Open Letter To Robin Weirauch: Tell The DCCC To Pull Their Attack Ad

Dear Robin:
You have run a great campaign. You have spoken from your heart about the need for Ohio values in Washington, how somebody needs to speak out and stand against the mindset that puts the well-financed backers of lobbyists in tailored suits and alligator shoes over the homespun interests of hardworking people. Remember, you hope to represent a state where sweater vests never went out of style. You value honesty, respect for neighbors, church, the value of work. You have said repeatedly you won't be part of the Washington crowd.

[UPDATE 1 -- Jeff Coryell's Ohio Daily Blog has the district's demographics. It is rural, covers 16 counties and is filled with blue collar workers. The largest city has fewer than 30,000 resident.]

So prove it. Get rid of that attack ad. All it does is make you part and parcel with the crop of politicians from whom you've tried to set yourself apart. You were succeeding. You don't need to get down in the gutter. Your message was up. The ad is down. It has no class, and may actually undo all that you have accomplished this fall. Tell the DCCC to send you the video so you can bury it in a landfill.

If you take a stand on principle and ask the DCCC to pull the ad -- if you say thanks, but no thanks -- you will have proven that you really are a different kind of politician, someone who believes what she says, someone who stands behind what she says. You have pledged no dirt, no attacks, only the high road. Live up to that pledge. Speak up.

If you do, you will be seen as a square, and people will notice. The presses will stop, the radio talk shows will buzz, the blogs will light up. Why? Because somebody said: I have standards. When I say a clean campaign and no attacks, I mean exactly that. In fact, I mean everything I say. That I will fight for jobs and against unfair trade deals. That I will fight the corporate lobbyists. That I will fight for health care and the children's health insurance program. That I won't be a Bush-Cheney patsy. That I really mean it when I say that taxes on the middle class need to be lowered.

Robin, from one end of the U.S. to the other, people will notice if a candidate says enough is enough. Throwing mud is not your message; being dedicated and working hard is the message.

That DCCC attack ad doesn't help you. It only makes you look like just another pol who will say or do anything to get elected. Or let somebody say or do anything in your behalf. Sternly shake your finger at the DCCC and tell it to craft a better message, one that says a cop's wife from a small Ohio town called Napoleon can go to Washington and get things done. That somebody who started life working in a factory wants to make things better. That the days of the slicksters and sidesteppers and cheap shot artists are finished.