As a Catholic, he is opposed to the death penalty. He is also opposed to abortion. He appears to give a higher priority to defending the unborn.
Also, unlike most death penalty opponents, he tends to believe the police who arrest them, the prosecutors who try them, the juries who find them guilty, and the judges who review the evidence on appeal.
You won't find him out at Lucasville the night before an execution claiming that police planted evidence.
Talking to Tom, and talking to my pastor about the death penalty has caused me to think long and hard about it, and my support for it is wavering.
I guess in your book I should just go on over to DU right now.
I can't comment on Jean Schmidt as I'm unfamiliar with her. I respect Brinkman for going to bat for the 2nd Amendment as a true believer(GRPC in 01 during the Hamilton County and Statewide Conceal carry fights). He's walked the walk as well as talked the talk.
Normally I don't jump into other state fights this heavily, but the winner here will affect my district as much as Mike Rogers(my rep) does. Now if we can get rid of Stab-me-now in 06.....
Perhaps I need to make my point better. I am not a big death penalty advocate myself. My amusement is at freepers who want to declare Tom Brinkman "the conservative in the race" based on some supposed litmus test of issues but want to conveniently leave out this issue where he would differ from most conservative's position. Leadership is not about knee-jerk acceptance of postions. I will hand it to Tom that he is his own man. A person can, however, be true to themselves without being abrasive, divisive, and totally lacking of pragmatism.