BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Sierra Club will sponsor TV and print ads urging 1st District U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot to abandon his opposition to legislation it supports.
Glen Brand, a club staff member doing voter education on environmental issues, said television ads would begin next week and cost "tens of thousands of dollars" to broadcast.
He said the Sierra Club will not ask anyone to vote against the Cincinnati-area Republican or to support his Democratic challenger, Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls, a longtime environmental activist. Rather, voters will be asked to tell Mr. Chabot how they feel about his voting record and imminent clean-air legislation, Mr. Brand said.
The Sierra Club ads are "clearly designed to smear Congressman Chabot's record," his chief of staff, Gary Lindgren, responded. Although commercials apparently will be in the "guise" of issue advocacy, he continued, "people will see through that and understand that they are political."
Mr. Lindgren said Mr. Chabot has a "strong environmental record," and he cares very much about the air his two children breath. "He supports clean air and clean water."
However, the Sierra Club rates Mr. Chabot's record as poor on environmental legislation it supports. The Sierra Club's rating of his record will be part of the ads.
Commercials also will feature local youngsters whose asthma worsens when Tristate smog concentrations rise during the summer, Mr. Brand said.
Mr. Brand said some print ads also will be run before the November election.
Sierra Club radio ads were broadcast over the July 4 holiday, he added. About the same time, the AFL-CIO ran TV commercials critical of Mr. Chabot's failure to support the Democrats' "patient bill of rights."
Two years ago, the AFL-CIO spent nearly $1 million in Tristate TV ads, faulting Mr. Chabot on a range of issues.
The new Sierra Club ads are being run in eight other districts where congressional races are close, Mr. Brand said. They include Ohio's 16th District, where Canton Republican Ralph Regula is the incumbent.
