Brown Files Forms to Run for Senate
Wednesday, October 19, 2005


WASHINGTON – Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-AVON) today filed the FEC Form 2, officially declaring him a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2006 election cycle. Brown, who announced his candidacy on October 6, is running against Republican Ohio Senator Mike DeWine.

"The ability for Ohio families to thrive has been undermined by the culture of corruption plaguing Republican leadership in Columbus and Washington, D.C.," Brown said. "It's time for change. I will lead Ohio forward."

Brown, who served as Ohio Secretary of State from 1983 to 1991, has represented northeast Ohio in Congress since 1993. He is the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, and earlier this year led the bipartisan fight against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

"I have fought pharmaceutical companies that gouge seniors and multinational corporations that ship Ohio jobs overseas," said Brown. "As Ohio's next Senator, I will continue fighting for working families and expand my efforts statewide to lower the cost of health care, make education once again affordable, and bring good paying jobs with benefits back to Ohio."

Brown said a formal statewide tour will kick off the campaign in November. He said the date is being determined by the legislative calendar in Congress.

"Republican leadership is trying to pay for another round of tax cuts on the backs of working families," Brown said. "They want to cut Medicare, energy assistance programs, small business loan programs, education funding and more. My immediate duty is to stay in Washington and fight for Ohio's families."

I sure hope he wins.

Also hope he wins by enough to stop a theft

A poll I posted this week shows Ohio with a Bush favorable now of 37
percent
37 percent
Wouldn't surprise me if that was the number election day too

When does Ken Blackwell come up for election?

Blackwell is running for Governor next year, but his SOS seat would otherwise be open next year anyway. He can't run again for secretary of state due to term limits.

Good riddance. Will his "swan song" be rigging the 06 elections?

probably.

If you're interested, the word here in Ohio is that Blackwell is in the lead to get the Republican nomination for Governor. The reason why that is GOOD is because Blackwell scares the hell out of the Republican leadership, because they don't think he can win. Blackwell is popular with the PEOPLE of Ohio (only because they recognize his name), but the Republican PARTY would much rather run Moderate Republican Jim Petro (currently Ohio's Attorney General and my wife's employer). Blackwell scares the Party because he's a radical Rightie, he will get destroyed by his ties to Tom (BWC Scandal and Coingate) Noe, he'll be castigated for his poor performance during the 2004 election fiasco (the electoral fraud wasn't covered up well enough for their tastes), and by running a black man, the Republicans will lose the advantage they would have had if Michael Coleman, who is also black, were the Democratic nominee (that advantage being the rural, hillbilly Ohioans and their "I ain't votin' fer no darkie" mentality).

It's not a done deal that Coleman will win the Democratic nomination, even though I consider him the best candidate. Max Cleland has endorsed Ted Strickland, and Coleman's wife was arrested for drunk driving last night. She had an accident (hit a parked car) and blew a .271 (the legal limit in Ohio is .08).

It also looks like the scourge of Columbus, our current Republican Congresswoman, Deborah Pryce, might have a dogfight on her hands in '06 as well. Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy has announced that she'll be running for Pryce's seat. Kilroy is well-liked in Columbus, and Pryce is primed for a defeat (her dogged support of the Bush Agenda has made her increasingly unpopular in Columbus).

All in all, 2006 could be a very good year for Democrats, particularly here in Ohio. I'd like to thank Bush and Taft for being so inept that they've turned the semi-educated voters of Ohio against them.

I don't consider Petro a moderate, myself, but that's a matter of opinion. Neither Blackwell or Petro are very well liked by the Ohio GOP.

Petro is a baffoon. One of the very first things he did as AG is send out a memo to the entire agency saying that he was canceling the mainteance/watering contract for all of the plants in the office. He also said he did not want any state employees to water the plants, but no one could take them home either because they were state property. I know people at the AG's office. He's one of the worst AG's ever to hold the office in Ohio.

As for the Dems, a down-state Democrat like Coleman would probably have a better chance of winning than one from NE Ohio, like Sherrod Brown. It doesn't matter how good and capable of a person and politician Brown is, for quite a few years now NE Ohio Democrats have a harder time building support from the central and southern parts of the state. Strickland can be considered a down-state Democrat since he represents several counties along the Ohio River well into the southern portion of the state.

The Dems certainly have their best chance in years in 06, but the Ohio Democratic Party has been so completely incompetent for so long, that I think next year's elections will still be far from easy for them.


Ed

But what would the numbers be coming out of the polling booths? Probably the typical:

51% Bushites
49% Dems

As exit polls have been "proven" to no longer be reliable, we'd just have to trust these numbers, right?

My aunt, who works in the Attorney General's office, doesn't like Petro at all (she liked Betty Montgomery), and my wife, who also works there, used to like Petro, but the longer she worked there, came to find out that he's nothing but a big phony.

Compared to Blackwell, Petro is a Moderate. But he won't get the nomination because he also has ties to Tom Noe, and they can PROVE that Petro knew what Noe was up to long before the story broke. And forget about Betty Montgomery. She's a buffoon who's running dead last to these two jokers.

Say what you will about the Ohio Democratic Party. They HAVE BEEN the picture of incompetence of late. But they have new leadership now, and the fact that the Democratic nominee will probably be considered the front-runner as soon as he's named, what does that say about the Ohio Republican Party? They're too busy trying to wipe the egg off of their faces and stay out of jail right now. Why, they can barely find the time to burglarize Democratic Party Headquarters anymore.

The question that keeps running through MY mind, however, is where is the Ohio Democratic Party's sole "heavyweight," Lee Fisher? I keep expecting him to pop up and run for Governor, but he never does.

Incidentally, did anyone happen to catch the story about how the Right-Wing reporter from the Toledo Blade found out about the Tom Noe scandal in time to break the story prior to the 2004 election, but decided to sit on the story until 2005 so it wouldn't cost Bush the State of Ohio? I'll post it here if anyone's interested.

I didn't realize the Ohio Dems got new leadership. That's encouraging. I've never considered Lee Fisher much of a heavyweight. When he ran for re-election as AG in 1994, I thought he ran a pretty lame campaign. I think we need some new faces in state politics anyway. All four of the democratic senate candidates I like-- Coleman, Strickland, Hackett, and Brown.

Someone posted the story here about the Toledo reporter.

Well, aren't I a dumb*** you're the one posted the article...

I guess I need more caffeine this morning

Dewine now supports eliminating the filibuster! His right wing supporters have got to him now that he has two democratic challengers.

GOP Senator Discourages Alito Filibuster

Updated 1:16 PM ET November 1, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8djr2502&src=ap

By JESSE J. HOLLAND

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is "clearly within the mainstream" and shouldn't be filibustered, declared a Republican who helped fashion a plan limiting parliamentary roadblocks for judicial nominees.

Sen. Mike DeWine, who met with President Bush's latest high court choice Tuesday, warned Democrats he would side with GOP leaders to eliminate the judicial filibuster if the minority party uses it against the New Jersey judge.

"It's hard for me to envision that anyone would think about filibustering this nominee," said DeWine, an Ohio Republican who sided with 13 other Republicans and Democrats earlier this year to end a Senate stalemate over judicial filibusters.

But some Democrats were contemplating just such a move as the 55-year-old Alito began courting senators on the second day of his Supreme Court candidacy. Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota refused to rule out supporting a filibuster.

"I would leave all those options on the table," he said.

Johnson said he hasn't made up his mind on Alito after discussing the right to privacy and other constitutional issues with him Tuesday. "Not surprisingly, it's hard to draw hard and fast conclusions on how he will vote," Johnson said. "There is no question he is a conservative."

Democratic leaders are cautioning their colleagues against rushing to judgment on President Bush's pick to replace his previous unsuccessful choice, White House counsel Harriet Miers, as the successor for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"Ordinarily it takes six to eight weeks to evaluate a Supreme Court nominee. We shouldn't rush to judgment," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said on CBS' "The Early Show."

DeWine, who met with Alito for more than an hour, is one of the 14 centrist senators Democrats need to sustain a filibuster. Without the group's seven Republicans, Democrats would not be able to prevent Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., from abolishing judicial filibusters and confirming judges with a simple majority vote. The Republicans hold 55 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

DeWine made clear Tuesday that a Democratic filibuster would not have his support, saying he didn't see how "anyone would think that this would constitute what our group of 14 termed 'extraordinary circumstances' that would justify a filibuster."

"This is a nomination of a judge who is clearly within the mainstream of conservative thought," he added.

The so-called "Gang of 14" _ the senators who reached the deal on limiting such filibusters _ will hold its first meeting on Alito Thursday......