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Ohio News |
Article published Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Stratton rips ‘frivolous’ ad, wants it taken off the
air
(THE BLADE/ALLAN DETRICH)
Justice Evelyn Stratton
takes her case for re-election to the Ottawa Kiwanis Club.
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By FRITZ
WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER
Saying she was embarrassed and feared it might
harm her re-election campaign, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn
Stratton called yesterday for an independent organization to pull an
advertisement supporting her candidacy off the air.
The
30-second ad, sponsored by Informed Citizens of Ohio, a
business-backed nonprofit group fronted by Akron businessman David
Brennan, features two men posing as lawyers soliciting business.
Pitching their firm, they suggest that even those with frivolous
cases - they suggest one involving a dog getting killed in a
microwave oven - could mean money through litigation. She said she
was offended by the ad, which uses her image at the end but not her
voice.
"I have asked them to remove [the ads] immediately,
but I have no power legally to do anything. I don’t want these ads
running on my behalf. They are insulting, and I want them off the
air. I ask people not to hold against me something someone else is
doing," she said.
"Apparently it was a real case," she said
of the microwaved pup. "I learned that last night, but it is no
excuse" for poor judgment used in designing the ad, she said. "I
have two cats and a dog I have rescued out of the animal
shelter."
Ms. Stratton, who won a seat on the court in 1996
and is now running her first re-election campaign, is challenged by
Common Pleas Court Judge Janet Burnside of Cuyahoga County. A Zogby
poll of 602 likely voters commissioned by The Blade and WTVG-TV
Channel 13 and taken Thursday through Saturday showed the race too
close to call. Ms. Burnside led Ms. Stratton, 33 percent to 30
percent, with 37 percent undecided.
The margin of error on
the poll is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
She decried
ads run by other groups who contend she is beholden to insurance
companies and big business. She hopes to counter with a new TV ad
that began yesterday.
"It is starting to air in Columbus, and
we are doing another version of it that will air statewide. We are
simply asking people not to believe the lies told by the negative
campaigns," she said. In it she highlights her endorsements from
newspapers around the state.
"I am just hoping that the
newspaper endorsements will bring some objectivity to this race,"
she said, and will end "the sleaze and lies."
"All the major
newspapers in the state have endorsed me. They can’t all be wrong,"
she said.
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