The gloves are off in the race for Ohio Governor.
With just more than a week to go before the primaries, Attorney General Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Mary Taylor have released a barrage of attack ads. Both are trying to claim the title as 'most conservative.'
From D.C. Dewine to Phony Politician Taylor. The name calling is not unusual. But what is, is the fact that both are trying to distance themselves from anything liberal including Hillary Clinton and even Current Republican Governor John Kasich...who's become radioactive in this race.
We looked into some of the ads, and who has the facts to back them up.
"Come and Take it!" Candidate for Governor and current Lt. Governor Mary Taylor exclaimed as she held up a rifle at a recent gun rally in Columbus.
She talks the talk. But the problem is walking the walk.
As a representative in the Ohio House for only 3 years, she doesn't exactly have that long conservative voting record under her belt.
"Mr. Dewine has been on the ballot in five different decades so he's obviously got a much more lengthy career to pick and dissect," said Political commentator Tom Beres.
But being a career politician is a four letter word these days. And being a Conservative has a whole new meaning.
"In my belief they're using it to refer to their positions on absolutely no gun regulations, very, very hard line on abortions, very unforgiving policies on immigration," he said.
Which is why her commercials slamming D.C. Dewine resonate.
"Mike Dewine voted with Hillary Clinton 962 times on Amnesty and gun bans and more debt," declared one of her commercials
Now, when it comes to Dewine's voting records, he did support some gun control legislation when he was a Senator.
But as Attorney General, he began supporting gun "rights" laws
As for amnesty for illegal immigrants, he didn't vote “for” them...he just didn't vote against them.
Beres explained, "You're trying to judge votes that were decades ago. And I don't think you can do that because the circumstances and the public view of the immigration issues is certainly much, much different now than it was back then."
And as for all the other votes..
"Probably a good number of those were to rename a post office or fairly innocuous things," he suggested.
But in politics...just about everyone stretches the truth. And Dewine's ads are no different.
One ad claims, "Taylor refused to endorse Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and supported Medicaid expansion under Obama care."
"What was she supposed to do?" I asked, referring to Governor John Kasich who took those positions.
"I think she at least went along because her boss was in favor of promoting it. Now she has made it clear that she was kind of in that politically awkward situation,” said Beres.
And distancing themselves from Kasich is the one conservative point they're both being honest about, because being an anti-Trump Republican these days, is like being on the wrong side of the Wall.
You can watch Taylor's ads below:
WATCH | '76 | Mary Taylor for Governor
WATCH | Voting
WATCH | Mary Taylor: "Phony"
Now obviously that is just a snippet of what's going on in the race. Tom Beres interviewed all six major candidates for Governor, and he goes way beyond the soundbites and commercials. You can find them on our website by clicking here