New attack ad on Acton causes controversy
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The brother of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton sharply criticized an unaired commercial with their estranged mother, who urges voters not to support her daughter and calls her a "liar."
Acton has not spoken to her mother, Donna Stearns Arthur, since September 1978, when her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury on a felony charge of rape for allegedly sexually assaulting Acton.
The Arthurs left Ohio with Cledith considered a fugitive. Warrants for his arrest were issued a number of other times. He died in 2004 without facing prosecution for the rape charge. The couple were residing in Mechanicsburg, Pa., at the time of his death.
No one is claiming responsibility for creating the ad that was first obtained by D.J. Byrnes, who runs The Rooster, an Ohio political blog. While it hasn't aired and doesn't have a "paid for" disclaimer, the commercial has created national news.
In the ad, Donna Stearns Arthur says: "It's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar. She lies about her past."
Acton's mother doesn't address the rape charge against her husband in the ad.
Philip Stearns, Acton's brother, issued a statement about the unaired ad through his sister's campaign.
Stearns said: "After (Cledith Arthur) was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy (Acton's Republican opponent) is at his core - a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants."
Stearns also said: "It's not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point."
Connie Luck, a Ramaswamy spokesperson, said: "We don't know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor."
Luck's statement didn't address if the Ramaswamy campaign was responsible for the ad and didn't criticize it.
Luck said: "Amy Acton has serious questions to answer about her statements during COVID, her attacks on Vivek, and her failure to disclose her own multiple police reports for domestic incidents to the governor, including one instance where police had to stop her from driving a car after she had been drinking and using prescription drugs. Everyone who knows her best - her former boss, her former state colleagues, her fellow physicians and now her own mother - are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her. Ohioans deserve better."
That led Addie Bullock, an Acton campaign spokesperson, to say: "The choice to use and then stand by Dr. Acton's estranged and abusive mother who stayed married to her rapist stepfather until the day he died shows Ohioans exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is. Ramaswamy has taken every opportunity possible to campaign with pedophiles, abusers and sexual predators while accepting more than $100,000 from Epstein associates and mocking Dr. Acton for being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse."
Bullock added: "This isn't just disturbing, it's disqualifying. Ohio deserves better."
In an August 2019 column, Todd Franko, then the editor of The Vindicator, wrote about Acton recounting the alleged sexual abuse. In the column, Acton said as a child in court, she tried to kiss her mother, who turned her cheek away.
Acton said: "That was the last time I ever saw her."
In the unaired commercial, Acton's mother said her estranged daughter "lied" about being homeless and living in a tent in Youngstown during one winter.
But a 1982 court record shows Cledith Arthur lived in a tent, confirming Acton's accounts.
Acton's mother and stepfather were charged over the years with a number of other crimes. Her mother was found guilty in 2021 of neglect of animals and in 1996 of felony theft by deception.