Note: Ohioans are sounding off about an “October surprise” ad from the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic rival. In the ad, Donna Arthur calls Acton a liar. Her husband, Cledith Arthur, was charged with raping Acton between ages 9 and 12. He fled the state with Donald Arthur and eluded the law until dying in 2004. Ramaswamy has begun to run the ad on TV as part of a $4 million buy. Neither Acton nor her brother have not seen there mother since 1978.
The cesspool is crowded
Ramaswamy is in the cesspool, not the muck.
He has taken a 50-year-old family tragedy to smear Dr. Amy Acton, who, along with her brother, has survived and lived better lives after being saved by their biological
father.
Ramaswamy and his Republican enablers also have used Acton’s elderly mother in her continuing effort to survive with her own reality as to what happened, how she acted, and whom she chose over her children.
Will Gov. Mike DeWine withdraw his endorsement of Ramaswamy or at least condemn his behavior?
Ramaswamy admitted they created the ad and will continue to use it.
Will Ramaswamy’s lieutenant governor running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, condemn it and stop its use? Will any Ohio Republican, from U.S. senators on down, say or do anything?
I will not be holding my breath to see that. Decades of Republican control of the state have shown they will do anything to keep power. If they cannot look in the mirror, what do they see when they look in the eyes of their children?
Toba Feldman, Columbus
Ramaswamy sloshing through sewers
There's disgusting, and then there's stomach-turning.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the billionaire fromer DOGE leader who helped billionaire Elon Musk eviscerate government programs for the needy, has gone beyond sloshing through sewers.
Ramaswamy's recent ad featuring gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton's mother dives into repulsive sludge. The ad frames Acton as a bad daughter because she refuses contact with the woman.
Why would she reject her mother? Because after it was revealed that her mother married a pedophile who molested Acton as an adolescent, her mother stayed with her rapist.
A woman cutting off contact with the ally of her rapist? It shows common sense and understandable self-protection to me.
Ramaswamy doesn't care about women. He doesn't care about working people. He doesn't care about sympathy, empathy, or basic decency.
He cares only about power. Ohio, don't give it to him. Elect Amy Acton.
Steve Abbott, Columbus
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Moral rot against victims
Vivek Ramaswamy's new ad featuring her mother, who stood by the man charged with raping Amy Acton at 12, isn't just the latest and most damning proof that he has no business being governor of Ohio. It should be the final straw for anyone still giving his entire party the benefit of the doubt.
He has already gone after Acton over her childhood abuse, even naming his PAC “Victors not Victims” in line with his hyper-capitalist “I’m rich because I’m a genius” schtick. Now he's spending $4 million to put the woman who stayed with her daughter's alleged abuser on the air, calling Acton a liar.
This is beyond disgusting, even from a party that has twice populated the White House with an adjudicated sex pest and serial fraudster.
For decades now, the Republican Party has shed decency, honesty and honor, embracing lies, cruelty and corruption as its policies grow harder to defend. Now, with the real-world wreckage piling up, they have nothing left but dragging a victim's estranged mother out to smear her, which insults their own voters as much as it does Acton.
This ad isn't just disqualifying for Vivek. It's an indictment of the moral rot of his whole party. Ohio should vote them all out.
Judson Dunham, Bexley
A cruel message
Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to exploit Dr. Amy Acton’s childhood trauma reveals three reasons he is unfit to sit at the governor’s desk.
His campaign produced an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother calling her a liar about her childhood. Acton’s stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping her when she was 12. According to Acton’s brother, their mother remained married to him until his death.
First, this shows appalling judgment. Someone who sees a survivor’s broken family as a political opportunity cannot be trusted to exercise the judgment governing requires.
Second, it reveals deliberate cruelty. Ramaswamy could challenge Acton’s policies and public record. Instead, his campaign chose to reopen wounds inflicted on a child and then committed millions to broadcasting the attack.
Third, it undermines a governor’s responsibility to protect vulnerable people. What message does this send to survivors wondering whether anyone in power will take their suffering seriously?
Acton was a child when the adults responsible for protecting her failed her. Decades later, Ramaswamy has chosen to exploit that failure for votes.
A willingness to cross that line should disqualify him from holding Ohio’s highest office.
Robert Chalfant, Bentleyville
A new level of indecency
Imagine being sexually assaulted and abused by your stepfather as a 9-year-old. Imagine having to protect your younger brother from similar abuse. Now imagine your mom showing up in court to defend your abuser, turning her back on you as a 12-year-old child and permanently cutting you out of her life.
Amy Acton endured this experience and somehow managed to not only survive but also excel in school, go to med school, become the top public health figure in the state, and emerge as the leading candidate for governor.
What is Vivek Ramaswamy's response? Find the disgraced and now-elderly mother, a woman who hasn't spoken to her children since that 1978 day in court, and use her in an attack ad saying Amy is a liar for telling authorities about her abusive stepfather.
It's hard to imagine the level of indecency and cruelty it would take to disparage the sexual assault of a child, but Ramaswamy managed to put it on full display. I would say it's shocking, but the billionaire class will go to any lengths to protect their financial interests, even disparaging child sexual assault victims.
Amy Acton is a remarkable person, a lifelong Ohioan who leads with empathy and decency. She will fight for the interests of ordinary Ohioans.
This election cannot come soon enough.
Steve Shapiro, Columbus
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ramaswamy 'sloshing through sewers.' Voters on ad using Acton's mother | Letters
