Balderson’s attack distorts O’Connor’s message
THE AD: “Danny O’Connor — Just Too Liberal,” a 30-second TV commercial aired by Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
WHERE TO SEE IT: On broadcast and cable TV or at http://bit.ly/baldersonad.
VIDEO: A grainy shot of O’Connor talking to an audience, followed by images of protesters as well as people crossing the U.S. border.
SCRIPT: Voice of Congressman Troy Balderson: “I’m Troy Balderson, and I approved this message.”
O’Connor to audience: “I’ve spent my entire adult life, every bit of my adult life, fighting for progressive values.”
Narrator: “What kind of progressive values is Danny O’Connor talking about? Progressives support open borders and sanctuary cities. And they want to abolish ICE, the law-enforcement agency protecting our community from gangs, keeping drugs out of our schools and terrorists out of our country. Danny O’Connor agrees. Danny O’Connor: Just too liberal.”
ANALYSIS: Given the factually challenged commercials aired by both candidates, this one is fairly typical. It is a replay of TV commercials aired earlier by Balderson and a Republican political action committee that attempts to portray O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder, as too liberal for the voters in the 12th District.
Had Balderson’s TV advisers stopped with quoting O’Connor as boasting of fighting for progressive values, it would have been fine, because it is acceptable to use somebody’s own words against them. But the commercial then asserts that because O’Connor says he fights for progressive values, that means he endorses every idea offered by progressives across the country, a major exaggeration.
For example, the commercial repeats the canard that O’Connor wants to get rid of ICE, even though O’Connor says he wants to keep the agency.
The Balderson camp’s claim that O’Connor favors “open borders” is another fiction, although the Democrat does not support President Donald Trump’s quest for a border wall.
In addition, the commercial repeats an unsubstantiated Balderson claim that O’Connor favors sanctuary cities.
The ad cites an O’Connor retweet of a tweet by Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announcing an executive order supporting the resettlement of refugees to Columbus and effectively barring local police officers from enforcing federal immigration law — meaning that Columbus wouldn’t use local resources to do the federal job of detaining those in the country without proper documentation.
While a Dispatch story about that executive order quotes an analyst who says that Columbus is a de facto sanctuary city, O’Connor’s tweet doesn’t clearly endorse Columbus becoming a sanctuary city. In fact, he says he opposes any city becoming a sanctuary city.