"Rep. Ted Strickland (D-OH), who is running for governor of Ohio, said he would "be an enthusiastic supporter of Democrat Paul Hackett running for Senate next year," should Reps. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Timothy Ryan (D-OH) decide not to run, Congress Daily reports. A Hackett spokesperson said he has not decided on his political future."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/08/05/strickland_encourages_hackett_senate_bid.html

Rep. Sherrod Brown would make a great candidate. He's also committed to netroots. Check GrowOhio. Rep. Tim Ryan, who gave one of the greatest "can't trust the President" speeches I've ever seen, is eyeing a run if Brown is out.

Hackett is a great candidate, but Brown and Ryan would both get my support before him.

Both for our sake as well as his, I would advise Hackett that he should not run for Senate in 06.  It is more than clear that the pecking order for Senate is Brown, Ryan (my candidate), then Hackett.  If Hackett puts his hat in the ring before Brown and Ryan turn it down, he will rock the boat so hard that if he does not get the US Senate seat, his political career might be over. Granted he got this far without the party, if he jumps in too early he'll actually create enemies, and you never create enemies unless absolutely necessary.
  Hackett should run for state Attorney General or some other statewide (non gov-senate) race.  If this is the route he takes, I suggest he announce as soon as possible to get a little push at the start of the race from the blogosphere.  The blogs will soon find another sweetheart and Hackett might lose out.  Then again, he has to be able to keep momentum all the way through E-Day, not just announcement day.  If there is a chance of the momentum falling off, then he might want to wait a little to announce.  I do not know enough about OH or Hackett to be able to suggest a timetable, but I do believe that the sooner the better.

HACKETT FOR AG IN 06!!

Sherrod Brown who is much well known in OH should run for the Senate. He is much more moderate than Hackett.  Eventhough Hackett is a vet, he is seen like a John Kerry was as a moderate liberal.  However, Sherrod Brown is seen by most as a much more fiscal conservative, socially liberal candidate.

of a possible matchup between Dewine and Hackett see how well Hackett does and also would be interesting to see how well he would do in a primary agenst Brown and Ryan should they run.

I can't imagine where this is coming from.  Yes he ran a great campaign (which I supported monetarily).  But if his name recognition is above 30% I would be greatly suprised.  Dewine would win 55-45 or better.  What people have to understand is that although he has great potential, he would not win a national contest yet.  This is the continuing problem with Ohio Dems, they all wanna go to Washington.  None of them want to stay here and build the party and thus increase their power nationwide.
Brown is our best candidate against Dewine, but he needs to declare or say he ain't running.  Then we can get Ryan into position.  This is not the time for the typical "After You" BS.  Sherrod needs to step up or shut up.  Sorry about the rant but I think it needed to be said.

  With the corrupt OH GOP it would be absolutely devastating to let them once again control this position.  We all saw what Blackwell did in 04, we can't let that happen again.  Hackett was a lawyer and a commissioner before he ran in OH-02, this would be the perfect fit for him. IMHO

liberaldem,

You keep on mentioning 6%, but this # is meaningless. While it is true that Brown has more name recognition statewide than the other two candidates, his name rec. is still most likely at least 30 points behind DeWine. To be down by that much in name rec. and be within 6 points is a very good sign for him.

Just wanted to make sure everyone saw these articles.  I would love to hear your thoughts about opportunities in OH.

The Cook Report - Slim Win Signals Big Trouble for Ohio GOP

 August 6

Charlie Cook (Email this author)
© National Journal Group, Inc.
For Republicans, the narrowness of their party's victory in Tuesday's special election in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District is a wake-up call that gives them plenty of notice before November 2006 that they have very big problems in the Buckeye State.

Next year's Ohio ballot will feature an open governorship, a vulnerable Senate Republican with problems in his own base, and up to eight GOP-held House seats that Democrats could realistically target. Of those eight, not one is remotely as Republican as the 2nd District, where the GOP candidate eked out a 51.7 percent victory to hold the seat vacated by newly sworn-in U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman.

That the 2nd District is rock-ribbed Republican is beyond dispute. In 2004, President Bush beat John Kerry there by 64 to 37 percent. And The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index, which measures how a district voted in the 2000 and 2004 presidential election compared with the rest of the country, shows that Republican presidential nominees have fared 13 points better in this district than they did nationwide. That makes the 2nd District the 57th-most-Republican district in the nation and the second-most-Republican in Ohio.

Many factors combined to give the GOP trouble in the special election. Republican former state Rep. Jean Schmidt had narrowly won a hotly contested, 11-way primary in June, defeating Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine (son of U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine) and former U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen with just 31.4 percent of the vote. Democrats nominated Paul Hackett, a major in the Marine Reserves who was just back from Iraq. Hackett's strong criticism of Bush enabled him to tap into national liberal money via the Internet. Liberal blogs fell in love with him, and their support made up for the district's lack of Democratic money.

Schmidt's campaign, which responded to the Democrat too little and too late, seemed caught off guard by Hackett. Hackett fanned reservations about Bush's stances on Iraq and Social Security and charged that Schmidt would be a rubber stamp for Bush. Hackett and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also worked hard to tie Schmidt to embattled GOP Gov. Bob Taft, whose job-approval rating is a dismal 19 percent.

Both national parties seemed to anticipate a fight in this district, but they stayed well under the radar until very late. The DCCC didn't air television ads until the Friday before the election, knowing that the Democrats could not afford a sustained air war with the better-funded National Republican Congressional Committee, which had just gone into the district a few days earlier. Both parties concentrated on phone banks. Overall, the GOP is thought to have spent $500,000, directly and indirectly on the race. Democrats say they spent $250,000, although some Republicans estimate it was more.

Kerry was unable to turn the state's economic problems to his advantage, but the message that it is "time for a change" is resonating in Ohio today. Republicans, who hold every statewide office and have controlled the governorship for four consecutive terms, are now engulfed in a major state government scandal.

Tuesday's result virtually guarantees that the previously moribund Ohio Democratic Party will field competitive candidates for the governorship and U.S. Senate. Rep. Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman are running for governor. And there is talk of Rep. Sherrod Brown or Rep. Tim Ryan seeking the Senate seat.

In the House, watch Democratic recruiting for races against Republicans representing Ohio districts that voted only 1 percentage point more for Bush than the nation as a whole did: Steve Chabot in the 1st, Pat Tiberi in the 12th, and Deborah Pryce in the 15th. In Steve LaTourette's 14th, the Cook index gives Republicans just a 2-point advantage. In the Dayton-based 3rd District, held by GOP Rep. Mike Turner, the GOP edge is 3 points, while it is but 4 in Rep. Ralph Regula's 16th. Just a bit better off are Bob Ney in the 18th and Dave Hobson in the 7th -- both hold 6-point GOP edges, far less than the 13-point edge that Portman's seat had.

In most elections, even advantages this small are enough to gain an incumbent another term. But these districts are precisely the kind where incumbents get swept away in tsunami years.

Pryce Calls GOP Political Situation `Dire'

U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) tells the Columbus Dispatch that state scandals have made the political environment for Republicans bad enough that those not involved with the scandals are in danger of losing their offices. (SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED)

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/08/05/20050805-A1-01.html&chck=t

GOP reeling over Noe, Pryce says

Scandal's fallout could cost party dearly in next election, lawmaker says

By Randy Ludlow and Darrel Rowland THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

   Even as a Republican state senator joined his Democratic colleagues to support new anti-corruptiion laws that could drop the hammer on pay-toplay politics in Ohio, a leading GOP congresswoman called the state's political environment the most "dire'' she's ever seen for the party.
   The ongoing ethics-and-investments scandal in state government has gotten so big, even GOP officeholders not involved are in danger of losing office, said an unusually blunt U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce in a meeting with The Dispatch editorial board.
   "The political situation for Republicans both in Washington and especially Ohio is just dreadfull,'' she said. "In my short political life I've never seen it so dire.''

The Upper Arlington Republican said the unexpectedly close race in Ohio's 2 nd Congressional District this week -- a Democratic challenger came within 4 percentage points of winning the heavily GOP area -- is a harbinger of the difficulty Republicans at all levels will face at the polls.
   "It's gonna get a lot worse,'' she said. "It's not just about golf outings.''
   Gov. Bob Taft is under investigation because he did not disclose about 60 golf outings and other favors. His former chief of staff, Brian K. Hicks, was convicted last Friday of an ethics charge and fined $1,000 for not reporting a pair of below-market-rate stays at the Florida home of prominent GOP supporter Thomas W. Noe.
   Investigations continue into the possible loss of some $300 million invested by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, including two rare- coin funds set up for Noe. The Maumee coin dealer also is the target of a federal investigation into making possibly illegal contributions to President Bush's 2004 campaign.
   Pryce alt="Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet."> noted the current push to bring former Rep. John R. Kasich, of Westerville, into the 2006 governor's race, and said others are wondering about the possible candidacy of ex-Rep. Rob Portman, of Cincinnati, whose appointment earlier this year by President Bush to U.S. trade representative created the congressional vacancy.
   Meanwhile, an unlikely alliance of state senators -- a Taftbashing Democrat and a rightleaning Republican -- see tougher ethics laws as a step toward avoiding a repeat of the scandal.
   Sens. Marc Dann and Timothy J. Grendell are calling for an Ohio version of the federal Hobbs Actt that could charge public officials with extortion if they swap government business for perks or campaign cash.
   "In order to make Ohio a better place, we need to set politics aside, review the problems and implement a solution,'' Grendell said.
   A pair of ethics-reform bills were introduced yesterday by Dann and Grendell.
   Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat, and Grendell, a Chesterland Republican running for attorney general, were joined by the 10 other Senate Democrats as co-sponsors.
   "With all the scandals happening in Ohio, it is crystal clear we have to change the way things aare done here,'' Dann said.
   The senators propose that extortion by a public official be a third-degree felony carrying one to five years in prison.
   The companion bill would:

• Prohibit an award of state contracts or investments to members of state boards and commissions and any businesses they own. Noe served on the Ohio Board of Regents and Ohio Turnpike Commission before the scandal broke.

• Forbid the appointment of a former governor's office employee to a state board until threee years have lapsed. Taft named Hicks an Ohio State University trustee and installed him on the state water-development authority board when he left the state payroll two years ago.

• Disallow anyone convicted of an ethics violation from serving on a state board. A conviction also would carry a five-year prohibition against lobbying.

• Require the attorney general to review state contracts involving more than $1 million and post them on the Internet for public inspection.

• Expand the requirement for state elected officials and certain state employees to file finnancial disclosure statements for three years after leaving office, instead of the current two.
  

   Citing Hicks' role as an OSU trustee, Dann said those who abuse their offices and the public trust should not be afforded a second chance to serve:
   "We need to take the bad apples and not just move them around in the barrel, but remove them from the barrel.''
   Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, and House Speaker Jon A. Husted, R-Kettering, want to assess the fallout of ongoing investigations before moving on legislation.
   Harris is willing to study proposals, but, a spokesman said, "We need to see the complete picturre before acting.''
   "It is highly likely some type of ethics-reform bill will emerge from the legislature,'' a Husted spokeswoman said.
   House Minority Leader Chris Redfern, a Democrat from Catawba Island, said he will introduce legislation mirroring the Dann-Grendell bills.
   "It's obvious that state government needs more safeguards to prevent greedy insiders from using state government as their personal ATM machine,'' he said.
   In another development yesterday, Noe's attorneys filed a legal brief arguing that a court shoulld reject Attorney General Jim Petro's request to impose more restrictions on Noe's sale of personal assets.
   The filing, before Judge David E. Cain, of Franklin County Common Pleas Court, also disputes Petro's allegations that Noe stole nearly $4 million from the bureau.
   "In the manner of a classic propagandist, the attorney general does not allow the facts -- or a basic understanding of finance -- to get in the way of his efforts to smear Mr. Noe at every turn,'' Noe's attorneys wrote.
   Petro spokeswoman Kim Norris said Petro remains concerned that Noe might have used state money tto buy the homes, cars, boats and other items he has been selling in recent weeks -- and that denials of wrongdoing ring hollow.
   "Who would believe anything Mr. Noe would say at this point?'' Norris asked.
   Meanwhile, another grand jury is convening in Cleveland to investigate any other bureau investment issues, including a fund managed by MDL Capital Management of Pittsburgh that lost $215 million last year.
   Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien will supervise all state ethics investigations with Colummbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr.
   Dispatch reporter Mark Niquette contributed to this story.

Republicans Avoid a Catastrophe in the Buckeye State

August 4, 2005

By Stuart Rothenberg,

Roll Call Contributing Writer

For those of you who thought my July 18 column on the Ohio GOP's problems was an exaggeration, we now have evidence that transcends polling. We have votes. And if you are a Republican, the picture is very, very ugly.

Former state Rep. Jean Schmidt's narrow 52 percent to 48 percent victory over Democrat Paul Hackett in this week's Ohio 2nd district special election certainly is a warning to Buckeye State Republicans about the party's prospects next year.

By all measures, Schmidt ran a pretty terrible campaign, and she was lucky to win. She bears a lot of the blame for the tightness of the race. Not all of the blame, but a lot of it.

I'm not quite sure why National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) allowed himself to be quoted in a press release as referring to her "impressive victory," except that Reynolds had to say something, and it's probably not politically correct to issue a release saying "hey, our nominee's campaign really stunk up the joint."

Schmidt was, as one Republican put it, an "accidental" nominee who won the GOP primary because the party's top two candidates destroyed each other.

Both before and after the election, Republican insiders called Schmidt's campaign amateurish, and she consistently refused to attack her opponent. In the race's final days, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted Hackett in a late TV spot as "a liberal Democrat" who favors a number of different tax increases. Those ads may well have saved Schmidt from an almost unimaginable upset.

National Democratic strategists wisely held their fire in the heavily Republican district, content to let Hackett emphasize his military experience in Iraq and his personal qualities in his paid TV ads. President Bush's job approval in the district still stands at about 60 percent according to a recent GOP poll, making it unlikely that the special election's close outcome was a referendum on Bush.

"We couldn't afford three or four weeks of Republican TV calling Hackett `a Washington liberal' and her `a Bush conservative,'" one Democrat told me. Republicans "would have put the race away early if the race had been about that."

When the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did jump into the contest very late with an independent expenditure, the group's terrific TV spot linked Schmidt to widely unpopular Gov. Bob Taft (R) by noting her support for "the largest tax increase in Ohio history" and for "Taft's 27 percent gas tax hike on Ohio motorists."

Hackett was an appealing candidate with an interesting story. Democratic strategists say that his Iraq experience got voters to consider his candidacy, but they dismiss the argument that his showing constitutes some sort of statement about the Iraq war.

While Hackett raised substantial funds from left-wing Internet sites, he campaigned more as a moderate. That's why he ran as much as 20 points ahead of Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) 2004 presidential race performance in some of the rural, conservative counties in Ohio's 2nd district.

Democratic insiders believe that voters saw Hackett as a vehicle for change, and that the ethics environment -- what Democrats like to call the culture of corruption in Columbus -- was a crucial part of that equation.

"This election showed that if we have a candidate who fits the district and is running against an ethically challenged, typical politician, we are going to be able to compete in places that normally wouldn't be on our radar screen," DCCC Executive Director John Lapp argued.

Democratic strategists believe Hackett's showing proves that their candidates, both in Ohio and elsewhere, can successfully run against GOP ethics, thereby widening the playing field to districts they haven't contested for the past few cycles.

Republican strategists counter that they won't have such weak candidates or poor campaigns elsewhere.

Schmidt's poor campaign, combined with Hackett's personal story and moderate message, turned a 20-point blowout into a squeaker. But Hackett would not have gotten as close as he did without the unintentional help of Taft, whose problems clearly have the potential to turn Ohio into a Democratic tidal wave next year.

Simple question to Brown and Ryan rooters (and I am one of them): two Congressional seats that are securely held by Dems. If either runs for the Senate seat, who is waiting in the wings to replace them? Unless there is an absolute lock on deck, why would the Party not want to run Paul while he is about the hottest commodity on the political scene?

I am a Hackett supporter and proud to say was one when he didn't have a ghost of a chance in OH02. I still am concerned about the amount of money that DeWine will/has raised. And DeWine's support will probably be primarily from moderate Republicans and reluctant right wingnuts. It would be another very tough slog. Not at all the slam dunk I keep reading about.

I am conflicted over which office he should pursue. But I believe the DNC will advise Brown and Ryan to stay put and pressure Paul to run against DeWine. And whatever his decision, I will be an early recruit to Hackett's Heroes.