Bogus non-profits that run illegal campaign ads and then illegally hide the names of their contributors…
hmmm… I guess not.
So I guess it should come as no surprise that he’s now representing Payday lenders – suing the state for the right to charge poor Ohioans 391 percent interest for small loans!
I’ve really tried to stay neutral on this whole payday lending issue- but now it seems pretty obvious that they’re not good people. Bill Todd doesn’t work for good people.
Bill Todd, long-time dirtbag Republican lawyer and recent, failed Columbus Mayoral Candidate, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday on behalf of Ohio Right to Life.
The anti-abortion group wants to run so-called “issue ads” that mention specific candidates’ names all the way up until the November election.
Current state law forbids such ads from running 30 days prior to the election.
According to the AP, Ohio Right to Life wants to run radio and tv ads on “the issue” of the State Senate’s proposed ban on human cloning- and in those ads wants to mention the names of Ohio Republican State Senators including: Bill Harris, Steve Buehrer, Steve Stivers and Kirk Schuring.
Stivers is running for congress in the 15th- Schuring in the 16th.
In case you forgot, Bill Todd has a long history of representing right-leaning groups that run these pseudo-issue ads that are actually intended to support a specific candidate and not a specific issue.
Anyone want to guess which Republican Attorney is representing All Children Matter, the David Brennan-related PAC that just got fined by the Ohio Elections Commission for illegally funneling contributions through Virgina?
Go ahead guess. It’s not that hard…
Yep. It IS Bill Todd – former Republican Candidate for Columbus Mayor.
No surprise here though since Todd got a huge portion of his Mayoral campaign contributions from David Brennan.
The Dispatch has a good piece today that picks apart the crime figures used in the campaign ads of the Columbus Mayoral candidates.
And, of course, Bill Todd’s ad takes the stats out of context:
Todd’s most recent radio ad cites a 2006 murder rate in Columbus that was higher than those in New York and Los Angeles. What he doesn’t mention: The September FBI report he uses shows Columbus’ rate was lower than Cincinnati’s, Cleveland’s and 23 other cities’ with populations of more than 250,000.
And so, I am reminded, of one of the most honest campaign ads I’ve ever seen.
I was out of commission yesterday, and most of the good stuff was already picked up in the rest of the Ohio ’sphere, including this nugget, which is way too important for a Central Ohio blog to neglect to mention.
Bill Todd got 22% of his current funds for his Mayoral campaign from one David Brennan. You remember David Brennan, right? You should – we’vetalkedabouthimquitea bit.
In case you are too lazy to look it up, Brennan is the Chairman of White Hat, the Akron-based charter school company. And Brennan is a good friend to Republicans, splashing out lots of cash. Little wonder he likes Bill Todd; Todd wants to institute charter schools in Columbus under the laughable assertion that it’s about providing “choice” to parents. These initiatives aren’t about choice – they are about privatizing education and turning into a profit-based industry, rather than a child-centric one, and lining the pockets of contributors like David Brennan.
Jerid pointed out yesterday that Todd’s press conference on Wednesday was a little ahead of the curve:
Anyways, the real meat here is that Todd scheduled this press conference before the grant announcements he cites was released to the public. Kinda strange right? Like Todd has a man on the inside or something.
Apparently, scuttlebutt is that the info may have come from Tiberi’s office, which would be illegal. I’m sorry I didn’t notice this first, but I’ve been a little too busy this week to be paying as much attention as I should. Now that I’ve got something to look for, I’ll see if I can be quicker on the draw.
So, we here at PB have taken some heat for attacking Matt Naugle for his falsehoods and irrelevant personal attacks. I understand that some people think we are wasting our time, and to a certain extent, I understand that view.
But I also understand that the “most prominent right-wing blog in Ohio” has a responsibility – be a good citizen in the blogging community. Lying about the facts is not a part of good citizenship. Neither is attacking family members of politicians or bloggers. I think ignoring these attacks is a mistake. I believe that this kind of ugliness must be confronted to be defeated.
As Jerid points out, this stuff has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than trying to embarrass and attack uninvolved third parties. The Ohio GOP has attacked Jerid’s mom. RABid has attacked Jerid’s dad. RABid has attacked Jennifer Brunner’s son. This stuff is pandemic. And I can’t wrap my head around the idea that anyone would think this relevant or even ethical.
This pretty much confirms my earlier decision to never ever link to RABid again. I’d ignore them entirely, if there wasn’t significant evidence that Naugle is running an astroturf blog over there, and thus is doing this at the behest of the Ohio GOP.
UPDATE: I should add – I have never, not once ever, been even remotely curious in digging for skeletons amongst Naugle’s family and friends. His mother, or father, aren’t out there blogging, carrying water, and as such aren’t even relevant. For that matter, I’m not terribly interested in Naugle’s skeletons. Unless he’s practicing one thing and preaching another, I don’t much care about his private life.
But then again, I have facts, truth, justice, and ethical behavior on my side. When you are losing the fight, I guess you might feel the need to steep to some pretty ugly behavior.
UPDATE 2: the offending post has suddenly disappeared from RABid. *POOF* – just like an “enemy combatant”. Somebody – probably one of Matty’s “handlers” from the Ohio GOP – must have decided that was in poor taste (and it was). Matty didn’t even have the nerve to leave a placeholder post apologizing for posting something so completely out of line to begin with. Well, this post isn’t going away – Matty may have retracted the post, but that doesn’t change the fact that one of the “top” conservative blogs in Ohio thought it appropriate, even fleetingly, to put something like that out there. This post will remain on the internet forever, a testament to what vicious scumbags wingnuts are. Coultergeist is cut from the same cloth.
This time it is their building program. According to Todd: This is one of the biggest public-works projects we’ve ever seen in the history of Columbus, and local small businesses have been excluded.
Which is not only untrue- since school officials have exceeded their goal to steer 20 percent of the construction dollars to local and economically disadvantaged enterprises- but also irrelavent since the Mayor doesn’t control the School Board.
Antoinette Wilson, Coleman’s campaign director, points this out in her humorous quote from the Dispatch Article:
He’s basically trying to say the mayor should be accountable for a program that’s driven by Columbus Public Schools… Maybe he needs to run for school board.
