A Northside great-grandmother taped a statewide TV ad on behalf of Senate Bill 5 opponents – only to be stunned and outraged when she saw herself featured in an ad for the other side.
The fight over the Cincinnati great-grandmotherÂ’s image is now the latest battle in the hard-fought campaign over Senate Bill 5, which limits collective bargaining for public employees. Ohio voters will decide whether to keep the law in November; itÂ’s on the ballot as Issue 2.
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“I think it’s dishonest and downright deceitful that they would use footage of me to try to play tricks and fool voters,” Marlene Quinn said in a press release by We Are Ohio, the anti-Issue 2 group that initially produced the video.
Backers of Senate Bill 5 say they are within their rights to use her image, and at least one election expert agrees.
Three television stations in Columbus and two in West Virginia pulled the controversial ad, at the anti-SB5 groupÂ’s request. The use of QuinnÂ’s image in the ad was first reported Tuesday by the liberal blog Plunderbund.
Quinn credits Cincinnati firefighters with saving the life of her great-granddaughter Zoey Quinn, now 4, and grandson in a November fire. In an ad she taped for Senate Bill 5 opponents, Quinn says, “When the fire broke out, there wasn’t a moment to spare. If not for the firefighters, we wouldn’t have Zoey today. That’s why it is so important to vote no on Issue 2.”
Quinn continues, “How many of those politicians in Columbus have fought a fire, have been short manpower? The politicians don’t care about the middle class. They turn their backs on all of us. I don’t want the politicians in Columbus making decisions for the firefighters, the police, teachers, nurses or any organization that’s helping the people. Fewer firefighters can mean the difference between life or death, and that’s why I’m voting no in Issue 2.”
Building A Better Ohio released an ad this week that starts with the same image of Quinn saying “When the fire broke out, there wasn’t a moment to spare. If not for the firefighters, we wouldn’t have Zoey today.”
Then another voice says, “She’s right. By voting no on Issue 2 our safety will be threatened. Without Issue 2, communities will have to lay off hard-working firefighters to pay the excessive benefits of other government workers. Issue 2 protects our communities.”
Quinn appears again saying, “Fewer firefighters can mean the difference between life or death.” Then the ad ends with “Vote Yes on Issue 2.”
We Are Ohio is considering suing Better Ohio and filing a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission over the use of their material, said spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas.
Meanwhile, the Better Ohio campaign sent a letter to television stations saying it has a legal right to use QuinnÂ’s image and voice because she went beyond talking about a personal issue and entered the political realm, according to Connie Wehrkamp, press secretary for Better Ohio.
“We understand her personal story,” Wehrkamp said, “but she diverted into a political message.”
That may be true, said Daniel Tokaji, an elections law expert and professor at the Mortiz School of Law at Ohio State University.
He said the First Amendment’s protection of political speech is a “plausible argument” for allowing Better Ohio to use the material.
Acknowledging that the legal argument is a gray area because “there is not a lot of case law” specific to this kind of incident, Tokaji said, We Are Ohio would have to prove Better Ohio recklessly disregarded the truth. That’s a higher standard of proof than proving the ad is misleading, “which is in the eye of the beholder.”
He said the Ohio Elections Commission would be governed by the First Amendment as well.
William P. Marshall, a former Ohio Solicitor General and law professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, disagreed.
“Deliberate falsity is not protected by the First Amendment,” he said. “I have never seen a political ad that so clearly distorts and presents a falsity that this one did.”
Marshall said the We Are Ohio camp may be able to show that Quinn was put in a false light because the Better Ohio ad “completely distorts and misappropriates someone’s personality to imply that she supports something that she does not. The (U.S. Supreme) Court has never said a deliberate lie is protected. Her persona is distorted.”
Nowhere in the Better Ohio ad does it attribute the video to We Are Ohio. Quinn has signed a document saying she did not give permission to Better Ohio to use her comments.
“(The Better Ohio ad) is just a blatant disregard of her wishes and those of her family,” said Paul Weber, a district chief for the Cincinnati Fire Department. Weber was the first on the scene of the fire and the incident commander. “She is very upset about it.”
The We Are Ohio ad included still images of the rescue of Zoey Quinn. Weber said he talked to Zoey and Mrs. QuinnÂ’s grandson as firefighters raced to get them out of the burning home. Both collapsed near a second-story window before that could happen.
Though both werenÂ’t breathing and had no pulse, firefighters revived both after getting them out, Weber said. Marlene Quinn has been thanking firefighters ever since, sometimes bringing cookies to the fire station. Weber said she didnÂ’t hesitate when We Are Ohio asked her if she would do the ad.
“I’m not a political person,” Weber said, “but to see what (Better Ohio) is doing to her and her wishes is beyond immoral, to twist her comments for political gain.”
Mike Gillis, communications director of the Ohio AFL-CIO, which is a member of We Are Ohio, called the Better Ohio ad “a deceitful thing intended to confuse voters, particularly senior citizens. It’s shameful.”
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