BREAKING NEWS Jean Schmidt Violates Ohio Election Law; Could Face Jail Time

By Nate Noy

In an effort to promote the defeat of Victoria Wulsin, Jean Schmidt has blatantly once again made false and misleading statements and showed a reckless disregard for truth by fabricating the financial position of Victoria Wulsin's campaign.

I have prepared an Ohio Elections Commission complaint, naming Jean Schmidt, the Schmidt for Congress Committee, Schmidt spokesperson Brian Pfaff and blogger Matt Hurley as defendants. The compliant will be filed on Monday.

Here are the FACTS:

The Federal Elections Commission website shows cash on hand for candidates in the Ohio 2nd Congressional District. Here are the totals for Jean Schmidt and Victoria Wulsin as of October 15, 2008:

Jean Schmidt $157,589
Victoria Wulsin $179,899

On October 16, 2008, blogger Matt Hurley posted a press release from Jean Schmidt verbatim. The release was dated Thursday, October 16, 2008 and included "Paid for by Schmidt for Congress Committee."

(Note: here is a link to the post which one can assume Hurley will delete as soon as he becomes aware that his blatant violation of the law has been discovered.)

The release headline was: "Schmidt Enters Final Stretch with 14 point Lead and $40,000.00 Money Advantage -- New Schmidt Poll Shows Commanding Lead with Few Undecided Voters Left."

The title of the release includes a fabrication of the truth, since Jean Schmidt clearly did NOT have a $40,000 money advantage on October 16, 2008; instead, Victoria Wulsin had a $22,310 advantage.

(Note: the 14 point lead is also a fabrication, but Schmidt can present her bogus poll results to defend herself; she cannot defend against the FEC report that proves she is once again lying.)

The release also includes:

"Further, we enter the final weeks with a significant cash advantage during a period where cash very much matters,” Bruce Pfaff, Schmidt Campaign spokesman said.

Federal Election Commission filings show that somehow the Wulsin Campaign spent $440,000 in July, August, and September, leaving the campaign treasury with almost $50,000 fewer dollars than Schmidt. That amount, $50,000, equates to nearly a week of television advertising.

“It is borderline malpractice for a campaign to spend that much money before the battle. Her campaign seems message less and clearly adrift. Wulsin’s attack commercials have driven her own negatives up to record levels, all the while Congresswoman Schmidt enjoys the record high approval ratings,” Pfaff added.

“Her own advertising has made Victoria Wulsin the least popular candidate running in all of Southern Ohio. She has spent $440,000 to earn the title of least-liked politician in our area. If she keeps this up with what little money she has left, she’ll be competing for who comes in third with the “Independent,” Pfaff concluded."

There are multiple fabrications of the truth in the above statement from the Schmidt campaign. Clearly, Schmidt does NOT have a money advantage, this is a blatant lie, i.e. a "false statement" under Ohio law.

The Ohio Revised Code states the following:
http://66.161.141.185/orc/3517.21
3517.21 Infiltration of campaign - false statements in campaign materials - election of candidate.
(B)(10) Post, publish, circulate, distribute, or otherwise disseminate a false statement concerning a candidate, either knowing the same to be false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not, if the statement is designed to promote the election, nomination, or defeat of the candidate.

Clearly, the statements in the Schmidt press release are (1) false statements and (2) designed to promote the defeat of a candidate.

The penalty provision of the ORC states:

http://66.161.141.185/orc/3517.992
3517.992 Penalties for violations on or after 8-24-95.
(V) Whoever violates section 3517.21 or 3517.22 of the Revised Code shall be imprisoned for not more than six months or fined not more than five thousand dollars, or both.

What this all means and the next steps:

First, since Schmidt has a histroy with the OEC and has previoulsy been found guilty of violating this section of the code, so expect the OEC to go for jail time for Schmidt on this one. Hopefully, Matt Hurley and Brian Pfaff will also receive a severe punishment for their roles in yet another fraud being perpetrated on the public by Jean Schmidt.

The next step is to file the formal complaint. I'll wait until mid-day Monday to file, since it's likely the Wulsin camp or the DCCC will beat me to the punch, since I have broken this story here on The FDH Lounge Multimedia Magazine.

After the complaint is filed, there will be a probable cause hearing within two days and a formal hearing within seven. I am hopeful that Jean Schmidt is convicted before the election.

In a previous post, I stated that I want to see Jean Schmidt go out in the "perp walk." Thanks to Matt Hurley (the only person I could find that posted her post verbatim), I may finally get my wish.

This is a clear sign that Schmidt knows she will lose this election. She has released bogus polls, been destroyed in the debates, her supporters are all silent now, and she knows she is not the best candidate. I hope the State of Ohio has a nice warm cell ready for Jean once the election is over.