Maybe you saw the ad on this site’s front page: Rob Portman, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, wants you to sign his petition asserting that the "government takeover" of health care sucks. "Count me among the majority [lie] of Americans who oppose the Democrats’ government take-over [lie] of health care! My opinion counts now and my vote will be counted in November!"
He’s right. My vote will be counted, and it will be for Jennifer Brunner, hopefully. But first, she’s got a primary May 4 (early voting starts next Wednesday).
I got know Jennifer in 2006, when she ran for secretary of state. My main interest when I became politically active following the 2000 Florida debacle was election integrity. We saw very little of it in Ohio in 2004, where voters in poorer, urban neighborhoods and on liberal campuses like Kenyon and Oberlin waited in lines up to 12 hours — if they could spare the time — while their neighbors in wealthy suburbs breezed in and out of the voting booth. Then-SoS Ken Blackwell basically broke Ohio’s election system.
Jennifer promised to clean it up, and she had the perfect experience to do so. She’d been a respected common-pleas judge, an attorney specializing in election law for 13 years, and had worked for Sherrod Brown when he was secretary of state in the late ’80s. Frankly, there hadn’t ever been such a well-qualified candidate. (Bonus: Her Republican opponent was the son of Dick Cheney’s lawyer. Believe me, that got her votes.)
After she was elected, she did everything she promised. In a scant two years, she repaired an office that was even more broken than she’d imagined. There were no long lines in the inner city to vote for Barack Obama in 2008. And she did this despite Ohio Republicans slinging specious charge after specious charge at her, in numerous lawsuits, claiming that she was opening up the system to massive voter fraud. ACORN! ACORN! She beat back every attempt to erect barriers to voting for millions to prevent nonexistent "voter fraud." She got death threats and was smeared in the state’s right-wing mainstream media. She never backed down.
Now we’ve got an opportunity to send Jennifer to the U.S. Senate, and it’s too good an opportunity to waste. Rob Portman, a former Bush trade representative, strongly believes that free trade has benefited Americans and that we’re better off without those lost jobs. In fact, he’s told business groups the economy is great. Try telling that to the 11% of Ohioans who are unemployed, to say nothing of the many who are underemployed — or not even being counted because they’re so discouraged. We need to defeat his sorry ass — and send someone to the Senate who will be as bold, fearless and outspoken as Sherrod.
Jennifer’s primary opponent, lieutenant governor Lee Fisher, is an OK guy — but he can’t beat Rob Portman. I don’t base this on the poll that just came out showing Jennifer neck in neck with Portman and Lee four points behind. I base it on the fact that he hasn’t yet produced an answer for when Portman points out that he quit his job as director of development (job creation!) halfway through his term to focus on his campaign — after Ohio lost 150,000 jobs during his tenure. I base it on the primary campaign he’s run — a largely content-less, risk-averse, lacking-in-courage campaign that has featured more bragging about his fundraising and his endorsements from party insiders than strong positions on crucial issues.
Yes, Lee has a lot of friends in wealthy communities that can afford to double-max, writing checks for thousands of dollars. And it sure helps when you have friends like Harry Reid and Blanche Lincoln to give you thousands more from their PACs. Jennifer’s campaign has been thriftily run on small donations from people like you and me. The media (and even sadly, some here) have been hammering the narrative for a year that Jennifer should drop out because of Lee’s fundraising edge. Yet, Jennifer has taken our small donations and used them effectively to amplify a courageous campaign centering on things that matter to people — and she’s basically tied with Lee in the primary. All of Lee’s money hasn’t been put him ahead. Having LESS money than Portman (which either Lee or Jennifer will) will defeat him, while Jennifer has already demonstrated just how far she can go on so little. But with the start of primary voting looming, she could really use a little extra juice.
So if you can help her – a little or a lot — I’d really appreciate it. (I blew my transmission last weekend and will be paying that off for a year, but I kicked in another $100.) Please don’t subject me to being represented by Rob Portman for the next six years. Thanks- I love you for it!
http://www.victoryforcourage.com/