Tom Ganley (R-OH)-- First Of Cantor's Young Guns To Be Indicted

Did you think Boehner's crooked buddy Tom Ganley-- remember him?-- landed on the garbage heap of history after being thrashed by Betty Sutton 56-44% last November? The multimillionaire sex predator is the first-- though surely not the last (keep an eye on David Rivera)-- of Eric Cantor's and Paul Ryan's Republican Young Guns to be indicted.

A seven-count indictment accuses Tom Ganley, a high-profile auto dealer and onetime congressional candidate, of kidnapping a 39-year-old Cleveland woman and having sexual contact with her.

Ganley, 68, faces three felony charges of gross sexual imposition, and single counts of kidnapping, abduction, solicitation, and menacing by stalking, according to Ryan Miday, a spokesman for County Prosecutor Bill Mason.

A county grand jury returned the indictments late Tuesday, nearly six months after the woman filed a lawsuit accusing Ganley of grabbing her from behind, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her and reaching into her pants during a meeting at one of his dealerships.

...The woman's lawyer, Ed Heben, commended the thoroughness of the investigation by Cleveland detectives and the county prosecutor. He also said his client welcomed the indictments.

"My client feels somewhat vindicated already that the grand jury had the faith and belief that these allegations appeared to be true and that somebody's business and political stature did not effect the efficiency of the investigation," he said. "We believe all of the charges will be proven true."

The woman, a married mother of four children, had volunteered to work on Ganley's campaign after she heard him speak at a Tea Party rally in downtown Cleveland in 2009, according to her lawsuit.

She later met Ganley at his Chevrolet dealership on Lorain Avenue, where she said he solicited sex from her, Miday said.

In exchange, she said in the lawsuit, Ganley offered to lower the interest rates on a van she bought from his dealership, to repair her van for free, and to give her a job at one of his dealerships.

Her lawsuit accused Ganley of making threatening calls after the encounter at the dealership. Miday said the calls resulted in the menacing-by-stalking charge.

Heben said the woman didn't report her allegations to police until October 2010 because she feared no one would believe her, due partly to Ganley's close ties to law enforcement.

...Another woman also accused Ganley of sexual misconduct after the Cleveland woman went public with her story. A 50-year-old woman from Broadview Heights told Cleveland police that Ganley grabbed her inappropriately five years ago during a visit to his Chevrolet dealership.

According to DCCC spokesman Jesse Ferguson, “Tom Ganley is just one of the candidates with dangerous histories and violent behavior that House Republicans backed in past elections and it’s only a matter of time until the troubling histories of the others come to light. With the criminal investigation expanding into Representative David Rivera, it’s clear that Ganley isn’t the first-- or the last-- of the candidates Republican leaders promoted whose background and behavior sends a chilling message.”

Republicans are desperate to knock off Betty Sutton, an effective and inspiring leader. All Ganley's millions didn't do it-- he threw $2,363,417 of his own money into the race, far more than Sutton was able to raise-- so now the GOP is determined to gerrymander Ohio in a manner that will eliminate her district and force her into a primary with Dennis Kucinich, another progressive champion.