A British newspapers attempt to influence voters in the pivotal state of Ohio may have had the opposite effect. The Guardian, a left leaning paper
launched a program that targeted swing voters in Ohio in an attempt to sway their votes to John Kerry. The letters written by The Guardians readers
were targeted at non affiliated voters in Clark County.
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When the left-leaning British newspaper The Guardian launched a campaign last month to allow its readers to correspond with working-class swing
voters in Ohio, it hoped to start a friendly dialogue between foreigners interested in the 2004 presidential campaign and U.S. voters who would decide
its outcome.
The project began a conversation, but it didn't have the desired effect.
The letters - many of which criticized the war in Iraq, spoke of fear abroad of U.S. foreign policy and implored recipients to vote President Bush out
of office - were attacked as an invasion of privacy and intrusion into U.S. sovereignty. House Speaker Dennis Hastert threatened to take away The
Guardian's congressional press privileges. Conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity lambasted the project on the air.
"It fired up our side, not just in Clark County, but across the state," said Jason Mauk, spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party. "We got hundreds of
calls from people reporting this to us and asking what they could do. We even heard from wavering American Democrats abroad who told us this helped
them make a decision to vote for Bush."
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The letters were critical of Iraq, and urged voters to oust President Bush. . House Speaker Dennis Hastert has threatened to take away the papers
congressional press privileges. Even Ohio State Democrats called the effort counterproductive. It also appears to have provided the Ohio Republican
Party with an issue to rally the troops. Clark County was among the 5% of the counties that went Republican compared to 2000.
