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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Are you being served?

Greater Cincinnati has been blanketed with subpoenas over two complaints filed against Rep. Jean Schmidt that are pending at the Ohio Elections Commission.

The complaints allege that Schmidt, a Miami Township Republican, misrepresented both endorsements she had received from Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, and others, and her educational background on her campaign Web site. Read the Enquirer stories about it here and here.

The commission voted last week that there was "probable cause" to pursue its investigation into Schmidt on the complaint relating to her educational background. Read the Enquirer story about it here.

FYI, Schmidt's opponent in the May 2 GOP primary, Republican Bob McEwen, already has been censured by the Ohio Elections Commission for falsly using the title "congressman" before his name. McEwen hasn't served in Congress since 1992. Read the Enquirer story about that here.

James P. Urling, who is director of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) and the one who filed the complaints against Schmidt, is listed on the documents as the one ordering the subpoenas . Christopher P. Finney, who also is affiliated with COAST, is named at the bottom of the documents as the attorney handling the case.

So who got served?

Literally everyone with any connection to Schmidt, starting with her husband, Peter Schmidt, to her Schmidt for Congress campaign and former campaign manager, Joe Braun.

Here are the others who have been served and what COAST is seeking:

- Timothy Billies of Creative Point in Amelia, Ohio, who created and maintains Schmidt's campaign Web site, for documents and correspondence relating to the site.

- University of Cincinnati for documents and transcripts relating to degrees Schmidt earned at the school.

- Milford Exempted Village Schools for documents about when or whether Schmidt worked at the school and what duties she performed.

- Ohio Department of Education for documents about Schmidt's teaching certificate or any disciplinary action taken.

- The Cincinnati Enquirer and reporter Howard Wilkinson for any press packets, resumes or documents received from Schmidt's campaign over her educational degrees, and notes from conversations with the campaign over her educational degrees.

- Dayton Daily News, The Cincinnati Post, the Cincinnati Herald, The Associated Press, The Community Press, the Portsmouth Daily Times, the Times-Gazette of Hillsboro, Clermont Sun Publishing Co. in Batavia, The Georgetown Democrat, Hannah News Services, the Brown County Press and the Catholic Telegraph for the same press packets, interview notes, etc.

- League of Women Voters of Cincinnati, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Manufacturers Association, Rotunda Inc., and National Federation of Independent Businesses for all records about Schmidt's educational background.


11 Comments:

at 1:37 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, the spousal privilege prevents them from seeking testimony from her husband.

You would think Jim Urling and Chris Finney would know that.

 
at 2:48 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

The spousal privileges prevents Peter Schmidt from testifying against Jean. It does not cover the acts of anyone else associated with the campaign, including Peter himself.

 
at 3:36 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

And thus every major newspaper in the Second District becomes part of the story, and not merely reporters of it.

Will the newspapers do the honorable thing and seek to have the subpoenae squashed?

 
at 7:23 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chris Finney trying to throw his (considerable)weight around again.

This is newsworthy?

 
at 10:20 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Malia:

HELP!!!

You weren't at the Blue Ash Republican Club meeting tonight but Howard Wilkinson was.

Candidates for political office were allowed to give their stump speeches for no longer than 5 minutes.

Bob McEwen was one of the first to speak and delivered one of his typical eloquent and inspirational speeches.

Several other candidates spoke after McEwen because Jean Schmidt had supposedly not arrived yet - (although some people said they spotted her in a car in the parking lot and surmised that her staffers did not want her to immediately follow McEwen for fear of the contrast between the two being so blatantly clear).

Well, placing her papers very gingerly on the podium and then standing in front of the podium, she proclaimed that she rather liked to speak in front of a podium.

At this point, she paused, got very, very mellow-dramatic and said that she had just come from a very "moving and emotional" funeral visitation for LCPC Bryan Taylor.

She then said: "I'm going to pause at this point and not make any political comments, but rather ask all of you to do me a favor. I'm going to ask right now that we all hold hands with the persons sitting next to us and recite the Lord's prayer together."

Now, Malia, asking us to pause for a moment of silence or asking us to pray for Mr. Taylor and his family would have been fine, but to sink to the lowest level of political stunts and use the death of an American soldier to draw attention and acclaim to yourself?!?!?

This one just completely outdoes them all. Does this woman, Jean Schmidt, have no shame? The gall of her to do such a thing.

And what's worse is that she thought the room full of 100 or so people were dumb and gullible enough to fall for such a ridiculous and classless political gimmick!!!

Please Malia and the rest of the news media, give this story and the ridiculous behavior of Jean Schmidt the attention it deserves. Certainly, we constituents of the 2nd District deserve better than Schmidt.

 
at 10:23 PM, April 12, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like Finney and Urling are getting desperate. I wonder what they will do when their carpetbagger of choice loses yet another race.

 
at 1:11 PM, April 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was at the Blue Ash meeting as well. It was the most classless political stunt I've seen since the Paul Wellstone memorial service. Jean "Sheehan" Schmidt was propping up a dead soldier's body to try to make herself look good for a political speech. It was absolutely shameless.

 
at 1:33 PM, April 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Collin:

See you can't say anything intelligent so you just say "carpet- bagger". Too bad it is not true. Too bad that is all you have to go to. See we have Jean yet again making herself look bad at a politcal event and trying to use the death of a young man to her benfit. That is sad and shows that even if she was upset that was not the setting to do that. What does this show us, yet again poor judgement by Jean Schmidt. She shows poor judgement all of the time. Not what a person in congress should do. This is yet again a fact. Collin just throws out insults. We see through that.

 
at 4:09 PM, April 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Portman admittedly is supporting "the incumbent" ("my position is the administration's position which is to support the incumbent" is the only statement I can find from him).

But whenever you see the candidates out and about, and you hear them speak, ask yourself what Rob Portman would be doing or saying, and then determine which candidate is closer to that mark.

Would Rob ask everyone to hold hands and recite the Lord's Prayer (on Passover, no less)?

Would Rob tell people at a park dedication in honor of someone who was killed in a tornado how "it could have been me" who was killed in that tornado?

Would Rob talk about the need for lower tax rates to spur economic growth and create jobs?

Can you see Rob, in a few years when his children are married, tell a large group in Pike County he wants them to "get busy" so he can be a grandparent soon?

Would Rob have his surrogates come onto his blog and claim that Charlie Sanders' dog in his Christmas card photo really isn't his?

And on and on and on.

 
at 11:15 PM, April 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Throwing out insults? Hardly. Let's look at the facts. According to property records available at www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org, Mr. and Mrs. Bob McEwen didn't purchase property in Hamilton County until April of last year.

The fact is that Bob McEwen moved to the Washington DC area to become a lobbyist for foreign interests after he lost to Rob Portman which was after he lost a safe Republican seat to Ted Strickland which was after he was caught up in the House Bank Scandal which was after he wrote 160 checks for money he didn't even have in his account. The Fact is that Bob McEwen lobbied for foreign governments, including the Islamo-Communist country of Uzbekistan.

The fact is that the McEwen family sent their kids to school in Virginia and didn't come here until Rob Portman went to join the Bush cabinet.

Basically, you are clearly getting desperate. Your candidate has only minimal support, has minimal money (unless he's decided to spend even more than the $340,000 he's lost in his Quixotic quests to return to a lost glory). You have a candidate without an identifiable base, who has next to no campaign money, and who can't even get a bogus poll to show him in the lead. So, show me how Bob McEwen isn't a carpetbagger. If the million dollar home in the DC suburbs isn't where he lives, then tell me where he lived before he bought the $105000 condo last year.

Tell me, are you and your buddies Finney, Brinkman, Urling and Shifrin going to join with Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader Boehner, the National Rifle Association, the President of the United States, and the pro-life movement and support our Congresswoman after she handily gores your sacred Virginia cow in a few weeks? Or, do you think the COASTers will join forces with the Pro-abortion crowd again and encourage Republicans to stay home? You need to face it, your candidate is clearly a carpetbagger, and your cause is clearly lost.

Your side's tactics show desperation and weakness. Instead of waging a campaign of ideas, McEwen is running a negative campaign via surrogates.

 
at 1:31 AM, April 15, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Collin looks like you got taken to school!!!!

You don't change at all. Keep bringing up the same things that many keep proving wrong. IN fact as shown you only twist facts into almost lies. As pointed out Bob was working for the US with a country that is helping us. You refer to them as an Islamic country. Really all Islamic countries are bad. How tolerant of you. I see Bob trying to help our cause in a difficult part of the world. It is also funny that the facts stated prove yours false about how Bob lost his seat in congress. Also I am glad we live in the US where you are innocent until found guilty. Also you are really innocent when investigated and told that you did nothing wrong. You are not found guilty of anything and you are fully exonerated. That is what happen to Bob fully exonerated. NOT GUILTY OF ANY WRONG DOING!!!! But you keep going on with it. I hope that you don't act this way about everyone who is investigated. That is a sad way to live.

All you do Collin is cloud the facts and use lies or close to it. Maybe you could tell us one more time what is so good about Jean. Or maybe you can explain all of her mis-steps over the last couple of months.

I don't see a desperate campaign. I see one that has been run by Bob that is with class, no political stunts and speaking about the issues. One that will debate anytime, anywhere.
You really think this is a slam dunk Collin?? I don't see any desperation in anything Bob has said or done.(no stunts, no lies)
Oh yea and if just because the NRA is on Jeans side. Beleive me that won't get her through on it own. And I did not know the whole Pro-life movement was on her side(I actually think that was one of her false endorsements that she had to remove from her list). By the way I am and I know several other people who are pro-life and we are voting for a pro-life canidated Bob McEwen.

Colin OH-o2voter took all of your points and crushed your twisted statements(great job). Sorry but you may think this is going to be a win for Jean. NO SO FAST!!! ANDY NO WAY.

 
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