single contributors were Nationwide
Insurance at $150,000 and the American Council of Life Insurers at
$100,000.
All of the latest contributions, including $75,000
from Procter & Gamble Co. and $70,000 from Worthington
Industries, were from businesses. In all, insurance interests have
funneled $525,000 into the effort, 51.5 percent of the total $1
million raised.
Strong Ohio was criticized in 2000 for using
$4 million in anonymous donations from business and insurance
interests for TV ads critical of Justice Alice Robie Resnick, an
Ottawa Hills Democrat. With its decision to disclose its backers
this time, a new anonymously funded business group, Informed
Citizens of Ohio, has fill the gap with a TV campaign in support of
Justice Stratton.
The justice faces a Democratic challenge
from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Janet Burnside.
Lawyer association critical of Stratton
The Ohio
Employment Lawyers Association held a press conference this week to
critique Justice Stratton’s voting record on 37 tort, breach of
contract, discrimination, and workers’ compensation policy cases
since she took office in 1996.
It determined that her
interpretation of the law favored the employers’ positions 28
times.
"Contrary to public statements made by Justice
Stratton that she has voted favorably in a majority of employment
cases before the court, she has, in fact, voted against employees in
favor of employers 76 percent of the time, frequently being the lone
dissenter against a majorities in favor of employers, and she has
never dissented in a case when the employee won," said Frederick M.
Gittes, the association’s public affairs coordinator and president
of its national parent.
Justice Stratton has pointed instead
to a study done by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, which shows that
she cast the pro-business vote in 20 employment cases reviewed
between 1999 and 2001 58 percent of the time.
Mr. Gittes said
the association’s report did not amount to an endorsement of Justice
Stratton’s Democratic opponent, Judge Burnside. He has, however,
personally contributed to Judge Burnside’s campaign.
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