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(Dem) Hackett on attack in (OH 2nd CD) race
Cincinnati Post ^ | 6/24/2005 | Barry M. Horstman

Posted on 06/24/2005 9:42:50 AM PDT by GoBucks2002

Hackett on attack in race He sets sights on Schmidt

By Barry M. Horstman Post staff reporter

When a Democratic Congressional Unity Breakfast can be handled quite easily at a table for three at a downtown Cincinnati restaurant, Paul Hackett needs look no further for evidence of just how uphill his campaign in the 2nd Congressional District will be this summer.

Looking for something, anything to draw attention to the special Aug. 2 general election to replace former Rep. Rob Portman, Hackett met Thursday morning with two of the five candidates he defeated in last week's Democratic primary. The other three had been invited to Reno's restaurant on East Court Street but were unable to attend.

But the person he most wants to see has been difficult to find since the June 14 primary, Hackett said Thursday.

On the night of their respective primary victories, Hackett proposed that he and Republican Jean Schmidt appear together at a series of seven town hall meetings, one per week in the seven counties that comprise the 2nd District, which stretches from eastern Hamilton County and southern Warren County east to Portsmouth.

Schmidt, a former state representative from Clermont County who won the 11-candidate GOP primary, ducked making a commitment on election night, however, and has been doing the same ever since, Hackett said.

"She's acting like she's an incumbent, like the 2nd District is hers. It's not hers. I find it arrogant and elitist for her to be acting like she's entitled to the votes of people in the district," said Hackett, a Marine Corps reservist recently returned from Iraq and an Indian Hill lawyer.

Schmidt's campaign manager, Joe Braun, said Thursday that Hackett's campaign has never contacted him about the town hall plan. But even if it had, the answer probably would have been no, he said.

Saying he does not intend to allow Hackett to "set our schedule," Braun stressed that Schmidt "isn't ducking anybody," pointing out that at least two debates already have been scheduled for next month.

"It's perplexing to me that they're complaining we're ducking them, because Jean, I and our headquarters have never received any calls or letters from them," Braun said. "How can you duck something you were never asked about?"

Hackett campaign manager David Woodruff conceded that he had not directly contacted Schmidt's staff to try to set up the town hall meetings, but argued that news coverage of the idea "made them very aware the offer was out there."

"They just don't want to do it," he said.

As the GOP nominee in the most heavily Republican congressional district in Ohio, Schmidt has little incentive to do anything to create an audience for Hackett in the race to succeed Portman, who stepped down to accept President Bush's appointment to the cabinet-level post of U.S. trade representative.

For Hackett, Thursday's unity breakfast underscored the tough odds facing him. The combined unofficial vote total in the June 14 primary for Hackett and the two defeated candidates with whom he met Thursday - Victoria Wells Wulsin and Charles Sanders - was 12,827, more than 1,400 votes less Schmidt's total of 14,232 ballots.

All six Democrats in the primary drew only 13,798 votes, less than one-third of the 42,390 votes cast in the GOP primary.

As he has throughout the campaign, Hackett said the challenges of running as a Democrat in the 2nd District are negligible compared to those he faced only three months ago in Iraq.

"Compared to what I was doing, I'm not psyched out in the least by this," Hackett said.

"I know there's very little doubt that I'll be coming home at night, with all of my toes and fingers. I get to see my wife and kids. And I get to sleep in an air-conditioned bedroom. So this isn't tough at all."


TOPICS: Ohio; Campaign News; State and Local; U.S. Congress; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: hackett; ohio; portman; schmidt; specialelection
Watch the media do everything they can to glorify Paul Hackett. Yes, he is a vet of the Iraq war, but he was known for attacking his commander-in-chief during the Democratic primaries.
1 posted on 06/24/2005 9:42:50 AM PDT by GoBucks2002
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To: GoBucks2002

The best thing the folks on our side can do is just ignore him. If you feed him he'll keep hanging around your porch.


2 posted on 06/27/2005 11:53:45 PM PDT by no dems (43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, 2 to pull a trigger: I'm lazy and tired of smiling,)
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To: GoBucks2002

From Wikipedia on this 'rat. Read the part about pushing for "we need an exit stategy out of Iraq". Just another rat.


Paul L. Hackett III (born circa 1962) is a personal injury lawyer from Ohio who on June 14, 2005, won the Democratic nomination for Congress to replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio (map) and will face Republican nominee Jean Schmidt in the general election on August 2, 2005. Hackett would be the first veteran of the Iraq War in Congress if elected.

A resident of Indian Hill, a wealthy Cincinnati suburb, Hackett is a retired major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve who has served in the Iraq War. He has a B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and his J.D. from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He practices law in downtown Cincinnati with the Hackett Law Offices. He is a member of the National Rifle Association.

Hackett was elected to the city council of Milford, Ohio, a city in Clermont and Hamilton Counties, in 1995 to replace Chris Imbus, who was recalled from office by a vote of 410 to 86. In the recall election on May 2, he defeated businessman Jacques E. Smith by a vote of 388-81. On the Milford council, he opposed efforts to rezone a parcel of land in order to retain the Milford post office within the city limits. He resigned from the council in September 1998 to devote more time to his family and his law practice. He was replaced on the council by James Gradolf. When he purchased a home in Indian Hill in 2000, the transaction made The Cincinnati Enquirer's column of most expensive real-estate transactions in the area.

Hackett decided to run because "with all that this country has given me, I felt it wasn't right for me to be enjoying life in Indian Hill when Marines were fighting and dying in Iraq," he told The Cincinnati Post. In his bid for Congress to replace Rob Portman, Hackett was endorsed by the county Democratic parties in four of the seven counties in the district, those in Brown, Clermont, Hamilton, and Pike Counties. Party leaders chose to support him rather than Charles W. Sanders, the Democratic nominee in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. Tim Burke, chairman of the party in Hamilton County said "The blunt reality is that Charles Sanders can't win the 2nd District seat."

Hackett was also endorsed by labor unions: the United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council. The Dayton Daily News, a Democratic paper, endorsed Hackett, calling him an "articulate, down-to-earth exponent of moderate Democratic views"

Hackett told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the Iraq War has not been worth the price. "We need to develop an exit strategy and execute it. That strategy must commit 100% of our efforts to training the 140,000 Iraqi soldiers to do the jobs that the United States is doing now. We cannot again falsely declare victory."

The Cincinnati Enquirer, a paper with a Republican editorial position, endorsed Hackett in the Democratic primary. The paper editorialized "he is not an ideologue, but someone willing to listen to different points of view and to act on the basis of what he believes will best serve his constituents." The paper also called attention to his leading a recall against members of the Milford city council and "his ability to take charge of a situation, whether it is a dysfunctional local government in Ohio, or setting up the basics of a civil government in a city in Iraq."

Hackett was undaunted by the Republican composition of the district, which Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report said was the 57th most Republican in America. Hackett claimed:

No single party owns this district. It's not a Republican district, it's not a Democratic district. It's actually the seat of the citizens of the 2nd District. They deserve an opportunity to make an informed decision as to who will represent them in Washington, D.C.
Jane S. Anderson, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who has unsuccessfully run for the Cincinnati city council and the Ohio House, told the Associated Press

It's definitely worth it to the Democrats to put in the effort if only to keep the party energized. Even if Paul Hackett loses, it is very important for the party for him to do well. It could be seen as a sign of opportunities for Democrats in other GOP strongholds.
Hackett is married to Suzanne C. Hackett. They have three children.


3 posted on 07/25/2005 4:18:35 PM PDT by HighWheeler ("The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato)
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To: HighWheeler
July 26, 2005

"All the chicken hawks back here who said, 'Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us' - look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth." - - - Paul Hackett, Democratic candidate for Congress in Ohio's 2nd District.

"In the Second Congressional District of Ohio, which Republicans have controlled for the last two decades, the quickest route to political oblivion could be the one chosen by Paul L. Hackett: calling President Bush a "chicken hawk" for not serving in Vietnam and harshly criticizing the decision to invade Iraq."

On Thursday, Max Cleland, a former Democratic senator from Georgia and a Vietnam veteran, campaigned with Mr. Hackett, calling his decision to volunteer for Iraq "an act of conscience." "Someone who has led on the battlefield, that's the kind of person you want to see in the United States Congress," Mr. Cleland said at a rally in Blue Ash. . . . Mr. Hackett has been bluntly dismissive of Mr. Bush, saying the United States should have focused on capturing Osama bin Laden instead of invading Iraq so quickly. In a public forum, he called Mr. Bush the biggest threat facing the United States,

4 posted on 07/28/2005 8:48:23 PM PDT by kcvl
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