Are Bill Todd and the ORP sexist or just a bunch of dicks?

Promoted from the forums. Looks like 2010's got a bit of spunk to him today. In the future I suspect you'll see a lot more of stuff like this on the frontpage. If Todd wants to inherit the "blackwell" crown, we'll sure as hell treat him like Blackwell. - Jerid

Let’s say you’re the Department of Development and you’re looking for a workforce development specialist. The best person for the job has 20+ years of directly-relevant experience. So you hire that person, right?

Seems pretty simple.

But, Bill Todd, the Republican candidate for Mayor of Columbus, disagrees. Todd thinks the wife of a political figure couldn’t possibly get a job on her own. In fact, he said Frankie Coleman had no business being hired by the Ohio Department of Development because she was not "eligible, competent or qualified."

What’s worse, the heir-apparent of the Ohio Republican Party, State Rep. Kevin Dewine, repeats this baseless – and seemingly sexist – attack in the Plain Dealer yesterday.

Let’s look at the facts about Mrs. Coleman's qualifications.

From 1983-88, Frankie Coleman directed job training at the precursor to ODJFS. She moved on to Executive Director of the Private Industry Council, Inc. from 1988 to 2000. Then she worked as Director of Community Relations for The Ohio State University and Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Work Life Planning at OhioHealth.

In January 2000, just prior her husband's first term as mayor, this is what the Small Business News had to say about Frankie Coleman:

Her husband, Mike, may be mayor-elect, but she's got the upper hand in the business community right now. Her role in linking available workers and labor-starved employers will continue to make her one of the more powerful forces in dealing with the local job glut.

Not qualified? Really? She has been working in workforce development for nearly 25 years. Yet corrupt Republicans, like Bill Todd, have pushed the tired "she's not qualified"refrain into their echo chamber because she is the wife of a politically important Democrat.

The level of desperation here is shocking. We always knew Bill Todd would be a dirty candidate with his long history of nasty, mudslinging politics. But to attack the Mayor and his wife so early and so viciously--and with what can easily be construed as sexist overtones--reeks of a campaign reduced to grasping at straws.