Tom Ganley, Republican challenger of Ohio’s 13th District, is in something of a pickle. Having just been sued for sexual assault in a flamboyantly worded complaint by an alleged Tea Party volunteer and locked in a tight race against ruthless labor lawyer and incumbent Democrat Betty Sutton, Ganley seems to be staring down the barrel of an electoral gun.
Matters are complicated by the fact that his accuser, one Robin Cupedro-Saccany (whose name has already been splashed across every left-wing blog in the state), has the advantage of supposedly being from the same camp as Ganley himself politically, thus lending superfluous credibility to her story. After all, a staunch, Palin-loving Republican has no reason to lie or extort a candidate, right?
However, whatever her own political affiliations, a look at those of Ms. Cupedro-Saccany’s family may tell a very different story. Specifically, prior to coming to Ohio, Ms. Cupedro-Saccany and her husband, Theodore “Ted” Saccany lived in a suburb of Chicago known as Hoffman Estates. Another resident of Hoffman Estates — a small village of about 50,000 people — with the same surname was one Thomas Saccany, father of Sarah Saccany, a staffer in the Ted Strickland administration and head of the Ohio Young Democrats. The two are not conclusively related, as the only connection is the shared hometown and surname. However, given the small size of Hoffman Estates, and given also that the name “Saccany” was and is an exceedingly uncommon name in Illinois according to WhitePages, the potential relationship between the two ought to at least raise some questions.
For instance, if the hyper-partisan Democrat Sarah Saccany is in fact related to the alleged Tea Partier and victim Robin Cupedro-Saccany, are the two even on speaking terms? If so, how much of an influence did the former have on the latter’s decision to go to court? Why was a case of what was (at least according to the complaint) clear attempted rape never reported to the police or to anyone until it was electorally inconvenient for Ganley?
It may be nothing, but one must wonder.