Posted on 12/10/2005 10:46:24 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican
Sherrod Brown aiming for Senate House Democrat hopes to challenge DeWine after facing Paul Hackett in primary By William Hershey
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS | Fifteen years after a defeat that contributed to the Republican takeover of state government, Democrat Sherrod Brown is ready to make another try for statewide elective office.
U.S. Rep. Brown, D-Avon Lake, today released plans to officially kick off his race for the Democratic nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Mike DeWine.
"I've been fighting clearly on the right side of issues ... on bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, on getting us out of Iraq honorably and quickly and in an orderly fashion, on health care issues, jobs and trade," Brown said in a telephone interview last week.
His announcement sets up a primary fight with Indian Hill attorney Paul Hackett, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war who narrowly lost a special election in August for a Cincinnati-area U.S. House seat.
The Ohio Republican Party has endorsed De-Wine for re-election to a third, six-year term.
Brown will start his four-day announcement tour on Friday in Columbus. Stops also are scheduled in Mansfield — Brown's hometown — Lorain, Toledo, Cincinnati, Steubenville and Akron. Additional stops may be scheduled.
In 1990, Brown lost a bid for re-election to a third term as Secretary of State to Republican Bob Taft, now Ohio governor. Brown's loss and Republican George Voinovich's defeat of Democrat Anthony J. Celebrezze in that year's governor's race put Republicans in two statewide offices that Democrats had held for eight years.
The victories also gave Republicans control of the State Apportionment Board, which draws state legislative districts. Republicans already controlled the Ohio Senate and in 1994 gained control of the Ohio House as well. They remain in control of both and also hold all statewide non-judicial offices.
Brown rebounded in 1992 to win the U.S. House seat he now holds and has been re-elected six times, in 2004 with 67 percent of the vote.
He frequently has been mentioned as a Democratic candidate for statewide office in recent years and said he now is ready to run.
"I'm sickened by the direction of the state, the ethics problems, the absence of any manufacturing policy, the jobs picture, the health care picture, the higher education picture ...," he said. He said that DeWine, President Bush and Taft all "have clearly failed in leading the state and the country."
Hackett spokesman Karl Frisch said, "We welcome him (Brown) to the race. It's been a long time since he lost a statewide campaign."
A Democratic primary between Brown and Hackett would present a "choice between more of the same in Washington or a fresh voice with new ideas," Frisch said.
Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said Brown "could not be more out of step with mainstream Ohio."
"We look forward to communicating his underwhelming accomplishments while at the same time promoting Sen. DeWine's achievements here in Ohio and on Capitol Hill," Mauk said.
Contact William Hershey at (614) 224-1608. Staff writer Jessica Wehrman contributed to this report.
Congressman Sherrod Brown is just about the strongest possible candidate for the Democrats in the 2006 U.S. Senate race in Ohio against Republican Senator Mike DeWine. While Brown is very liberal, he has a fine political pedigree, was elected statewide as Secretary of State in 1986 (he lost reelection to Bob Taft in 1990), was elected to Congress 5 times from 1992-2000 from a Republican-leaning district, and has been reelected twice more in a district that leans Democrat. Mike DeWine, who has seen his popularity suffer due to his weasely behavior regarding President Bush's judicial nominees (he was one of the Gang of 7 Republicans who capitulated to Democrat demands and promised not to vote for the "constitutional option" for breaking Democrat filibusters), and whose pro-gun-control record won't help him with conservatives either, needs to work hard to motivate Republicans to vote for him in 2006. DeWine may end up getting saved by conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, who if he wins the nomination (he's currently the frontrunner) will get out the vote in conservative communities throughout the state. The Ohio Senate race may be very close.
As for the House seat Sherrod Brown is vacating, it stretches from Lorain County to Summit County (taking in some of Cleveland's and Akron's suburbs) and gave President Bush 44.36% in 2004, so the Democrat nominee will certainly be favored. However, the GOP has a promising candidate in businessman Joe Ortega, who has an interesting life story (http://www.joeiii.com/profile.php) and good issue positions for the district (http://www.joeiii.com/platform.php). But an even more promising GOP candidate would be Craig Foltin (http://www.craigfoltin.com/), who is the Republican Mayor of heavily Democrat Lorain (the city gave Bush a pitiful 28.84% in 2004) and could turn the race into a dead heat if he can run even in the Lorain area. Foltin hasn't declared his candidacy, but Brown didn't announce that he was forgoing reelection until 9 days ago and there's still over 2 months left for the filing deadline.
Let me try to post those links properly:
Joe Ortega background:
http://www.joeiii.com/profile.php
Joe Ortega platform:
http://www.joeiii.com/platform.php
Lorain Mayor Foltin:
http://www.craigfoltin.com/
?
Foltin would probably be the strongest candidate for us. Ortega would probably get the shaft with regards to funding. The problem for us is that there are at least two heavy-hitter 'Rats in the running, one is ex-Rep. Tom Sawyer and the other (who would presumably neutralize Foltin's appeal) is former Lorain Mayor Joe Koziura. Short of a bloodbath on the 'Rat side, this will probably be a difficult one for us.
The more appalling aspect of after the 2000 redistricting is that we should've targeted Brown for defeat in a big way, but I heard Taft was supposedly "scared" if the GOP took him out, Brown would run for Governor instead (which even if he had, he still would've lost -- I mean, Taft had faced him before and knocked off Brown as the sitting Sec of State), so the order came down to let him keep his seat.
DeWine, I think is dreadful (not nearly as bad as Brown, of course). I wish we could've gotten someone like John Kasich to replace him. Paul Hackett, of course, is not going to get out of the way for Brown, so that may end up being a pretty ugly scene on the 'Rat side. Although he doesn't deserve it, Blackwell will probably help carry his sorry ass to a 3rd term. Of course, Blackwell himself is of paramount importance to get into the Governor's office.
LOL. The Democrat primary could be fun.
Is Blackwell now the favorite for the Republican nomination? I had thought that Taft was putting up someone else.
Actually, Congressman Tim Ryan would have been the strongest candidate the Democrats could have run, a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-free trade Catholic who could have appealed to socially-conservative, blue-collar voters. Fortunately, he decided to not make the race. But given the weakened state of the Ohio GOP, Brown could very well win this.
Here's another appalling aspect of Sherrod Brown's career: In 1998, Republicans lured a first-tier candidate to oppose him in state Senator Grace Drake, whom they'd tried to recruit many times before. But in the election, they gave her campaign no backing at all. Hugely outspent, she lost by a wide margin.
The last thing I heard was that Mayor Foltin was inclined to not run, though he hasn't ruled it out.
Blackwell is leading his two fellow republican opponents Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery. I suspect that Betty will drop out and Jim will be the establishment's choice. It will be a hard fought primary, for sure, but Blackwell does have the lead.
Wasn't Brown's father a top-level OH Democrat pol too? Maybe OH (like CA) has more than one "Brown Democrat."
Yeah, I see in Barone's Almanac, she was outspent 4-to-1. We probably could've taken him out as long ago as 1994, but his GOP opponent was -- you guessed it -- badly underfunded. While I don't believe in it as an economic model, the GOP could certainly realize that when it comes to our candidates or challengers, "spreading the wealth" WILL yield dividends.
Right again. In 1994, Lorain County District Attorney Greg White, a decorated Vietnam veteran, would have won if he'd gotten full backing from the party.
"The more appalling aspect of after the 2000 redistricting is that we should've targeted Brown for defeat in a big way, but I heard Taft was supposedly "scared" if the GOP took him out, Brown would run for Governor instead"
"Actually, Congressman Tim Ryan would have been the strongest candidate the Democrats could have run, a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-free trade Catholic who could have appealed to socially-conservative, blue-collar voters."
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