Strickland, Brown and Coleman to Denounce McCain Robocall Smears

A canvasser in my group of Obama volunteers told me last night that she encountered two particularly hostile McCain supporters in the afternoon. One told her from a ladder that she was at the wrong house because "we love America here." Another called Barack Obama a "socialist." There were lots of pleasant encounters to balance out those nasty ones, but the incidents illustrate the fear and ignorance that the Republican Party and the McCain campaign are trying to leverage through their enormous campaign of negative and misleading robocalls in battleground states.

Three of Ohio’s top elected officials will appear at a press conference at the Ohio Statehouse at 10:00 a.m. today to hold this coordinated and systematic but largely under-the-radar smear campaign up for public condemnation. Gov. Ted Strickland, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman will decry these shameful negative campaign tactics and point out that they have been denounced by prominent Republicans including Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), and former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell (R).

Collins, co-chair of the McCain campaign in Maine, urged McCain to stop making the robo-calls on Friday. Coleman issued a blanket condemnation of negative campaigning on Saturday, including McCain's tactics. In endorsing Senator Obama yesterday, Powell said McCain’s robo-call smears are “inappropriate” and “go too far."

The three officials will also respond to the baseless GOP accusations about voter fraud and election rigging, reiterating their confidence in the voting process and encouraging all eligible voters to cast their ballots either through early voting or on Election Day.