I'm the Campaign Manager for the U.S. Senate campaign of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
We really like e-mails to communicate directly with Ohio Democratic voters and our supporters. We use them to brief supporters firsthand on poignant and pressing issues and to say what's going on with Jennifer Brunner's dynamic campaign for the United States Senate. Jennifer has said time and again that a primary election victory will not only help us nominate the candidate of our choice but change the paradigm for Democratic politics in Ohio. We think it's about time---for a woman to win a contested Senate primary for the first time in our state---and for us, together, to prove that our party's name, "democracy," calls for a fresh, "ground up" approach to help Ohioans prosper and grow an economy that benefits all of us.
Last week, Jennifer's opponent in the May 4th Democratic primary, Lee Fisher, used e-mail as a way to "come out swinging" during the final days of what will be seen as a historic primary campaign.
He did this even after he publicly vowed that he "hasn't and won't" go negative against Jennifer. He's approached this primary all wrong---worked through "supporters" to hurt her family; taken every vain tack to get her to "drop out" of the race; told supporters not to give her money; refused to appear with her on camera or during appearances; pushed for an 11th hour state party endorsement that he withdrew; and now, has broken his word that he will not run a negative campaign against her.
When Jennifer issued a directive in her role as Secretary of State to enforce a law on political party affiliation that has been on the books for nearly 60 years and that the Ohio legislature has declined to change, her primary opponent easily took the bait of the Ohio Republican Party and went negative on this issue which has nothing to do with the U.S. Senate or the role that Jennifer Brunner will play there. If it wasn't so sad it would be amusing that afterward the Republican Party thanked Mr. Fisher, while Democrats (and even some Republicans) stepped up to defend and support her.
When we got into this race, we knew we were dealing with a consummate politician of 30 years and facing a conventional political paradigm of money and endorsements that feed a "political machine" mentality. We also knew we were dealing with someone who has time and again broken his promises to run a clean campaign. Starting in 1994, when he unsuccessfully ran for re-election as Ohio Attorney General, he ran an attack ad that was labeled in the media as one of the "vilest attack ads." He lost. In 1998, when he ran for governor, he and his opponent, Bob Taft, ran a campaign that was resoundingly criticized as negative--and he lost again.
It's clear his negative approach is a losing approach, and once again, Ohio stands to lose if Lee Fisher's negative tactics get him past a Democratic primary.
Isn't it time to follow President Obama's example in his winning 2008 campaign? Isn't it time for a new kind of politics based on engaging ordinary people directly, rather than relying on the wealthy and powerful to fund campaigns that drag us into the mud? We sure think so.
If you want to see things really change, please help elect Jennifer Brunner with your time, talent and treasure. Let's prove we are the difference.
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