As the 2nd District (OH) Turns: Local Prolife PAC’s Selective But Unexplained Endorsements

The Ohio 2nd blog reports that The Cincinnati Right to Life Political Action Committee (CRTL-PAC) has endorsed three candidates in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District Primary: Tom Brinkman, Bob McEwen, and Jean Schmidt.

I have looked at the candidates’ answers to the questions on the PAC’s survey. The following candidates answered “Yes” to all seven questions, which would clearly earn each of them a description (by CRTL-PAC’s definintion) as prolife:
- Steve Austin (R)
- Tom Bemmes (R)
- Brinkman (R)
- Pat DeWine (R)
- McEwen (R)
- Eric Minamyer (R)
- Doug Mink (R)
- Jeff Morgan (R)
- Charles W. Sanders (D)
- Schmidt (R)
- Jeff Sinnard (D)
- David Smith (R)

Some candidates supplemented their answers, but none of those listed above qualified their straight “yes” answers in any way.

CRTL-PAC has not explained why they endorsed some candidates and not others. CRTL-PAC owes the people of this district an explanation.

Perhaps there’s a difference in actual voting records. It could be that CRTL-PAC doesn’t believe a Democrat who says he is prolife, no matter how strongly. Maybe it’s all about personal pique. Possibly CRTL-PAC evaluated primary and/or special-election electability. Someone may have a grudge against anyone who didn’t support George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries (scroll about halfway down), or in the 2000 and 2004 general elections.

The point is, we don’t know. And until we see or hear an on-the-record explanation, these so-called “endorsements” aren’t worth the bandwidth they are using.

Since when does the prolife movement get to play favorites among candidates of demonstrably equal conviction without justfication?
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UPDATE, June 2, 2:30 PM: This Cincinnati Enquirer article contains the following (about 75% through the article):

Fifteen PAC members studied the surveys and voted on the endorsements, based on the responses and “their own personal knowledge” of the candidates.

Hmmm. That means they didn’t consider voting records? Electability? What “personal knowledge” factors were considered? Was DeWine excluded on “personal knowledge” of his divorce, etc.? This is altogether very unsatisfying. The fact remains that CRTL-PAC has NOT explained any of its reasoning on its own web site, and should. Even BizzyBlog can’t be expected to catch every word of every local article on the race.