On May 4th, Ohio's Democratic primary voters will have a choice between Jennifer Brunner, a progressive who has restored dignity to Ohio's elections, and Lee Fisher, a corporate Democrat whose achievements are somewhat lacking. Fisher served as Ohio's Director of Development, in charge of attracting new industry and jobs to Ohio. Instead, Ohio lost hundreds of thousands of jobs under his watch, and, in true Sarah Palin fashion, resigned a year early from his post. Since then, he hasn't done anything to help Ohioans. He's done an awful lot to help himself, though, raising money from all sorts of questionable places.
$5000 a piece from health insurance giant Aetna and the PAC of the woman who boasts about killing the public option, Blanche Lincoln. [1] [2] He also received $2400 from Robert Walter, the chairman of Cardinal Health. [3] Fisher is the first Democratic candidate that Walter has given money to. All these donations come while he campaigns passionately for the public option and health care reform. He's raised $5000 a piece from the PACs of Huntington Bank, Keybank, and PNC/National Bank, all while campaigning against the corrupting influence of corporate money in Washington. He's accepted $2400 from Gary Cohn, the Director, COO & President of Goldman Sachs [4], one of the companies that played a huge role in creating the economic crisis we find ourselves in. Despite this connection, he still maintains that he's the best choice to get us out of these hard financial times.
So you would think that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would remain neutral and allow Ohio's voters the choice between the candidate of the people, Jennifer Brunner, and the candidate of Corporate America, Lee Fisher. Not quite. In September, the DSCC told Jennifer that they were going to support Lee Fisher, because of his fundraising prowess [5]. They then proceeded to make $6333 worth of contributions to Fisher's campaign [1]. In a flurry of communications this week, the DSCC has continued to voice their support for Lee Fisher while neglecting Jennifer's campaign altogether. First, they released the results of a poll they conducted that shows Fisher leading Republican candidate Rob Portman by one point [6]. They don't give a margin of error, but this is likely a statistical toss-up. They either did not include Brunner in their poll or found that she was polling better than Fisher and left that information out. Then, in their "Plan for Victory in 2010" which they emailed to their members, they examine the Senate race in Ohio. To be fair, they include a picture of both Fisher and Jennifer, but in the text there is no mention of Jennifer, they instead spend a paragraph touting the supposed accomplishments of Lee Fisher [7].
So if you want to see a true progressive in the Senate, Jennifer Brunner needs your help. If you can donate, your contribution will help maintain her massive grassroots operation. You can also send an email to the DSCC (info@dscc.org) telling them that you disapprove of their actions in this race so far, and that the voters of Ohio demand and deserve a fair primary.