Skip to content

Renacci Files Suit Against AFSCME

A National Republican Congressional Committee-recruited House candidate filed court papers Thursday in Canton, Ohio, accusing a prominent labor union of launching a smear campaign against him and his family.

Republican businessman Jim Renacci is locked in a competitive race against freshman Rep. John Boccieri (D), who won the manufacturing-heavy eastern Ohio district in 2008 after decades of GOP control.

On Thursday, Renacci sued the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees for allegedly defaming his character in a recent round of television ads that cost the union $750,000. As of midday Thursday, a copy of the lawsuit was unavailable, but in one recent AFSCME television ad aired in the district the union claims the GOP candidate “cheated on his income taxes.”

“Renacci hid $13 million and was forced to pay $1.4 million in back taxes and penalties,” the ad’s narrator says. “What do you think?”

In a statement, Renacci denied the accusations, reiterating repeated claims that no one in his family has ever “been subject to any kind of criminal charge or criminal investigation of any kind.”

“In a desperate attempt to hide from his record of support for every component of Nancy Pelosi’s agenda in Washington — including Cap and Trade and rampant fiscal recklessness that has crippled our economy and wiped out our jobs, John Boccieri and his allies are engaged in a scorched earth assault on me, my family and the truth,” he said in the statement released Thursday, referencing Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Earlier this month, FactCheck.org chided AFSCME for running the series of television ads it determined “badly misrepresents [Renacci’s] stance on taxation.”

“AFSCME’s ad says Republican challenger Jim Renacci ‘supports a 23 percent national sales tax,’ and then shows 10 men and women reacting by calling it a bad idea and an unacceptable threat to a struggling middle class,” the nonpartisan website reported. “It’s true enough that Renacci has voiced support for the so-called ‘FairTax’ proposal, which is billed by supporters as a 23 percent tax on sales. What the ad fails to mention is that the FairTax would replace the federal income tax and abolish the Internal Revenue Service, according to its supporters.”

Recent Stories

Capitol Lens | O’s face

Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial

Muslim American appeals court nominee loses Democratic support

At the Races: Lieberman lookback

Court says South Carolina can use current congressional map

Joseph Lieberman: A Capitol life in photos