Betty Sutton: Recommended and ready to prove the GOP wrong

Last week Betty Sutton announced she is running in the new 16th district of Ohio. Betty's been in this race for just 8 days and already she’s under attack. Betty has faced down GOP pressures before; it’s hard to forget a certain GOP mailer that claimed it was time to "take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen." With the help of EMILY’s List, she certainly proved them wrong then, and she will do it again now.

Betty’s been a fighter against the extreme Republican agenda and a champion for working families. This race is a great opportunity to push back against GOP control in more ways than one, and we are excited to give her our endorsement.

After the Ohio redistricting process, she’ll be facing off against incumbent Jim Renacci, who votes in lock-step with the Republican party. But, it appears that Renacci isn’t in this race alone.

It should come as no surprise that Speaker Boehner is getting involved in the Ohio redistricting process. Public documents released on Monday showed that GOP Senate President Tom Niehaus pledged to deliver "a map that Speaker Boehner fully supports." You can guess that map doesn’t exactly lean in Betty’s favor.

In fact, the AP reports that Boehner’s aides asked for a “small carve out” that would put The Timken Company in the 16th, as it was “very important to someone important to us all." That “small carve out” adds a peninsula onto the district that contains “zero population” but is home to the “headquarters of a company whose executives and board members have contributed more than $120,000 to Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci in the last two years.” Sounds about right.

I can understand if facing off against Betty has the GOP more than a little nervous. She is a Democratic leader; in 2009 she authored the CARS Act which developed the “Cash for Clunkers” program which the Wall Street Journal said was “among the most successful stimulus packages to come out of Washington.” It created more than 60,000 jobs during the second half of 2009 and generated over 500,000 new vehicle sales.

She serves as co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Job Creation and works every day to make sure Americans have opportunities to find employment. She also stands up to extreme legislation in the House, and voted against HR 3 “Stupak on Steroids” and resolutions to defund Planned Parenthood.

The people of Ohio deserve a Representative who will fight for them in Congress, and Betty Sutton is just the person for the job.

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