BY The Cincinnati Enquirer and Associated Press
COLUMBUS -- A judge on Saturday blocked Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Taft from using a television advertisement that Democratic opponent Lee Fisher claims is misleading.
Judge John Connor of Franklin County Common Pleas Court granted a temporary order that prevents Mr. Taft from continuing to air the ad on 27 television stations.
Judge Connor scheduled another hearing for Tuesday.
In a statement released Saturday night, Mr. Taft said Mr. Fisher "has descended to a level which abuses the legal process and tramples on my First Amendment rights of free speech."
Cincinnati television stations, notified of the restraining order Saturday, were scrambling to replace the advertisement.
Angela Hursh, weekend producer at WKRC-TV Channel 12, had to hunt down advertising and programming officials away for the weekend, she said. The controversial ad was not scheduled to run on Saturday and the station was able to pull it for today's broadcasts, she said.
The ad attacks Mr. Fisher's plan to reduce property taxes by $1.1 billion over two years.
It also attempts to refute Mr. Fisher's charge that Mr. Taft raised property taxes 46.5 percent as a Hamilton County commissioner.
In the ad, Mr. Taft used a partial quote from an Oct. 6 story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The story said Mr. Taft had voted to place tax issues on the ballot and campaigned for many of them, "But Taft didn't raise the taxes himself."
In the ad, that sentence was presented as, "Taft didn't raise the taxes." Fisher's campaign said leaving out words dramatically changed the meaning of the sentence.
