While her constituents in Ohio’s 13th congressional District reel from the devastating news that National City Bank will be taken over by PNC Bank, Congresswoman Betty Sutton (D-Copley Township) is in New York City tonight, the guest of honor at a posh fundraiser hosted by a wealthy New York City mortgage data industry executive.

Jeffrey H. Lynford is chairman of the board at Reis, Inc., which has strong ties to the largest lending institutions in the country, including GMAC, Bank of America, Fannie May, and Freddie Mac.

“Tonight, Betty Sutton is spending more of her tax payer-paid vacation time with the Fifth Avenue social elites, getting paid back $500 a head for changing her vote to ‘yes’ on the bailout,” said David Potter (R-Strongsville), her opponent in next week’s election.

“The Congresswoman has spent the last four weeks misleading the citizens in our district into believing that her vote would benefit the middle class. But instead, she is busy receiving financial paybacks from the greedy CEOs she pretends to despise.”

Reis, Inc., is a leading provider of commercial real estate information services to the investment community. Lynford, along with his brother, Lloyd Lynford, president and CEO at Reis, both had 2007 incomes that approached $1 million and stock options that dwarf that basic annual compensation.

“This company clearly benefitted financially by Ms. Sutton changing her vote,” Potter said. “She should explain to the struggling voters of her district just who was present at this fundraiser.”

Potter looks forward to her doing just that tomorrow at the Cleveland City Club, where the two debate at noon.

“On October 3rd, Ms. Sutton announced that she changed her vote for a bill that was ‘aimed squarely at restoring our middle class and strengthening our communities,’ ” Potter said, “Apparently, Ms. Sutton forgot that her constituents live in areas where $500 is hard for some citizens to earn over the course of a month. She decries the excesses on Wall Street, yet wants us to look the other way when she visits for a night”.

To view the invitation for Ms. Sutton’s fundraiser, a video of the Congresswoman’s Capitol Hill statement from 10/3, and financial information on her wealthy friend, Jeff Lynford, visit Potter’s website at http://www.potterforcongress.com.

So it is not a case of them "writing off his race"

The commercials you see are for candidates whose races are being run by the "geniouses" in Columbus.

Kyle, I think comparing Bill Kristol, former COS to a VP, NYT columnist, and editor of the Weekly Standard to a blogger is absurd.

I see Ohio House Republicans are already running commercials for Republicans in the Columbus and Cleveland media markets, but nothing for Nero. Is this a sign House Republicans are writing off his race?

I think McCain better start putting the blame for the mortgage crisis on Democrats, or he doesn't have a chance. In two debates, both McCain and Palin passed on making an argument against the Dems on the issue, much to the GOP's detriment. The entire shift in the polls is due to the financial crisis, and by their silence, McCain and Palin are letting the Dems affix the blame on Republicans.

The time to have made this line of attack was before 90% of opinion was solidified – i.e. before the conventions. Now it just signals desperation – real or imagined – and plays into Obambi's rhetoric. The fact that the 4 most influential people in B. Hussein's life were a Communist pedophile in hiding, an anti-American terrorist, an anti-American, anti-Semitic, racist pastor, and a Syrian ex-pat con man is lost on these undecideds.

The "credit crisis" was handed to McCain on a silver platter; and if handled correctly would have thrust him to an insurmountable lead. Instead, he didn't have either the guts or the smarts to take advantage of it. Not only that, but he gift wrapped it for the leftists by taking the blame even though this was a wholly owned Dem failure of corruption and ideology.

At this point, Uh-uh-bama could set the Pope on fire live on TV and still get 40% of the vote. McCain should let this Ayers thing drop and just hammer on the unimaginable economic collapse that will occur by raising taxes during an economic crisis, the leftists' proposed take-over of health care pointing to how well the government did with mortgages, and the mass military retirements that will occur if Obama wins and our security.

McCain's campaign has 1 huge structural disadvantage – 95% of the Media is now an unabashed organ of the DNC – two natural disadvantages – he is old and White – and two strategic disadvantages – shame and conscience. All of these require a critical electorate in order to be overcome. Unfortunately the Dems have spent half a century eroding that characteristic through the dumbing down of education, the coarsening of culture, and the fertilization of a dependent free-rider socioeconomic voting bloc. His best hope now is a purely emotional appeal to peoples' self-interests and how Obama's radicalism puts that at risk.