There can be only one. :) (Cue Queen music...)
What the hell are you talking about, you say? Well, the race for George Voinovich's Senate seat has officially begun on the Democratic side. Jennifer Brunner made her announcement official. Here's the (warning: 3min not 30sec) YouTube:
As I warned, this is not the shortest intro video, but that is exactly what it is meant to be, an intro video. We've elected her to statewide office but the average Ohioan doesn't know our Secretary of State as well as they do our Governor or either of our Senators. Thus, she needs to introduce ourselves to the electorate. Her website is up and running here.
I like this development, which is not unexpected. I was very impressed with her resolve during the election in the face of Kevin DeWine conjuring visions of legions of fake voters descending on the polls in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. He, and he his fellow scaremongers/disenfranchisers, got a well deserved upside to the head by Ms. Brunner's office.
Apparently our esteemed Lt. Governor, the Honorable Lee Fisher, also made his decision this weekend and is now scrambling to make an announcement on the heels of the Secretary of State. There are stories here and here. As of 8PM I can't really find anything about him announcing despite the fact that one of the stories says he was planning to announce around 6PM. Could be the crappy local websites. (Please fix this Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com)
Other news on this front has the man I would have given the front runner position, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-17), claiming that he will not run and will throw his support behind Lt. Governor Fisher. I haven't seen other confirmation on this though.
Anyway, less than two months after the start of the term, it is already starting to get interesting in Ohio politics for 2010. There could still be others who throw there hat in the ring but these were the big three that were seriously considering a run. I am looking forward to a campaign that doesn't get too dirty. But we'll see.
I won't be endorsing anyone for a while. My early endorsees in primary battles generally tend not to fare well. :( Witness that I freely admit that Barack Obama, though I love the man and freely accept him as my party's standard bearer, was my third choice in the democratic field. I supported John Edwards followed by Hillary Clinton and finally Barack Obama. (I wasn't one of the die-hards who waited until his convention speech to admit it though.)
This should be fun. I hope.
Comments welcome,
Pat McGovern
It's got electoral votes. It's what politicians crave.
