Reply #97: Reps. Kucinich & Strickland endorse Brown

[goodhue]

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/101905.html

Strickland encouraged Brown to enter Senate race in Ohio

By Peter Savodnik

Rep. Ted Strickland, who is seeking the Ohio governor’s mansion, urged Rep. Sherrod Brown to run for the Senate shortly before Brown announced earlier this month that he would do so.

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The hope, voiced by Strickland and other Democrats, is that Brown, from northeastern Ohio, and Strickland, from the southeast, would jointly mobilize an array of urban liberals and rural, conservative Democrats across the state.

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Brown’s colleagues in the House, meanwhile, appear to be coalescing around his candidacy. Besides Strickland, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has endorsed Brown, Kucinich spokesman Doug Gordon said. Other members of Ohio’s six-member Democratic delegation are expected to back Brown, Democratic sources indicated. Nicole Williams, a spokeswoman for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), said the congresswoman would be publicly endorsing one of the two candidates.

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Kucinich noted that Brown, a former Ohio secretary of state, has won statewide twice. (He neglected to mention that the Democrat lost in 1990, when he sought a third term.) Kucinich added that, while Hackett may have a bright future in the House, Brown is ready for the Senate. “He doesn’t need to be briefed on the issues,” Kucinich said.