Steny Hoyer

Sources: Hoyer's Official Bid For Whip Indicates He Has The Votes To Win

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 5:16PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Current House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today made official his bid to take the position of Minority Whip in the 112th Congress, a strong indication that he and his supporters think he can win. A source close to Hoyer told TPMDC that they were, in fact, confident they now had the votes to win. Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC) is currently the Whip and indicated last week that he wants to keep his position in the next Congress.

Hoyer spent much of the weekend lining up support from moderate and progressive Dems alike, picking up Reps.Peter Welch (VT) early on and Betty Sutton (OH) and Niki Tsongas (MA) today, among others.

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Tom Ganley

Republican Candidate Threatens To Sue Democrats Over Charges Of Sexual Harassment

Brian Beutler | October 30, 2010, 11:00AM

OH-13 House candidate Tom Ganley (R)

Republican congressional candidate Tom Ganley is obliquely threatening to sue his opponent -- Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio's 13th district -- and the rest of the Democratic Party after multiple women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment.

I have reason to believe the vile lies against me have been carefully orchestrated by Betty Sutton, the Ohio Democratic Party, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I will be meeting with my attorneys this weekend to see if legal action can be filed for the Democrats' efforts to derail my campaign and ruin my reputation.

Before Ganley concocted that explanation for the rash of sex crimes he's been accused of, House Minority John Boehner put Ganley on the list of candidates he'd be campaigning with this weekend.

OH-13

GOPer Ganley: Obama Says He's Christian, 'No Reason To Believe Otherwise'

Eric Kleefeld | August 20, 2010, 12:28PM

OH-13 House candidate Tom Ganley (R)

Tom Ganley, the Republican nominee for Congress in the OH-13 race against incumbent Democrat Betty Sutton, clarified his earlier comments that he did not have a position on whether President Obama is a Muslim -- now saying that he has no reason not to believe the White House's statements that Obama is a Christian. Furthermore, he also said that the question was "irrelevant" to his campaign.

Ganley told Roll Call yesterday:"I don't have a position on whether he's a Muslim." This line of questioning came in the wake of a Pew national poll showing that 18% of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim -- nearly twice the number from last year.

Later in the day, Ganley sent Roll Call a statement. "During an interview earlier today, I was asked a question about President Obama's religion that I felt irrelevant to the story being written about my campaign for Congress," he said. "I do not believe President Obama's religion has any impact on the need for jobs in Ohio's 13th district. According to the White House, our President is a Christian and I have no reason to believe otherwise."

OH-13

County GOP: Get Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton Out Of The House -- And 'Back In The Kitchen'

Eric Kleefeld | April 23, 2010, 10:01AM

Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH)

A recent newsletter from the Republican Party in Medina County, Ohio, flagged by EMILY's List, contains a specific attack on Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton: "Let's take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen."

County GOP chairman Bill Heck told TPMDC that the newsletter was "an attention-getter" in terms of its political rhetoric. "I'm not sure that it was intended -- in fact I'm positive that it was not in intended to be sexist," said Heck. "In fact, it was speaking to the people of that district, and not intended to be a sexist comment."

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Tom Ganley

Report: Ohio Tea Partier Switching From Senate To House Race

Eric Kleefeld | February 17, 2010, 6:26PM

OH-SEN candidates Tom Ganley (R) and Rob Portman (R)

Tom Ganley, an auto dealer who had been seeking the Republican Senate nomination in Ohio, is expected to switch races and instead run for a House seat, against incumbent Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton. This is a big gain for former Rep. Rob Portman, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, who now has a clear path through the primary.

Ganley had been attempting to mount an anti-establishment, Tea Party-linked campaign against Portman, but polls had consistently shown him failing to catch on. Reports indicate that a Ganley internal poll had shown him running well against Sutton. On paper, though, Sutton's district could be a tough climb for Ganley. It voted 57%-42% for Barack Obama in 2008, and before that it voted 56%-44% for John Kerry in 2004.

However, as CQ points out, Ganley will be able to transfer his $1.3 million cash on hand from the Senate race (much of it self-financed) over to the House race. By comparison, Sutton had only $210,000 cash on hand as of December 31.