Last week, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown joined the race to knock off two-term GOP Sen. Mike DeWine in Ohio. The only downside to this decision, of course, was that the Democrats already had a relatively strong candidate -- Iraq Vet. Paul Hackett -- in the running. According to WVXU's
Maryanne Zeleznik, the Hackett campaign says the DSCC is trying to push their candidate out of the race, a charge fiercely denied by the DSCC.
An advisor to Democratic candidate Paul Hackett says the Iraq war veteran is being pressured to drop out of Ohio's US Senate Race. Mike Brautigam says after Congressman Sherrod Brown announced last week he would run for Mike Dewine's seat, Hackett started getting phone calls pressuring him to get out. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Charles Schumer of New York to drop out of the race.
The denial, as related on my blog,
Basie!.
[W]e received a call from DSCC Communications Director Phil Singer (no relation). Simply put, he said the previous report that Schumer had called Hackett to ask him to bow out "false" and "not true."
Was this a shoddy piece of reporting? Sounds like it. One of the first rules of journalism is that if person A says that person B said something, you have to call person B to hear their side of the story.
But of equal importance is the seeming fact that the Hackett campaign is trying to spread the meme that the DSCC is trampling on them. Why would they push such a story if it weren't true? This all sounds a bit fishy, but rest assured I'll try to get to the bottom of the story.
visit my blog at Basie.org for more...