OK all you Hackett fans - Are you now going to support Brown?

[liberal N proud]

Hackett backs Brown in Ohio Senate race

Mon Jul 10, 6:00 PM ET



WASHINGTON - Democrat Paul Hackett, who angrily quit the Senate race in February after a shove from party leaders, endorsed his former primary rival on Monday in the high-stakes race in Ohio.

Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, said his fight with Rep. Sherrod Brown (news, bio, voting record) is over, and the two rallied in Cincinnati on Monday to show their unity. Hackett blamed himself for fomenting discord within the party, saying he suddenly realized last Thursday that he was unnecessarily hurting them both by sulking over the way his primary challenge ended.

"I was cutting my grass and said to myself ... it's totally unproductive for me to be largely responsible for this antagonistic relationship between me and Sherrod," Hackett told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Hackett's about-face in supporting Brown was significant. A month ago, he told the AP that Brown was "puking out the same old garbage" and not inspiring swing voters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060710/ap_on_el_se/ohio_senate_3

[rexcat]

1. I would say that the "Hackett" supporters...

have been supporting Brown in one way or another for some time now. It would be nice if the Brown supporters would be less inflamatory to the Hackett supporters and get over Hackett.

The big question in Ohio is "will the independent voters in the state vote for him?" That is the larger question here. I can safely say that Brown won't be pulling too many votes from the repukes in the state. The other problem Brown is going to face is the onslaught of negative advertisements from the extreme right that will be starting up around September 1 and how he responds to it all. He also needs to define himself before the repukes do but I think he is too late on that one which will cause a lot of problems as he hits the last stretch in the campaign season. Brown also needs to get more exposure, especially in SW Ohio.

[Kagemusha]

2. You seriously heard armies of DU'ers saying they'd oppose the nominee?

Serious?

If, god forbid, Lieb wins in CT, I'll accept that as democracy's will, too, but asking people to be happy losers instead of grudging supporters (at least on DU, where people can vent, instead of on the campaign trail) might be a bit much, just saying.

[Cocoa]

5. I seem to remember that

[skipos]

3. I think most DUers now realize that Brown is more progressive than Hackett

and I think most people on both sides are over it.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I'm not over it

I've supported Brown ever since Hackett dropped out. Watched his July 3 event start to finish last week on CSPAN. Brown has admirable energy and passion.

But you only get one chance to make the correct decision in a case like this. It wasn't Sherrod Brown. Just a senate seat at stake, nothing serious.

My base handicapping has always been you need a unique and interesting charismatic challenger when trying to oust an incumbent. Especially when the default partisanship of the state tilts the other way. Our party doesn't get that and treats a challenger race the same as an open race, thinking we can run a standard liberal statewide in a place like Ohio, one where the party ID is roughly 40-35 red.

Hackett may be a loose cannon and he could have talked himself out of the race with dumb remarks, but I'm willing to gamble on greatness and that's what we would have done in nominating Hackett. He's absolutely correct, you need swing voters in Oho as a Democrat. Far too much potential Brown runs a near perfect race for a progressive and still comes up short in that state.

Ohioans are down on the GOP right now but IMO a different type of Democrat was more likely to get them to the ballot box. DUers never seem to realize how difficult that is, ousting a senatorial incumbent. I've been here since prior to the 2002 midterm and we act like it's no big deal, just march in to unfriendly turf and get the Democrat elected. Then when it doesn't work we scream fraud.

In reality you normally need a perfect circumstance, either a horrid approval rating like Santorum's or a popular challenger like we had in Arkansas '02 with Pryor. DeWine himself is not terribly unpopular. His approval number is dragged down by the overall status of the Republican party in Ohio. Far too much potential that slowly evens out toward November, especially if Bush's approval number rises if there are no high profile implosions.

IMO, Hackett could have won this race on his own. Brown needs help from the other side.

[rexcat]

6. Well stated!

I don't think DeWine's camp is going to help Brown. Rove and company will be helping with his campaign come September. The key in Ohio is the "independent" voters. I use quotation marks when I use the term independent voters in Ohio because the "independent" voters tend to vote republican. There are also a large minority of republicans that don't like DeWine but they would never vote for Brown.

[rexcat]

7. It's too bad most of Ohio is not progressive.

Brown is in the lead in polling but he has less than 50%. When the polls show Brown with a 55% lead over DeWine that will be the time for some celebration.