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The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has begun attacking Mike Wilson, Republican candidate for Ohio’s 28^th House District, in an attempt to mislead voters about the actual meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In a direct mail piece the DLCC, in support of incumbent Rep. Connie Pillich, argue that Wilson’s Pledge “would keep corporate tax breaks and loopholes in place that encourage companies to send our jobs overseas.” In reality, the goal of the Pledge is to protect taxpayers and businesses from tax increases, and does not prevent revenue-neutral elimination of tax credits.

The “No New Taxes” Pledge simply commits a signer to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes.” By making this promise, Wilson has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Ohio – something Rep. Pillich has not done.

The DLCC also claims that ATR is a Washington, D.C. “special interest group.” This is an interesting claim, as they list a K Street address on “lobbyist row” in D.C. and report nearly $1 million in contributions from labor unions to be funneled toward attack ads such as those running in favor of Rep. Pillich in the 28^th District.

The false attacks on the tax pledge began earlier this year, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran ads in Hawaii’s 1^st Congressional District making the same outsourcing attacks on Charles Djou. Nonpartisan FactCheck.org declared these attacks “blatantly false.” FactCheck.org recently ran another analysis concluding that attacks on the Pledge for state candidates “make even less sense.”

“It’s clearly desperation time for national Democrats,” said ATR President Grover Norquist. “Scrambling to maintain control of the Ohio House of Representatives, K Street has descended on vulnerable Ohio House Districts with pockets full of union cash to distort and mislead voters about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”

“Mike Wilson has promised to break with liberal Connie Pillich and oppose tax increases,” continued Norquist. “Rather than apologize for her vote in favor of Ted Strickland’s $844 million tax increase and pledge never to vote for higher taxes in the future, Rep. Pillich is sticking to her big government mantra and hoping national Democrats and their union allies can bail her out. In Ohio’s 28^th District, voters have a clear choice this November between Mike Wilson’s fiscal responsibility and Connie Pillich’s tax-and-spend agenda.”

Posted by Joshua Culling on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 10:23 AM EDT

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