Toledoans for Safe Water said at a news conference Monday that its proposed Lake Erie Bill of Rights is being smeared on radio advertisements by a Columbus-based firm with deep pockets.
Markie Miller, Toledoans for Safe Water organizer, said Strategic Public Partners Group is “putting fear into the public” with 11th-hour falsehoods leading up to Toledo’s Feb. 26 special election. She said it is doing so under the name of a group called “Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition,” which she and others contend was created as a front to attack their proposed amendment to Toledo’s city charter.
The firm has represented major pharmaceutical companies, the American Chemistry Council, Coca Cola Corp, FedEx, Bank of America, Ford Motor Co., the National Football League, and others, according to a joint statement by her group and Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie.
“We expected this in a way,” Ms. Miller said.
VIDEO: Sam Wright, Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie
Sean Nestor, who also belongs to Toledoans for Safe Water, said in a Facebook post that Toledo Coalition for Jobs and Growth is one of two “shadow PACs” that were “formed in the last week out of nowhere to attack the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.”
The other, he said, is a group called Real Solutions for Lake Erie. Neither has websites. Real Solutions for Lake Erie recently had a Facebook page created. But nearly all posts are from critics who claim it is a phony group created to attack the campaign.
The former has been airing a series of attack ads on local radio stations, while the latter is focused on social media, according to Mr. Nestor.
“It shouldn't surprise anyone that an innovative effort to protect Lake Erie and hold its polluters accountable is being hit with a well-funded smear campaign full of outright lies,” Mr. Nestor wrote in his Facebook post. “The same people that make money by not cleaning up their mess are paying slick [public relations] firms to convince people to vote against protecting their own water supply.”
Brandon Lynaugh, a partner at Strategic Public Partners Group, is listed on Lucas County Board of Elections documents as the coalition’s treasurer.
Mr. Lynaugh refused to be interviewed, but said in a statement on behalf of the coalition that the Lake Erie Bill of Rights is “a misguided effort that threatens the economic security of Toledo families.” The statement went on to claim that small businesses, places of worship, and labor organizations “will all suffer under this proposal,” but gave no explanation.
The coalition has not yet run any television ads.
According to the website OpenSecrets.org, Strategic Public Partners is a lobbying-public relations firm listed as a political action committee — or PAC — and has donated to several of Ohio’s Republican members of Congress and no Democrats.
Recipients have included U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green), and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R. Urbana).
Among the coalition’s multiple claims is that the Lake Erie Bill of Rights campaign is being run by out-of-state extremists.
Flanked by about 30 other Toledoans inside One Government Center, Ms. Miller flatly denied that. Many of those in attendance were locals who had gathered signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. Toledoans for Safe Water also had its ballot initiative represented in front of the Lucas County Board of Elections and the Ohio Supreme Court by Terry Lodge, a Toledo attorney.
Sam Wright, an ACLE member, said he finds the accusation baseless and insulting.
“I find it extremely offensive and I think it's just fear mongering,” Mr. Wright said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a local initiative.”
Ms. Miller acknowledged early in the campaign and again Monday that the only outside involvement has been consulting from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is based in Mercersburg, Pa., and has worked with communities in at least 10 states to enact what are known as “rights to nature” laws. It also has done work in Nepal, India, Cameroon, Colombia, Australia, and other countries.
Such efforts, according to a six-page analysis published Feb. 8 by Ohio State University Extension, have “a bad track record in courts nationwide.”
VIDEO: Markie Miller, Toledoans for Safe Water
In a second prepared statement submitted to The Blade, Mr. Lynaugh said the coalition stands behind its radio ad. He said it is “designed to highlight the fact that an out of state organization called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is pushing these reckless and legally dubious issues on local ballots all across the country without regard to their negative impact on jobs and local economies."
Records show only one contribution has been made to Toledoans for Safe Water by a person affiliated with the CELDF. That was a $100 donation on Sept. 21, 2018 by Tish O’Dell, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, who is CELDF’s Ohio organizer.
Toledo Jobs and Growth Coalition is too new to have campaign contributions on file. Mr. Lynaugh said the group is a ballot issue committee that “will file all the required reports outlining campaign contributions and expenditures at the next filing deadline.”
A lengthy article about the proposed bill led the Sunday New York Times National page.
“I hope people realize the world is watching,” Ms. Miller said. “This might be a local effort, but it’s a local effort that’s part of a larger national movement — the community rights movement, the rights of nature.”
Both Toledoans for Safe Water and Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie are Toledo-based groups formed in response to Toledo’s 2014 algae-driven water crisis. ACLE was created by two-time Toledo mayoral candidate and former Toledo City Councilman Mike Ferner.
First Published February 18, 2019, 7:05 p.m.
