--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [Anyone know more about this? Was he too rudely
> antiwar? Why is
> Sherrod Brown so sacred? Because he writes for The
> Nation?]
>
> New York Times - February 14, 2006
>
> Popular Ohio Democrat Drops Out of Race, and Perhaps
> Politics
> By IAN URBINA
>
>
> Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular
> Democratic candidate in
> Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said
> yesterday that he was
> dropping out of the race and leaving politics
> altogether as a result
> of pressure from party leaders.
>
> Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New
> York and Harry
> Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said
> persuaded him last
> August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to
> step aside so that
> Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of
> Congress, could
> take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican
> incumbent.
>
> Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong
> Congressional run last year
> in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained
> national
> prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush
> administration's
> handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in
> the Congressional
> race that led party leaders to recruit him for the
> Senate race.
>
> But for the last two weeks, he said, state and
> national Democratic
> Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate
> campaign and again
> run for Congress.
>
> "This is an extremely disappointing decision that I
> feel has been
> forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement
> comes two days
> before the state's filing deadline for candidates.
> He said he was
> outraged to learn that party leaders were calling
> his donors and
> asking them to stop giving and said he would not
> enter the Second
> District Congressional race.
>
> "For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett
> said. "First, my
> government misused and mismanaged the military in
> Iraq, and now my
> own party is afraid to support candidates like me."
>
> Mr. Hackett was the first Iraq war veteran to seek
> national office,
> and the decision to steer him away from the Senate
> race has surprised
> those who see him as a symbol for Democrats who
> oppose the war but
> want to appear strong on national security.
>
> "Alienating Hackett is not just a bad idea for the
> party, but it also
> sends a chill through the rest of the 56 or so
> veterans that we've
> worked to run for Congress," said Mike Lyon,
> executive director for
> the Band of Brothers, a group dedicated to electing
> Democratic
> veterans to national office. "Now is a time for
> Democrats to be
> courting, not blocking, veterans who want to run."
>
> But Democratic leaders say Representative Brown, a
> seven-term
> incumbent from Avon, has a far better chance of
> toppling Senator
> DeWine.
>
> "It boils down to who we think can pull the most
> votes in November
> against DeWine," said Chris Redfern, chairman of the
> Ohio Democratic
> Party. "And in Ohio, Brown's name is golden. It's
> just that simple."
>
> Mr. Fern added that Mr. Brown's fund-raising
> abilities made him the
> better Senate candidate. By the end of last year,
> Mr. Brown had
> already amassed $2.37 million, 10 times what Mr.
> Hackett had raised.
>
> Senator Reid did not reply to repeated requests for
> comment.
>
> Asked about Mr. Hackett's contention that he had
> been pressed to
> leave the Senate race, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer,
> Phil Singer,
> said, "We've told both Sherrod Brown and Paul
> Hackett that avoiding a
> primary will make it easier to win the Ohio Senate
> seat, " but he
> added, "Obviously, the decision to run is Mr.
> Hackett's and Mr.
> Hackett's alone."
>
> Mr. Brown declined to comment on Mr. Hackett's
> candidacy, saying that
> he was strictly focused on building his own
> campaign.
>
> Democrats wanted to avoid a drawn-out primary,
> especially one that
> could get bruising with a tough-talking outsider
> like Mr. Hackett.
>
> The Ohio Senate race is regarded as critical to
> Democratic
> aspirations to take back Congress in the fall. Aside
> from focusing on
> Senator DeWine, the Democrats also hope to win as
> many as eight House
> seats in Ohio and the governorship from the
> Republicans.
>
> Ohio Democrats are hoping to exploit the larger
> problems plaguing the
> Republicans. State Republicans have struggled to
> distance themselves
> from Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican who cannot run
> again because of term
> limits and who was found guilty last summer of four
> misdemeanor
> ethics violations. Representative Bob Ney's
> still-unfolding role in
> the scandal over the lobbyist Jack Abramoff also
> looms over the
> state's Republicans.
>
> Mr. Hackett said he was unwilling to run for the
> Congressional seat
> because he had given his word to three Democratic
> candidates that he
> would not enter that race.
>
> "The party keeps saying for me not to worry about
> those promises
> because in politics they are broken all the time,"
> said Mr. Hackett,
> who plans to return to his practice as a lawyer in
> the Cincinnati
> area. "I don't work that way. My word is my bond."
>
> Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the
> Cook Political
> Report, said that part of what made Democratic
> leaders nervous about
> Mr. Hackett was what had also made him so popular
> with voters.
>
> "Hackett is seen by many as a straight talker, and
> he became an icon
> to the liberal bloggers because he says exactly what
> they have wished
> they would hear from a politician," Ms. Duffy said.
> "On the other
> hand, the Senate is still an exclusive club, and the
> party expects a
> certain level of decorum that Hackett has not always
> shown."
>
> Mr. Hackett was widely criticized last year for
> using indecent
> language to describe President Bush. Last month,
> state Republicans
> attacked Mr. Hackett for saying their party had been
> hijacked by
> religious extremists who he said "aren't a whole lot
> different than
> Osama bin Laden."
>
> Though Republicans called for an apology, Mr.
> Hackett repeated the
> mantra of his early campaign: "I said it. I meant
> it. I stand behind
> it."
>
> Next Article in Washington (2 of 9) >
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Jim Davis Ozark Bioregion, USA http://groups.yahoo.com/group/left_n_Springfield/
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