Brunner V Fisher

[Sara Bradi]

can someone please enlighten me on how the Ohio Dems supported one candidate over the other ?

I am curious about the specifics.

What did Fisher get form the Ohio Dems that Brunner didn't ?

[WCGreen]

1. an endorsement....

The Ohio Dem's have an endorsement process that favors the pre-primary front runner.

That's the way it is organized.

Fisher has been around a very long time and he is a proven fundraiser while Ms. Brunner could not convince anyone that she wouldbe able to raise the money needed to beat Mr. Portman in November.

That's the way it is here in the Buckeye State.

An endorsement for a candidate is big time here in Ohio. You can use the special mailing fee by mailing under the Ohio Democratic Party's indica. It also also make sure that all 88 county organizations are in sync. The Party can and does a lot of advertising on behalf of the endorsed candidates.

It's not an old boys network because there have been plenty of women who went through the process including Ms. Brunner in 2006.

Ms. Brunner knew all of this going in. She can't complain now. She couldn't convince the party leadership and enough of the elected delegates to support her to either get the endorsement of deny Mr. Fisher from getting one.

Lee has been on the state-wide scene for over 25 years. Ms. Brunner has been involved only since 2005.

I'm not saying it is great. I voted for Ms. Brunner because I have doubts about Mr. Fishers ability to win in November.

But I'm not going to piss and moan. I'm going to get behind Mr. Fisher and do what little I can to deny Mr. Portman a seat in the US Senate.

[Sara Bradi]

2. thanks for explaining it - n/t

[Kolesar]

4. IIRC, Fisher did not get an endorsement

But he got plenty of funding from prominent donors.

[WCGreen]

5. To tell you the truth I just thought he did...

I was more interested in Peter Sikora's campaign here in Cuyahoga County. I didn't even look at the sample ballot when it came...

But he did get tons of money from his base up here in Cuyahoga County and that, in the long run, is the best endorsement in a primary.

[Lady President]

3. This is a good question

I know that in Franklin Co. there wasn't an endorsed candidate for Senator on the sample ballot that they published. I didn't check other counties though.

I also don't recall any of the pre-election emails from the Ohio Dems. urging voters either way for Senator.

I'm sure that Strickland personally endorsed Fisher, but I don't think that his campaign was allowed to give Fisher their official email list.

Personally, I think that Fisher had more early access to big donors based on being Lieutenant Gov. He took such a large lead in the money race that there was nothing that Brunner could do.

On the flip side, from what I heard she would have had full support if she would have stayed SOS.

I always supported Fisher, but I was really disappointed that Brunner didn't run for SOS again.

[cmd]

6. From my personal stand

I am a huge fan of Jennifer Brunner, but thought she was letting us down by not staying on as the best SOS that we could have.
Having Jennifer in that position meant that we could possibly control the reapportionment process this time around. We are
going to lose Congressional seats. If we, or preferably a non-partisan panel, controlled the process; we would stand a better
chance at more fair representation. Our districts are gerrymandered to insure that the Republicans maintain a majority.

I personally was disappointed that Jennifer chose not to stand with the party on this issue.

[ckimmy57]

9. Agree

I thought she should of stayed on as SOS for at least one more term. She could of won re-election easy.

[Ninga]

7. *sigh* Strickland, Redfern, and the rest of the big boys told Jennifer at the outset, they would

not support her, and that it wasn't her "turn".

Nuts to that, I say.

So the upshot is that right from the beginning she was cut off from the big party donors, cut out of the loop.

I pray that Fisher wins.

So to answer the OP, the State organization right from the get go, cut the rungs of Brunner's ladder, to give as much boost to Fisher as possible.

I stopped giving to the State Dems long ago,and after this, will not in the foreseeable future.

[Sara Bradi]

8. this was a collosal failure of Redfern's leadership

While I love Jennifer & I supported her campaign, I feel she was a bit hasty.

I think she had every right to challenge Fisher, but the party lost a lot from the way things were handled.

Jennifer has a lot of street-cred with independents, and even some republicans, from here work cleaning up after Blackwell. Now the party has to defend this office & spend lots of money to hang on to it.

Regardless of her senate run, she should have run for re-election as Secy of state.

She is a bright political star and can easily run for congress in 2012, or Gov. in 2014 when Strickland is term limited out, or senate in 2016 if Fisher is unsuccessful this year.

No matter how you look at it, the ODP did not manage this well.

It is a failure of Redfern's leadership.