by on 02.23.2010
Jennifer Brunner's Senate primary campaign in Ohio is one grassroots / netroots Democrats can rally around. Many of us are rightfully frustrated, even livid, with our party's leadership. The source of frustration may vary, but in every case supporting Brunner's candidacy makes sense.
If you're angry with the most timid, and in some cases just flat - out corrupt Senate Dems, who are clearly a major problem (probably the biggest), sending Brunner to the Senate makes sense.
If you think a lack of leadership from the White House (especially on health care reform and the public option) is part of the problem, sending Brunner to the Senate makes sense.
If you see reigning in the influence of K Street and Wall Street as a constant fight that is extremely difficult but also absolutely necessary, sending Brunner to the Senate makes sense.
And if like me, you fall into all three of these categories, sending Brunner to the Senate makes sense. This is an opportunity for those who are somewhat more critical of the Obama Administration, and those who are more prone to defend it, to work together on something that we can all agree on -- the need to send strong Democrats to the US Senate.
Substantively, Brunner is the best candidate on the issues. As far as ability to win the general election goes, she's a fresh face and she has run statewide before. Her straightforward stands, as well as the foundation for a powerful coalition that she has built, could serve her well in a very anti-establishment cycle.
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Source: Progressive Blue
by on 02.21.2010
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon marking the 90th anniversary of The League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area on Tuesday, Feb 23, at Sinclair Community College’s Ponitz Center.
Brunner, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, is Ohio’s first woman to serve as secretary of state and was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2008 for her efforts in reforming Ohio’s election system. She will speak on the topic “The Women’s Movement and the League’s Role.”
Before taking office, the Springfield native served as legislative counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, spent 13 years in election law private practice, and was a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge. She also worked as a member of the Franklin County Board of Elections and was a special prosecutor for election fraud.
Source: Read more
by on 02.06.2010
. . . Brunner dismisses the conventional view she isn't a strong candidate because she doesn't have a well-stocked campaign treasury.
"The Washington view is that the worth of a candidate is their fundraising prowess. But the voters don't feel that way. The voters don't care," Brunner told CQ Politics last week in Washington, D.C., where she was attending a conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
"I only need enough money to win," Brunner said. "And frankly, in this economic environment, it's rather obscene when people start crowing about how many millions they have on hand."
Brunner is very much the outsider in the Democratic primary. Gov. Ted Strickland (D) is backing Fisher, his No. 2. Numerous Democratic senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), have donated to Fisher's campaign from their leadership political action committees. Brunner has sparred with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who oversees the party's Senate race strategy as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC has reported making some "coordinated expenditures" in concert with Fisher's campaign. Portman and Fisher have criticized each other's record but have largely ignored Brunner.
But Brunner said she has enthusiastic supporters. She said her campaign has more than 1,000 volunteers and that "most of my [nominating] signatures were collected in the months of December and January, in the cold, with people going door-to-door as volunteers."
Brunner, a former judge in Franklin County (Columbus) who was elected to her current post in 2006, thinks she appeals more to political independents than Fisher. She noted that Ohio has never elected a woman senator or even nominated a woman for that office in a contested primary election.
Brunner said that Ohio has high unemployment but that there is promising potential for job creation, especially in the "clean energy" and biomedical industries. A cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions "is going to be difficult, but it needs to happen," she said. "It's actually going to create jobs."
She sees the economy and health care as closely linked: "If a small business would be able to get some relief on providing health care, and health care that actually covered enough expenses for employees, they could afford to bring on more workers, even part-time," she said.
Brunner is eager to enter a new phase of public service. "I can do more than run a good election. I can do more than keep the files and the records of the state organized and accessible. I want to do more to make people's lives better," she said.
Source: CQ Politics
by on 02.06.2010
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner wants to be Ohio's next U.S. Senator. Campaigning in the valley Thursday, she met with local mayors and labor leaders. Brunner says jobs are her number one priority. She also says the U.S. needs to re-examine it's tradea greements. "And how because of those policies did we lose so many jobs to other countries and it's happened in manufacturing and it's happening in the trades as well, because manufacturing and trades go hand in hand," says Brunner. Brunner is running for the seat of retiring Senator George Voinovich.
Source: WFMJ TV
by on 02.05.2010
Jennifer Brunner likes the idea behind U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s proposal to direct work-force training dollars to economically distressed areas, but has an idea on how to improve it if she gets to join Brown as a colleague after this fall’s election.
Under the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success Act, or SECTORS, which Brown introduced last year, the federal government would provide grants to support the development of specialized work force training programs to meet regional needs of emerging industries.
Brunner, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, said she would like to see five regional task forces of retired executives, union leaders and not-for-profit officials established statewide to oversee administration of the grants. She used a similar process when as a Franklin County judge she established a drug court.
“They would have specific time deadlines and they would be tasked with making sure if there was a logjam, they would be right on it,” she said.
During a press event Thursday, one of the local leaders endorsing Brunner, Niles Mayor Ralph Infante, recounted the difficulties his administration encountered over a $1.1 million underground sewage tank, which was to be paid for using federal stimulus funds. After getting the plans ready, the city received a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informing it that it didn’t have a required permit to install the tank, and the city eventually lost out on the grant.
“The Valley got left out again,” Infante said. “With Jennifer Brunner, she’s not going to forget us.” Brunner, he said, is “not afraid to make laws, enforce laws and do what she needs to do in any position she serves in.”
Source: Business Journal Daily
by on 02.05.2010
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she isn’t concerned about the lack of campaign contributions she’s receiving in her bid to be the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
That’s because Brunner said she’ll win the May primary by working harder than Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the other Democratic candidate for Senate.
. . .
“This campaign is not about money,” she said. “It’s about people because people vote. When money votes, it’s a really scary outcome.”
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Despite the monetary difference, polls show Brunner and Fisher in a statistical dead heat.
Brunner said this primary is not a “traditional type of campaign where you throw a bunch of money at TV commercials and radio commercials. It’s a little bit like carrying water in a sieve.”
That’s because turnout isn’t expected to be high for the primary, and it’s a waste of money to pay to air commercials to people who aren’t “interested in your race,” she said.
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Source: Youngstown Vindicator
by on 02.04.2010
U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner called today for federal legislation to support the development of specialized workforce training programs that link two-year colleges and regional trades programs to local needs.
"This program is tailor-made to help the Mahoning Valley,'' Brunner told a news conference. "The work ethic in the Valley is unrivaled. Better workforce development will bring better jobs, and the training must be tailored to reflect regional strengths and needs as they differ throughout the state.''
Brunner's trip to the Mahoning Valley included a tour of the Electrical Trades Institute of Northeast Ohio, a facility that would benefit from her proposal. One of the unique features of the center is the training of electricians for assembling and installing wind turbines and solar panels, which she called "jobs of the 21st century.''
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"Despite the region's high unemployment rate, clean energy jobs, often dubbed 'green' jobs, are emerging as a way to transition from traditional manufacturing and construction for skilled trades workers," she said. Training programs like the Electrical Trades Institute of Northeast Ohio are well positioned to provide the training needed for jobs that require specialized trade skills with education of more than a high school diploma.
Brunner's plan calls for using money repaid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to provide training grants to regional stakeholders who collaborate to create sustainable jobs for developing regional industries. Stakeholders would include businesses, unions, two-year colleges, regional trades programs, and local workforce development programs. The stakeholders would develop specialized programs to train or re-train workers for jobs with a sustainable future that may be specific to the region.
The grant program would be administered by five regional task forces comprised of retired business and nonprofit executives and retired members of the state's building trades and manufacturing labor organizations. Task force members would be compensated for travel and expenses, select task force co-chairs, one from business and one from labor, operate for a finite period of time and be subject to deadlines for program startup, issuance of requests for proposals and grant awards, oversight and reporting.
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While in the Valley, Brunner accepted the endorsement of Niles Mayor Ralph A. Infante.
"Jennifer Brunner is the candidate of ideas,'' Mayor Infante said. "She has a unique understanding of Ohio's economic challenges and has a series of thoughtful proposals to improve our economy.''
Source: Media Release
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