Seems the DSCC is still taking sides against Jennifer Brunner in Ohio.

madfloridian

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Mon Apr-26-10 09:19 PM
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Seems the DSCC is still taking sides against Jennifer Brunner in Ohio.

Bob Menendez said last year he would support Lee Fisher and oppose Jennifer's candidacy. Looks like he is really going to do that.

From Hotline on Call:

DSCC To Play In OH Primary?

Two sources say the DSCC has been calling around to Ohio TV stations asking for air time in advance of the May 4 primary between Sec/State Jennifer Brunner and LG Lee Fisher.

According to Brunner, who spoke with Hotline OnCall late last year, DSCC Chair Bob Menendez told her he would spend money against a primary candidate with little campaign cash. Menendez has not been shy about his support for Fisher over Brunner.

Fisher has an ad airing in some OH markets but is running low on cash. While favored, he's still running neck-and-neck with Brunner, who's kept the contest more competitive than Beltway strategists would like.

Menendez said last year that he would attack her if she ran against his pick Lee Fisher.

The DSCC is attacking one of Ohio's best progressive candidates.

Jennifer Brunner is Ohio's Secretary of State who has been so brave fighting election change. She has put up with death threats as well.

Bob Menendez, the head of the DSCC, is threatening to attack Jennifer Brunner if she is deemed to not have enough money in her primary against perennial loser Lee Fisher.

The DSCC has all but written her off, however, and the establishment has turned to Fisher. In fact, Brunner said when she spoke with DSCC Chair Bob Menendez in Sept., he first told her that he “didn’t want to see a Democratic candidate at the end of the primary with zero dollars,” and he followed up that his organization would go into the state to work against a candidate perceived as “being negative in the primary or not raising enough money.”

Brunner said she responded: “If you do that, the women of Ohio will never forgive you.” Menendez, she said, retorted: “I know you’re not scared of me, and I’m not scared of you.”

All because Lee Fisher has more money. Newsflash, Bob. Lee Fisher CANNOT WIN THE SEAT. He has lost his last two statewide campaigns, the most recent in 1998 to BOB TAFT, after OUTRAISING Bob Taft.

He actually told her he was not afraid of her.

There is a rather angry blog post up today at Ohio Daily.

How to destroy a party from within

Now, it's open knowledge that Jennifer Brunner and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the current head of the DSCC, don't get along, and that Jennifer was pretty blunt with him. The DSCC has shown naked favoritism to Lee Fisher, to the point of being instrumental in crushing Jennifer's fundraising. That's not just some rumor: Menendez and his
henchmen have been actively warning donors away from this campaign.

But apparently, it wasn't enough. If the DSCC is indeed planning to spend the money on Fisher primary ads that their Democratic donors gave them in hopes of electing a more progressive Senate, they're admitting that all their strong-arm, behind-the-scenes tactics haven't kept Jennifer from being competitive, so now they have to press their thumb even harder on the scale to drag Lee Fisher by the scruff of his neck through the primary. That sure doesn't say a lot for his ability to beat Rob Portman in November. And it says they backed the wrong candidate to begin with. If Jennifer is still so competitive she's scaring them into misappropriating money like this, it's clear that if they had backed Jennifer, she'd been running away with this election.

Maybe they can push Lee Fisher over the primary finish line. It's hard to guess. But they won't be able to rebuild relationships with angry Democrats — not just here but around the country — who don't like the insiders boys club in Washington telling them who their candidate should be.

Jennifer Brunner deserves better treatment than that from her party. She withstood death threats to make sure Ohio had fair elections.