Sharen held a press conference with Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, and workers who’ve lost their jobs to talk about the jobs crisis Ohio’s seen under 10 years of Republican leadership - and under Steve Austria’s tenure in the Ohio legislature.

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The Dayton Daily News accompanied their endorsement of Sharen with a strongly worded … well, there’s no other way to put it - it’s a  condemnation … of Austria’s shameless and baseless attacks on Sharen and her family for helping a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.

State Sen. Steve Austria says he reserves the right to attack Sharen Neuhardt for taking in a Rwandan refugee whose family was a victim of genocide and is caught in legal limbo with immigration authorities.

The issue arises because, in meetings and debates, Sen. Austria has accused Ms. Neuhardt of “harboring” an illegal immigrant and behaving unprofessionally as an “officer of the court.” (She is a lawyer.) So you might yet see ugly TV commercials.

If Sen. Austria makes that move, he’s engaging in gutter politics of the most despicable sort [emphasis added]

Austria and his cronies in Washington and Columbus have been shopping around a package of lies about Sharen for weeks … now that crow has come home to roost.   We can only hope Austria has the decency to accept the admonishment, and stop these despicable attacks.