Washington Is Already Too Full Of Crooks; It Doesn’t Need Tom Ganley Added To The List

When Sherrod Brown left a his House seat to run for the Senate in 2006, state Rep. Betty Sutton stepped up to the plate and defeated Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin 61-39%, a percentage that she increased to 65% in 2008 (as Obama was beating McCain 57-42%). A blue collar district that includes parts of Akron plus suburbs of both Akron and Cleveland, it tends to go for Democrats and for progressives... like Betty Sutton. But 2010 is shaping up as a very challenging year for Democrats and incumbents in general and Ohio Democratic incumbents in particular. And in Betty's case, she's up against a very wealthy, free-spending Republican with gigantic name recognition because he's been selling cars in the area since 1968.

Tom Ganley is the latest in a long line of self-funding millionaire Republican candidates attempting to take out solid, hardworking Democrats this cycle. Widely regarded as a dishonest used car dealer Ganley is eager to buy himself a congressional seat in northeastern Ohio (since the state GOP drove him out of the Senate race he was waging against Rob Portman).

As CQPolitics succinctly put it this spring when Ganley dropped out of the OH Senate race to challenge Sutton, “it only took a few strokes of a pen for Ohio car dealer Tom Ganley (R) to become the best-funded challenger to a House incumbent thus far this cycle.” At that point, Ganley had only dumped a little under $2 million into his campaign. By the end of the summer, Ganley had moved millions in and out of his account-- loaning himself $6.5 million at one point, and then pulling $4 million of that back out. Makes you wonder what he’s going to do with all that money, and how much he’s willing to spend to buy himself a seat in the House-- questions Ganley is of course completely unwilling to answer. Smells like... Darrell Issa.

Speaking of which... another good question arises from Ganley filtering so much in and out of his account: how did he come to make his millions? Lucky for us, the answer to that one is simple: by preying on and even outright deceiving Ohio’s workers and families. You name it, Ganley has been accused of doing it to make a buck-- forgery, lying, fraud, deception, even age and sex discrimination against his own employees.

Even the GOP’s pet news station Fox dropped a hit on Ganley just last week, pointing to the over 400 lawsuits he’s been the target of for his crooked business practices. But not to worry, Ganley is “very proud of his record” of getting rich by trampling on middle-class folk, or so says his spokesperson (Ganley hardly ever opens his own mouth, doesn’t seem to go too well when he does). Really, these tactics are just business as usual for someone who’s as “successful” as Tom Ganley.

And like so many other right wing extremist candidates this cycle, Ganley never shies away from an opportunity to pander to the tea partiers. Just a few weeks ago he touted his Republican bona fides when he announced he’d “cut the dickens” out of Federal entitlement programs (read: Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, etc. etc. etc.) if elected. He was quick to sign onto ATR’s 2010 Pledge, and Ganley’s even gone so far as to support the inappropriately misnamed “Fair Tax”-- a plan to put a 23% sales tax on food, clothes, medicine... the works, while giving a big ol’ tax break to himself and corporations.

If you weren’t sure by now whether Ganley has your vote in November, he has the mother of all Ohio endorsements to solidify his reputation as a would-be advocate for his fellow millionaires and business men-- that of minority leader and fellow down-the-line corporate shill John Boehner.

Betty Sutton on the other hand is a true Democrat through and through, and it’s distressing to see someone who has done so much for her constituents facing the fight of her life from a worthless tea party hack like Tom Ganley. Sutton helped jump start auto sales throughout the country last summer with the successful “Cash for Clunkers” program she authored, and as a former labor-lawyer, she’s fought tirelessly (and successfully) to insert what should be no-brainer “Buy American” clauses and amendments wherever possible.

At the end of the day, the choice for voters in Ohio’s 13th district should be a simple one-– Betty Sutton, an advocate for workers and working families, or Tom Ganley, a tea party pandering corporate GOP crazy who rips off customers and treats employees poorly, wants to put a 23% sales tax on EVERYTHING, and-- this GOP stand-by is my favorite-- doesn’t believe in global warming.