Boehner rival loses job over campaign ad

The tea party activist challenging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has lost his teaching job over a racy Web video that went viral last week.

J.D. Winteregg, who's received outside support from the Tea Party Leadership Fund in his bid for Boehner's House seat, had been an adjunct professor at Cedarville University, a small Christian college in Cedarville, Ohio, for three years. Last week, Winteregg was told his contract would not be renewed. Winteregg, 32, said in an interview that he was dismissed after his campaign released a video parody of erectile dysfunction advertisements.

"They said because of the ad that my relationship with them will be done. It's over," Winteregg said Monday. "The ad obviously touched a nerve."

The minute-long video includes sexual innuendo and shows couples gazing longingly at each other.

"Used on a daily basis, Winteregg in Congress will help you every time the moment is right -- to have your voice heard at the federal level," a narrator says in the ad. "If you have a Boehner lasting longer than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention."

In a statement, Cedarville University spokesman Mark Weinstein said that Winteregg's teaching responsibilities had concluded for the semester and that Winteregg is not scheduled to teach future classes.

"Cedarville University does not engage in partisan politics and holds a high regard for displaying Christian values in the community. When faculty or staff members participate in political conversations, interviews, advertisements, or endorsements, they are doing so as individual citizens. Mr. Winteregg in his recent political campaign video did not represent the views or values of Cedarville University," Weinstein said.

The Tea Party Leadership Fund has spent more than $320,000 attacking Boehner, mostly by direct mail to his constituents. Boehner has responded with television advertising trumpeting his connections to the district and his conservative bona fides.

On Monday, Boehner's campaign reserved another $48,000 in television advertising in the Cincinnati and Dayton media markets. Boehner has spent about $345,000 on television ads in advance of the May 6 Republican primary.

Asked what comes next, Winteregg said he's looking toward the primary. "Now I just put my head down and work to win," he said, "and hopefully I get that job in 2015."