WASHINGTON DC-Information regarding Democratic gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Congressman Ted Strickland has lead several groups to call for his withdrawal from the gubernatorial race. Facing what many in the media are referring to as a “Foley problem,” in light of the scandal involving former U.S. Congressman Mark Foley and his inappropriate contact with congressional pages, Strickland is under increasing fire involving a vote he made regarding a pedophilia study and an overseas trip he took to Italy with an aide who had been convicted of exposing himself to minors.

   At the center of the debate is Congressman Strickland’s vote and statement regarding a congressional resolution that was considered by the U.S. House of Representatives. The resolution rejected the conclusions of an article put forth by the American Psychological Association (APA) which suggested that sexual relationships between adults and children might be positive for children. Strickland voted "present" on the matter, which passed the House with 355 "yes" votes. In addition to failing to condemn the study and its findings, Strickland went on to make what is known on the Hill as a “one-minute” statement that was inserted into the Congressional Record, noting his objections to the resolution.

   Though the APA later admitted the study was seriously flawed, Strickland has consistently stood by his refusal to condemn the study.

   Many have called into question Strickland’s vote and statement, which fell in line with groups like the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), which supports pedophilia.

   According to its website, the goal of NAMBLA is as follows:

   “NAMBLA's goal is to end the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships by: building understanding and support for such relationships; educating the general public on the benevolent nature of man/boy love; cooperating with lesbian, gay, feminist, and other liberation movements; supporting the liberation of persons of all ages from sexual prejudice and oppression.”

   Strickland, who is a former prison psychologist, has stated that he could not support the resolution because it said that a child who had been sexually abused could not have healthy relationships as an adult.

   Mr. Strickland’s statement from the Congressional Record is below.

   (House of Representatives - July 27, 1999)

   [Page: H6431]

   Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, it troubles me that sometimes in this Chamber we stand and say things that we ought not to say. We criticize people that we have no right to criticize.

   We recently voted to condemn a scientific study and an organization, an organization that has done as much as any organization in this country to fight child abuse.

   I wonder how many of us read the study before we were willing to vote to say that the methodology was flawed. I wonder how many of us were technically competent to make that decision.

   I believe that we ought to observe the Ten Commandments. One of those Commandments says, you ought not to bear false witness against your neighbor.

   When we say things about an organization or about an individual scientist that are untrue or unsubstantiated, in my judgment, we have violated that Commandment.

   We ought to have the decency not to vote to condemn something until we know what it is we are voting to condemn.

   Chris Long, Executive Director of the Ohio Christian Alliance, commented, "You don't need a PhD in psychology to know that pedophilia is never right under any circumstance. It is very troubling that Congressman Strickland failed to join the large bipartisan majority and condemn this reckless study. In the minds of values voters this should certainly raise serious questions about his judgment."

   Also at issue is a trip to Italy that Mr. Strickland took in 1998 with his campaign manager who had four years earlier plead guilty to criminal misdemeanors that involved sexual improprieties with minors (specifically exposing himself and masturbating in front of pre-teen girls in Athens, Ohio). Strickland has maintained that the trip was a post-re-election celebration and that he was not aware of the manager’s previous conviction.

   During the primary earlier this year, Strickland said he was unaware of the staffer’s past when he was hired, that he was later told anonymously about the allegations and asked the employee about them, which the man denied them. The two then went on the previously mentioned trip to Europe.

   When the incident was broached at the last gubernatorial debate in Columbus, Strickland said the following, “I have never knowingly hired or employed someone on my staff, either campaign or my congressional staff, that did not share my values of protecting children and honoring young children and their need to be protected by adults."

   But other sources have asserted that Strickland may have known more that he has admitted regarding the former staffer’s record.

   According to Jerome Corsi’s column, “The anonymous e-mailer who has been circulating copies of the original un-redacted arrest records has charged that in 1998 Mr. Strickland was given the arrest records from Belpre, Ohio, involving related charges made by the Washington County sheriff’s office. The Belpre case was ultimately dismissed and the records were sealed in 2002, but the arrest record was made by the Washington County Sheriff's Office in 1994 and were yet available in Washington County in 1998.

   That Strickland had these arrest papers in 1998, not just an anonymous letter making the charges, has been widely printed in Ohio newspapers as well as in the previously printed commentaries by this author, without being contradicted by Strickland or by the Strickland campaign.”

   The vote and accompanying statement on the House floor coupled with the trip with a man found guilty of such acts has led several in the state to call for Mr. Strickland to remove himself from the gubernatorial race. Among them are Phil Burress, President of Citizens for Community Values; John C. Willke, M.D., President of the Life Issues Institute, Inc.; and Mount Vernon attorney Scott Pullins, whose Pullins Report blog was one of the first to cover sexual questions raised in the campaign regarding Strickland.

   "Fair is fair," Burress told Jerome R. Corsi. "If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can call for Mark Foley and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to resign, then Ted Strickland should step down until all the questions are answered honestly and completely.”

   A call to the Strickland campaign for comment for this story was not returned.