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.
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.