Challenger attacks Stivers over ad citing Soros

Democratic challenger Rick Neal accused U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers on Sunday of approving campaign commercials that “traffic in anti-Semitism,” even though the ad Neal cited does not even hint at anyone’s religion.

In a video nine days before the election, Neal said the Upper Arlington Republican passed on a chance to “join us in our shock and anger” over the shooting deaths of 11 people Saturday at a synagogue in Pittsburgh — even though Stivers issued a written statement saying that he was “appalled” by the shooting and that “anti-Semitism is inexcusable in this country and everywhere.”

“As a veteran, I have fought overseas to defend our First Amendment rights, which includes the freedom of religion,” Stivers said in the statement Sunday.

Neal, who is a major underdog in the race against Stivers, charged that as head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Stivers approved a TV commercial that pointed out that billionaire Democratic donor George Soros has backed Democratic candidates. Soros grew up in a Hungarian Jewish family, although that is not referenced in the commercial. Stivers defended the ad Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

A Florida man was arrested last week on charges that he mailed pipe bombs to Soros and leading Democrats such as former President Barack Obama.

“Today, Steve Stivers had a chance to join us in our shock and anger over the massacre yesterday of American Jews in Pittsburgh,” Neal said.

“Instead, he doubled down on his own involvement in the division of our country, defending political ads that he approved as the chairman of the Republican effort to retain control of Congress — ads that traffic in anti-Semitism.”

Soros has been a favorite rhetorical target of Republicans for years because the billionaire pours so much money into liberal causes. House Majority Kevin McCarthy removed a tweet critical of Soros after the mailed bomb was discovered.

An opinion piece in The Washington Post last week contended that the antiSoros rhetoric from President Donald Trump and other Republicans “draws on old, and deep-rooted, antiSemitic ideas that have been deployed by the right for decades.”