The Columnist Who Shut Up to Speak Out

Connie Schultz Gave Up Her Platform to Jump on Her Husband's Bandwagon

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; C01

CLEVELAND At a lively Democratic gathering in a nearby suburb, Senate candidate Sherrod Brown is talking up his wife to the party faithful. He says, as he always does in this part of Ohio, that the crowd probably already knows Connie Schultz as a prizewinning newspaper columnist.

As the seven-term congressman praises her "terrific sacrifice" in giving up the column in the Plain Dealer during the campaign, a spirited voice calls out from the back, "Just win, honey!"

That would be Schultz, who less than a year after winning a Pulitzer Prize tucked away her pen and pad to support her husband in the toughest race of his career -- and one of the most important, most intense, most eyeballed matches of the 2006 campaign season.

The campaign role is new to her. So, for practical purposes, is the marriage. Schultz and Brown met in 2003 when each was long divorced. Now, barely on opposite sides of 50, they are learning to be political partners amid the friction and heat of a grueling race. As friend Jackie Cassara put it, "Why don't you just put them in a centrifuge and spin vigorously?"

Brown is surrendering a safe seat in Congress after seven terms to challenge Sen. Mike DeWine, a two-term Republican incumbent with a campaign treasury that stretches from Cincinnati to Toledo. Schultz is giving up the comfort and satisfaction of her freewheeling newspaper voice.

Some days, the blessing is decidedly mixed. As she arrived to speak to a crowd of 430 retirees at United Auto Workers Local 1250, the union president made a pitch for Brown's candidacy. He then turned to her and said, "I believe he's sent his lovely wife. Connie, is it?"

"The hardest thing," she says, "is I'm always talking for my husband."

Brown, 53, is a doctor's son schooled at Yale. Schultz, 49, is a maintenance man's daughter who became her family's first college graduate. Yet with their progressive philosophy, their passion for the underdog and their gregarious flesh-pressing, there is no mistaking that they are a matched set.

There are plenty of similarities in their rhetoric, too. Schultz, for instance, has publicly accused DeWine of lying about her husband's record and "betraying the working families he was supposed to serve."

Their collective decision to challenge DeWine, a family values conservative with an agreeable public persona in a state long dominated by Republicans, is the biggest political risk of their professional lives. Brown initially said he would not run, because of family concerns.

"I was really the holdout," Schultz says. "We were in a very new marriage. I was not a political spouse. I knew how you could blow a marriage."

As they talked, and talked, she came to see that Brown needed to enter the race or forever regret it. As she puts it, "The stars had aligned, and I was going to be the big, fat moon in the way."

Once Brown entered the race, it was only a question of time before Schultz would quit her column. For reasons of newspaper ethics and spousal devotion -- who would make sure there were mango slices and carrots in Brown's campaign car? -- Schultz realized in February that the time had come.

This would be an adventure, right? Aren't the best adventures a bit scary?

Well, she was scared.

After she told her editors, she opened her journal and wrote in big block letters, "WHAT IS TO BECOME OF ME?" 

Entire Article

10/17/2006 / Permalink / 2006, Connie, (all tags)

In Final Weeks, G.O.P. Focuses on Best Bets

New York Times

Senior Republican leaders have concluded that Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a pivotal state in this year’s fierce midterm election battles, is likely to be heading for defeat and are moving to reduce financial support for his race and divert party money to other embattled Republican senators, party officials said.

...The decision about Mr. DeWine’s seat came after recent internal polls showed Mr. DeWine’s Democratic challenger, Representative Brown, jumping to a large lead. Mr. Brown’s surge came despite a barrage of Republican advertisements intended to portray him as weak on national security — the very line of attack that had given party officials confidence earlier this year that Mr. DeWine would be re-elected.

Read the full article. 

10/16/2006 / Permalink / 2006, (all tags)

Race for Senate tight between DeWine, Brown

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Five weeks before Election Day, Ohio Democrats are poised to move into the governor's mansion and other top offices, ending 16 years of GOP dominance of state politics, a Plain Dealer poll shows.

...Among those running a lot of ads is DeWine. He started airing commercials in March; many of them played up his support for the war in Iraq and votes for bills related to fighting terrorism.

But his support for the war and close association with Bush may be a drag on his campaign: 54 percent of Ohio voters said they disapprove of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, the Plain Dealer poll shows.

DeWine spokesman Brian Seitchik doesn't believe Bush or the war alone is at issue in the race.

"The political environment is about many factors influencing the voters," he said. "This is a race as close to dead even as it comes, and we will continue to talk about the many successes Sen. DeWine has had working with Democrats and Republicans."

Looking like an independent will matter, as independent voters will make the difference in this race. And at the moment, Brown is winning over more of them, 52 percent to 33 percent, the poll shows.

Brown spokesman Ben LaBolt believes that Brown has the momentum, thanks to independents.

"We've got a state where voters are clearly going for a new direction and there is a 20-point margin among independents who want that change." 

Click here to read the full article. 

10/01/2006 / Permalink / 2006, (all tags)

DeWine in an uphill battle

Cincinnati Post

But a combination of other factors, such as the senator's soft-spoken manner and laid-back personality and his strained relationship with the state's conservatives, has also helped make DeWine one of the country's most endangered incumbents, political analysts say.

"A year ago, most people would have said the senator would have been an odds-on favorite for re-election," said Herb Asher, a political science professor at Ohio State University.

But DeWine has consistently trailed Democrat Sherrod Brown in the polls, although some recent surveys indicate that the senator has begun to close the gap.

Click here to read the full article. 

09/27/2006 / Permalink / 2006, (all tags)

New Hope for Democrats in Bid for Senate

New York Times

Six weeks before Election Day, the Democrats suddenly face a map with unexpected opportunities in their battle for control of the Senate.

...Senator Mike Dewine, Republican of Ohio, is fighting an unhappy political mood in his state, stoked by local Republican scandals and economic unease.. Independent polls suggest Mr. Dewine remains in a tight race with his Democratic challenger, Representative Sherrod Brown. 

Click here to read the full article.

09/27/2006 / Permalink / 2006, (all tags)

Brown fares well as ad wars roll

Cleveland Plain Dealer

DeWine has taken more pains than Brown to fill out his own image, portraying himself in a series of ads as a hardworking guy who isn't flashy, but who works across party lines to get things done for ordinary people who need help from Washington.

DeWine has never been known for charisma. And his most effective ads so far have been those in which other people do the talking for him. When he does address voters directly on camera, he seems awkward, as if he is trying too hard to smile and come across as a likable fellow.

Brown is the opposite. He doesn't smile much, but appears totally comfortable in front of the cameras as he complains angrily about problems that he says he wants to solve - whether it's the high cost of medical care, the disappearance of manufacturing jobs, or tax cuts for the rich.

Click here to read the full article. 

09/25/2006 / Permalink / Adwatch, 2006, (all tags)

Cleveland NBC: Survey USA Poll, Tim Russert on Ohio Senate Race

Political correspondent Tom Beres discusses the latest Survey USA poll showing Sherrod Brown with a 10 point lead and interviews Tim Russert on the U.S. Senate race in Ohio.

09/21/2006 / Permalink / 2006, Video, (all tags)

With Brown so close, ads will grow

Cleveland Plain Dealer

With less than seven weeks left, Democrat Sherrod Brown has Ohio's senior U.S. senator, Mike DeWine, locked neck-and-neck in a tough election race -- and the intensity, dueling messages and millions of dollars for ads will only grow, political professionals say.

DeWine, a Republican, still can win, but considering his 12 years as a senator and his previous service as Ohio lieutenant governor, his current challenge strikes some as remarkable.

"Certainly the surprise in the poll is that you would have an incumbent United States senator in danger or in jeopardy of losing his seat," said Eric Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio poll.

That poll, surveying 671 likely voters by phone from Sept. 7 through Sept. 17, showed Brown, a congressman from Avon, leading DeWine by four percentage points. The margin of error was 3.8 points

Click here to read the full article. 

09/21/2006 / Permalink / Adwatch, 2006, (all tags)