So Democrats have pushed U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett out of the race against Sherrod Brown, have they? Well, they're not used to winning anyway - they'd only have messed it up sooner or later.
Hackett announced Tuesday that party solons had asked him to step aside to make a clear path for the more experienced Brown, and that they've cut off campaign funding from inside and outside the state. In addition to Ohio players, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, a top U.S. Senate Democratic campaign organizer, seems to have had his hand on the bat that knocked Hackett's legs out from beneath him.
But not only have Democrats guaranteed another term for incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, a Republican, they've extinguished one of the brightest new stars in their party's constellation. Hackett told the Associated Press yesterday that after being so egregiously jerked around, his days as a politician were cashed like a 10 a.m. keg at Palmerfest: Hard.
I couldn't sleep with myself if I did to them what was done to me
he said. At the end of the day my word is my bond and I will take it to my grave he said. Thus ends my 11-month political career.
Nice work, Democrats.
Hackett, a Cincinnati lawyer and veteran of the Iraq war, is a singular figure: First, he's a Democrat from Southwest Ohio, which has been a conservative fortress since it was settled in the 18th century. Second, as a rookie politico, he managed to fight blow-for-blow with GOP opponent U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, who should have been an easy lock in that district. Hackett did lose, but he took 48 percent of the vote.
To sum up: He's a Democrat from Republican country who can turn out almost half the people there. When election time comes, how many of those people are going to show up for Brown, and how many are going to vote against him because of the D next to his name? (Answers: Few and most
respectively.)
Hackett gained national attention from the press and bloggers in his race against Schmidt, who since being elected has distinguished herself only once: In December she got up in front of the House and criticized Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam veteran who switched from supporting to opposing the Iraq war. Schmidt infamously got as far as saying that Cowards cut and run
but Marines never do
before she was shouted down in a bipartisan cacophony of boos.
Hackett and Murtha, both former leathernecks, have been far more constructive in criticizing the war than Schmidt has been in criticizing them. But rather than using Hackett's credibility as a veteran, and his appeal with a constituency that would rather be dead than red, Democrats have decided to do things the old fashioned way. Which for them probably will mean a fatally poor showing in the powerful new suburban metroplex along I-75 between Cincinnati and Dayton.
To put it another way, the new House Majority Leader, U.S. Rep. John Boehner, is from right in the heart of that Republican corridor.
For his part, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said yesterday he hopes Hackett isn't serious about withdrawing completely from Ohio politics. But whether he enters another race or not, Hackett himself is proof that Democrats aren't serious about winning.
- Phil Ewing, The Post's managing editor from 2004-2005, is a statehouse reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Springfield, Illinois.
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