By their deeds shall we know our public servants. That applies not just to how they govern, but to how they run their campaigns. When it comes to electoral politics, the conventional wisdom seems to be that there's no middle ground between cynicism and naivete, but an interfaith coalition called We Believe Ohio seeks to prove otherwise with a prophetic call for honest, informative, positive political campaigns in the state.

Columbus Dispatch editor Joe Hallett wrote a column yesterday about a discussion he had with We Believe's Rev. Tim Ahrens which perfectly captures the pessimism that year after year of negative campaigning produces:

Each campaign season, a well-meaning group comes up with a clean-campaign pledge that candidates use to their own advantage or ignore as they unleash hired guns to manipulate voters' hopes and dreams, frustrations and fears with half-minute television messages.

I called Ahrens the next day and confessed my skepticism, along with my intention to use him as fodder for this column. He understood and, good preacher that he is, said his group would forge ahead against the odds, putting its faith in the underlying goodness of Ohio voters and their elected representatives.

"What we're looking for is an avalanche of people saying, 'We need to do this.' This affects our kids. Some of the worst TV our kids see is at election time, with these horrible political advertisements about their leaders."

So many candidates today hawk their Christian credentials while ceding their integrity to paid consultants whose bottom line is winning, no matter what it takes.

"At what point do we give away all the integrity of our lives in order to get something else?" Ahrens said. "When you bear false witness against your neighbor, it says more about you than your neighbor. We really have to deal with the effect these campaigns are having on us as a society."

We Believe is holding press conferences in Cleveland and Columbus on Thursday to declare Ohio a political Sleaze Free Zone. A petition endorsing this declaration is quickly amassing hundreds of signatures as it begins to circulate through churches, synagogues and mosques across the state, and it will be presented to the state political parties, campaigns, and the board of elections. If it gives candidates the courage to keep their campaigns out of the gutter, it'll be a resounding success, but an interfaith demand for an end to the sleaze and an embrace of the positive is an important witness regardless of whether it is heeded.