HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) — A Hilliard City Council campaign flyer successfully left residents confused, igniting debate over political satire and dirty politics.
A group of Hilliard Republicans mailed out 2,000 flyers seemingly identifying Democratic candidate Andy Teater as an undercover Republican candidate. Teater, current council vice president, said the mailer was meant to divide and confuse people. The conservative political group behind the mailer said it was meant to spark conversation, and it did.
“After a lifetime of service to the GOP, Andy Teater and his Republican campaign manager Tony Moog have taken on one last mission: to infiltrate and take over the Hilliard Democratic Party from the inside,” the flyer reads.
The flyer includes a photo of Teater accepting an award on behalf of his parents for their lifetime of public service to central Ohio. The award was given by the Franklin County Republican Party and encourages “everyone to support this MAGA patriot with your vote in the Democratic Primary for Hilliard City Council.”
Teater ran in two council elections and served 12 years on the Hilliard school board as a Republican. However, he said he never voted for Donald Trump and switched parties after he felt his values aligned more closely with Democrats.
“I am a fierce supporter of public schools, and at the state level and the federal level, I feel like public schools are under attack by the Republican Party,” Teater said. “Even when I was a Republican, I valued women’s reproductive rights, I supported stronger laws and more protection for LGBTQ+ and I’ve also supported reasonable gun laws.”
Les Carrier, a Hilliard City Council member, is one of the six Republicans behind the flyer. He spoke with NBC4’s Colleen Marshall about the divisive mailer.
“We wanted to highlight the hypocrisy that was going on here and if you think about it, Colleen, that piece brought that out,” Carrier said.
Carrier said they made the flyer as political satire. He said it was “hypocritical” of the Franklin County Democratic Party to endorse Teater after he spent decades as a Republican. Teater, however, said the mailer was “just disappointing.”
“It’s just unfortunate; so often, people are trying to get ahead by dividing people,” Teater said. “I think nobody wins when we try to divide people or confuse people.”
The Ohio Revised Code technically limits false statements in campaign materials, but there is no way to enforce it. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled those state restrictions were unconstitutional in 2016, saying they restricted protected political speech. State law requires false statement complaints to go through the Ohio Election Commission, which is no longer allowed to accept those complaints under the court ruling.
With no enforceable law, the campaign flyers are left to public debate.
“Oh, it was absolutely — I can’t tell you, we think it’s political satire,” Carrier said. “We put it out that way.”.
“It’s just disappointing that a piece like that can go out that is only meant to deceive or confuse the public,” Teater said.
Both Carrier and Teater are seeking re-election this year, vying for three open city council seats. Teater is one of seven Democratic candidates, four of whom will advance after Tuesday’s primary.
