GOP factual, fanciful in bashing Space
THE AD: “The Case on Space,” a 15-second digital ad by the Ohio Republican Party accusing Democratic auditor candidate Zack Space of hypocrisy when he decries the corrupting influence money has on politics.
WHERE TO SEE IT: The online ad will run through Election Day. A party spokesman declined to disclose the amount of the buy.
VIDEO: The ad opens with a black-and-white image of Space superimposed on a pile of money while a male announcer narrates.
THE SCRIPT: “The case on Zack Space. After having his law license suspended, Space has been taking hundreds of thousands from those he will audit, including $5,000 directly from someone under audit subpoena by the state auditor. Stop lobbyist Zack Space.”
ANALYSIS: The ad is an attempt to call Space a hypocrite. His first ad highlighted a central theme of his campaign: that campaign contributions Faber Space
have a corrupting influence on government. Space has relentlessly attacked his opponent, Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina, over the $36,000 he took from the nowfailed online charter school ECOT, in addition to money Faber has received from the payday-lending and fossilfuel industries.
The GOP ad is correct that Space’s law license once was suspended. Space says he wasn’t practicing law at the time. As for the “hundreds of thousands from those he will audit,” that’s a bit of a stretch. A GOP spokesman provided a spreadsheet showing the contributions came from employees of school districts, city governments and the like. The auditor’s office routinely audits such entities, but contributions from government worker bees are a far cry from say, the owner of a for-profit management company that runs an online charter school with more dropouts than graduates.
So the ad hinges on the fact that Space took $5,000 from Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who faces a public corruption investigation and a subpoena from current Auditor Dave Yost, who is also the Republican nominee for attorney general. The fact that Yost, who also took $26,000 from ECOTrelated sources, issued a subpoena just two months ahead of the election instead of simply requesting information has raised some eyebrows.
But that doesn’t change the fact that at the same time that Space is posing as squeaky-clean, he’s taken $5,000 from a guy who faces a corruption investigation. His campaign’s explanation — that Space didn’t solicit the contribution and that other Democrats took money from Budish as well — doesn’t help much. The ad is half true.