"On Tuesday morning, the National Republican Congressional Committee began airing a commercial that focused on Ryan's criminal record from when he was in college, his opposition to a sexual predatory bill and his failure to abide by federal campaign finance laws. The hard-hitting spot caught Ryan flat-footed, and his initial reaction amounted to his whining about Womer Benjamin's negative campaigning. On Thursday, Ryan aired a commercial that again accused the Republican of going negative. The Democrat's message was this: I want to talk about the issues and what's important to the 17th District, while she wants to talk about things that happened years ago when I was a college student. But the GOP commercial, which urges voters to "tell Ryan to grow up," ignited the race, which had been plodding along. Suddenly there were charges and countercharges and in the middle of the firefight Womer Benjamin aired a spot that showed Valley residents who identified themselves as Democrats touting her candidacy. The negative-positive combination is obviously designed to not only remind voters of Ryan's background, but to show that the Republican is striking a responsive chord with some Democrats. The goal of the Womer Benjamin camp is to raise doubts about Ryan's ability to serve as congressman, so that Democrats who are thinking about supporting him will have second thoughts. What option would they then have: either to ignore the congressional race, or to cast their vote for Traficant, knowing he can't win.