The political wiseguys at the Ohio Republican Party are doing no favor for Kristina Roegner. They have launched a rank campaign of distortion through mailings to households in the 37th Ohio House District, where Roegner is seeking re-election. They have set out to create a wholly false impression of Casey Weinstein, the Democratic challenger.
Roegner is better than all of this. She should reject what the party has done on her behalf. Six years ago, this editorial page came to Roegner’s defense, when the state Democratic Party painted a misleading portrait of her. Democrats have played rough again this fall. Now she and her allies have taken the cheap shots too far.
What do the mailings say?
One declares: “When some of our cadets wanted to watch a religious film, Casey Weinstein sued the U.S. military.” Actually, Weinstein’s father led the legal challenge a decade ago. He did so for good reason, and not easily, because he is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and his son soon would accomplish the same.
The film was the controversial The Passion of the Christ directed by Mel Gibson. The run-up fit into a disturbing pattern at the academy, described by a 16-member review team tapped by the academy leadership. The review team found examples of religious intolerance, insensitivity and inappropriate proselytizing of evangelical Christian beliefs on the part of cadets and officers.
So, Casey Weinstein did not show “no faith in our military,” as the mailing claims. His father pressed the academy to show its commitment to a precious American value: religious tolerance for Jews, Catholics, Muslims, nonbelievers and others.
A second mailing contends that Weinstein “called education funding a waste.” It taunts: “A waste of money? Who says that?”
That last question reveals more about the operatives at the state Republican Party — and Roegner, because it is her campaign. The suggestion is ludicrous, that a candidate from either party would find school funding a waste. It invites the response: Who makes that charge?
What does Weinstein find wasteful? The Hudson City Council member is sharply critical of how carelessly the Republican majorities at the Statehouse spend $1 billion a year on charter schools, many of the schools dismal performers. He has much company in holding this view.
The contingent includes Roegner, who has been a leading and refreshing Republican voice in urging tough oversight and accountability for the charter school industry. Which appears to add a dollop of hypocrisy to these disappointing mailings.
Election campaigns often are rugged affairs. That isn’t a bad thing, until a candidate or campaign goes too far, as Kristina Roegner and her Republican allies have done.
To see a summary of the Beacon Journal recommendations for the Nov. 8 election, go to http://www.ohio.com/editorial/endorsements.