In the aftermath of the Massachusetts special election, we are faced with two general choices: devolve into a perpetual blame game or get off our asses and start campaigning for Democrats with spines as soon as possible.
I don't know about you, but I'm opting for the latter.
I would like to talk about one of those Democrats right now: Jennifer Brunner, who is currently Ohio's Secretary of State and is vying for Voinovich's Senate seat for Ohio (he's retiring).
Kos's advice to campaigning Democrats is to always remember to respect the voters. Jennifer Brunner obviously respects the voters... so much so that she earned a Profile in Courage award for her efforts to ensure that every vote in Ohio counted.
Let's look at some of the accomplishments that allowed Secretary of State Brunner to earn that award:
- She ordered and oversaw a study that determined all five the voting systems in Ohio were flawed:
...teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers.
Ms. Brunner proposed replacing all of the state’s voting machines, including the touch-screen ones used in more than 50 of Ohio’s 88 counties. She wants all counties to use optical scan machines that read and electronically record paper ballots that are filled in manually by voters.
[...]
She ordered the study as part of a pledge to overhaul voting after problems made headlines for hours-long lines in the 2000 and 2004 elections and a scandal in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, that led to the convictions of two elections workers on charges of rigging recounts.
- She fought for same-day registration voting, which was particularly important for the youth vote in the 2008 presidential election. She got the Ohio Supreme Court, a Federal District Court, and Federal Appeals Court to agree with her.
A federal appeals court sided with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the ongoing legal battle about same-day registration and voting.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled late Tuesday to deny the Ohio Republican Party’s emergency motion for an injunction limiting the same-day practice. Under the direction of Brunner, a Democrat, county boards of election are allowing voters to register and vote on the same day, during a one-week window from Sept. 30 through Oct. 6.
- She fought for the right of people faced with foreclosure to have their vote counted:
It is important that state and local elections officials do everything they can to help people caught up in foreclosure to cast ballots. They should make clear that in many circumstances, people in foreclosure still have the right to vote where they have been living. The rules vary by state. They should also widely advertise how people who leave their homes can change their registration, to vote from their new addresses.
Election officials should also ensure that there are enough poll workers to handle the disputes and confusion that could arise — and that they are properly instructed in the law.
Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s secretary of state, is doing a good job. She has sent an advisory out to local boards of election reminding them that the fact that a voter is involved in a foreclosure is not, by itself, sufficient basis for challenging his or her right to vote.
- She fought for the privacy of social security information:
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.
The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.
[...]
On Monday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a motion in federal court against the secretary of state to get the list of all names that have been flagged by the Social Security database since Jan. 1. The motion seeks to require that any voter who does not clear up a discrepancy be required to vote using a provisional ballot.
Republicans said in the motion that it is central to American democracy that nonqualified voters be forbidden from voting.
The Ohio secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, said in court papers that she believes the Republicans are seeking grounds to challenge voters and get them removed from the rolls.
Considering that in the past year the state received nearly 290,000 nonmatches, such a plan could have significant impact at the polls.
It seems that Ohio Democrats understand that she respects them. Despite the fact that her Democratic opponent, Lee Fisher, seems to have establishment backing and has raised four times as much money as Brunner, the race in Ohio remains competitive:
A much more recent poll -- conducted last week by Rasmussen Reports among 500 likely Ohio voters -- showed that both of the Democrats trail the likely Republican nominee, former Cincinnati congressman Rob Portman. Portman led both of the Democratic candidates, but the poll showed Brunner trailing Portman by only 3 percent points, compared to a 7-point lead over Fisher.
Numbers such as those give Brunner supporters reason to believe their candidate is in the best position to win the seat being vacated by the retirement of Republican George Voinovich.
Make no mistake, Fisher is an establishment Democrat not just in terms of history and position, but also behaviour. Recently, he snubbed an invite to a debate hosted by the Democratic Women's Caucus, but his craven behaviour didn't stop there:
The Hamilton County Democratic Women’s Caucus invited both candidates to participate in a debate Jan. 20 at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley Square. Brunner accepted almost immediately, caucus members say, but their experience with Fisher was far different.
It took weeks for Fisher’s campaign to reply, they say, and when it did, campaign staffers insisted the event not be a debate. Instead, staffers wanted an “informational forum” so the candidates wouldn’t necessarily answer the same questions or be able to reply to each other’s statements.
Later still, Fisher’s campaign contacted the caucus to say the lieutenant governor refused to share the stage with Brunner. The event must be restructured so she and Fisher never appear side-by-side before the audience.
Officially, the caucus accepted the terms and remains committed to holding the event. Several members, however, were irritated by the demands and some are speaking out publicly.
If this guy is afraid to face Brunner in a debate format, and it seems very obvious that he is, is this the type of personality we want standing up to the Republicans in the Senate? During a time where progressives fear a perpetuated and pathological complacency overcoming the Democratic Party, is this what we need? On top of cowardly, Fisher's campaign was outright disrespectful of Brunner, and given the context, I don't think it's much of a leap to say he was disrespectful of women voters as well.
We need someone forceful on women's issues, someone who will run on a progressive platform, someone with a fucking spine, and someone who has made it clear that she respects the voters and will put their concerns first. Jennifer Brunner satisfies all four criteria.
***Please donate to her campaign and help elect a tried and true progressive to the Senate.***
If you're in Cincinnati, just a heads up: the forum sponsored by the Hamilton County Democratic Women's Caucus is happening tonight!
More info:
January 20 - 6:30 to 8:00 pm
20th Century Theater
3021 Madison Road in Oakley Square
Cincinnati, Ohio 45209