A Republican nominee for a big House race in Ohio is now declining to say whether he thinks President Obama is a Muslim.
“I don’t have a position on whether he’s a Muslim,” said Tom Ganley, an auto dealer and self-funding GOP nominee for Congress in Ohio’s 13th District, in an interview with Roll Call. This interview came in the wake of a Pew national poll showing that 18% of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim — nearly twice the number from last year.
Ganley is running against second-term Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton, in a district that voted 57%-42% for Obama in 2008. He had initially been running for Senate, challenging Rob Portman for the GOP nomination, but was recruited by the party back in February to switch races and go for the House. He has already put $6.5 million of his own money into the race.