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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12773871p-13624987c.html

[/quote]x-state legislator attacks Ohio Sen. Voinovoich over the delay on Bolton.
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 23, 2005
WASHINGTON - Former San Diego County Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian hasn't been this delighted since the battle to recall former Gov. Gray Davis succeeded.

This time, Kaloogian, who became co-chairman of Sacramento-based Move America Forward after his third-place showing in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, has a fellow Republican in his crosshairs.

The organization began running radio ads in Ohio this week attacking Republican Sen. George Voinovich for holding up the confirmation of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after questions arose about his temperament for the job.

Voinovich's action spurred the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to put off for several weeks Bolton's confirmation while staff members look into new information that Bolton might have a pattern of bullying those who disagreed with him.

Within a couple of hours of Voinovich's action Tuesday, Move America Forward announced on its Web site and in faxes to news organizations that it would target Voinovich for his "obstructionist conduct." On Thursday, the day the ads began running, Voinovich's office phones were jammed with callers and computer e-mail in-baskets were clogged with messages related to the Bolton confirmation. It was no better Friday.

"The telephone lines are consistently busy," said Voinovich spokeswoman Marcie Ridgway. "And we're getting lots of e-mails because they posted our e-mail addresses on their Web site."

Kaloogian, who used the talk-radio circuit to talk up the recall against Davis, thinks the Voinovich campaign is a big boost to an organization that, for the most part, has gained only a smattering of attention from its Sacramento-area events and its rebuttals last summer to filmmaker Michael Moore.

"This seems to be the time when people in Washington, D.C., have taken notice of what we're doing," Kaloogian said.

Kaloogian's co-chair is KSFO-San Francisco radio talk show host Melanie Morgan, who said the initial radio buy in Ohio was small but more stations will be added over the next couple of weeks as contributions arrive.

"This is pretty big," she said.

But Ridgway refused to attribute the bombardment only to Move Forward America, saying the majority of the calls and messages are from outside Ohio.

"They can do what they want with their money, but if they are trying to influence Sen. Voinovich's opinion on the confirmation vote, it won't work," Ridgway said. "The senator does not have any regrets about how he handled this."

Ridgway said that about half the calls and messages the office is receiving are in praise of the senator taking a stand.
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