Brunner News
Where I stand: Brunner v. Fisher in Ohio’s US Senate race
by on 04.30.2010
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As Secretary of State, Jennifer has demonstrated without question her ability to tackle an utter mess of a system. She tackled a system that suffered from extreme degradation of trust. She rescued an untrusted system that undergirds every belief we have and every hope to which we cling that we can make a difference in our world: the electoral system.
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Source: Writes Like She Talks
Brunner gets the first Veterans group endorsement
by on 04.29.2010
The Veterans’ Vision announced today that it was endorsing Jennifer Brunner in the Ohio Democratic Senate primary.
From the press release:
“We asked Lee Fisher to stand up for American veterans and he would not clearly state his position. We need to sack the slackers for veterans and we are here to say that we unequivocally stand behind Jennifer Brunner in her US Senate run,” said Maj. Brian Hampton, Publisher of the VETERANS’ VISION, making it clear which Senate candidate veterans can trust.
Secretary Brunner recently joined with 50 current Members of Congress to affirm her support for the Veterans’ Bill of Rights sponsored by the VETERANS’ VISION, a veterans’ rights advocacy publication. Her primary opponent, Lee Fisher, despite receiving numerous chances, declined to acknowledge his support for the initiative.
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Source: Plunderbund
American Veterans Rally Behind Jennifer Brunner
by on 04.29.2010
The VETERANS' VISION publication today announced its endorsement of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, currently running for US Senate in Ohio. Citing an ongoing commitment to veterans, Secretary Brunner was commended for her expansive knowledge of issues facing military veterans and her detailed plans to improve health care inadequacies and unemployment among veterans.
"We asked Lee Fisher to stand up for American veterans and he would not clearly state his position. We need to sack the slackers for veterans and we are here to say that we unequivocally stand behind Jennifer Brunner in her US Senate run," said Maj. Brian Hampton, Publisher of the VETERANS' VISION, making it clear which Senate candidate veterans can trust.
Secretary Brunner recently joined with 50 current Members of Congress to affirm her support for the Veterans' Bill of Rights sponsored by the VETERANS' VISION, a veterans' rights advocacy publication. Her primary opponent, Lee Fisher, despite receiving numerous chances, declined to acknowledge his support for the initiative.
The Veterans' Bill of Rights would require that every Veterans Administration Medical Center in the country offer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) counseling, increase the funding provided to non-profit transitional facilities that get homeless veterans off the street and make veterans a top priority for Members of Congress.
Source: Press release
Brunner Vows to Bring More Opportunities to Young Americans and Ohioans
by on 04.27.2010
Today, U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Jennifer Brunner offered plans to improve opportunities for young Ohioans and Americans to complete college and post-college education and to obtain good paying jobs for their future.
"Our next Senator from Ohio must offer a bold federal policy agenda aimed at creating and keeping good jobs in both the private and public sectors," said Brunner. "We must recognize that exploitation of our work force hurts all of us. Growing local companies and social service organizations that can partner with universities and groom young workers keeps our young people in Ohio, gives them an edge in a competitive job market and rewards Ohio companies for doing so."
Brunner proposed tax credits for businesses that offer internships to university students that allow them to gain college credit and for tuition assistance they provide to their employees. In her proposal, she also offers tax credits to insurance companies that provide comprehensive health care plans to universities for students and graduate students that matches the quality of the insurance pool to be created by the new federal health reform act.
"Health care is often a major determinant in job decisions for many Ohians and Americans, especially young people," said Brunner. "People want to be able to make choices for themselves," she said. "Young people stand before many crossroads. We want to see them achieve their full potential, and this will help them do that."
Source: Media Release
Fisher on TV, Brunner on the bus
by on 04.27.2010
While Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher was buying cable television advertising time earlier this month, Secretary of State Jennfier Brunner was buying bus parts.
In pre-primary campaign reports covering activity from April 1-14, Fisher reported cable-TV buys of $750,000 and $150,000 on consecutive days for his May 4 Democratic primary with Brunner for the U.S. Senate.
Among Brunner's expenses were payments for diesel fuel and various supplies for the "Courage Express," the school bus she bought on eBay to travel around the state. The costs included $861.64 for a "bus exhaust pipe" and $103.50 to the state for a bus inspection.
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Jennifer Brunner stops in Cadiz
by on 04.23.2010
Ohio Secretary of State, and U.S. Senate Candidate Jennifer Brunner made a stop in Harrison County with her “Courage Express” as she makes her way across the great State of Ohio in her primary election bid for the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate. Jennifer returns to Harrison County after having been the key note speaker in 2008 for the Harrison County Democrat Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. Her visit today initiated the Harrison County Democrat Headquarters at 115 W. Market Street in advance of its official opening.
Jennifer has many strong and loyal friends in Harrison County because she has always been willing to reach out to the people of our wonderful communities and take a grassroots approach to her public service. Toni Starosciak is the County Coordinator for Jennifer’s campaign and expressed her appreciation of Jennifer’s desire to come to Cadiz and stop her “Courage Express” bus in front of the county courthouse and spend a little time meeting residents and taking pictures. “She is so down to earth and really cares about the individual citizen, ” said Starosciak. “Here is a woman who has served our State with pride and distinction as Secretary of State and now wants to continue to serve us in Washington.”
Source: ThisIsMyCounty.com
Media Release: Fisher Abandoned Job Creation for Campaign Cash & Wall Street Money
by on 04.22.2010
Lee Fisher, who stepped down last year as Ohio's economic development director to run for the U.S. Senate, says he'll create jobs as a U.S. Senator, but questions remain about why he quit Ohio's chief job creation post in the first place.
As reported in the Dayton Daily News, Fisher collected campaign cash from business leaders whose companies received millions from the state. The newspaper said Fisher "received nearly $20,000 from eight business leaders whose companies collectively received $12.9 million in state loans, tax credits or grants."
Source: Media Release
Brunner returns home for campaign stop
by on 04.20.2010
In the final weeks leading up to the May 4 primary, Jennifer Brunner returned to her hometown to meet with supporters and let voters know about her campaign.
Brunner, a South Charleston native, is facing Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in a race to become the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in the fall. The winner will take on Rob Portman, the Republican candidate, in the fall. The seat became open with the retirement of George Voinovich.
Along with a campaign stop in downtown Springfield, Brunner also met with voters at Shoemaker Garringer Market and the Polar Bar in South Charleston.
Brunner said a grassroots campaign would be the most effective way to raise awareness about her candidacy and to win the Democratic nomination next month.
“We believe that a grassroots campaign is really the best way to meet the voters,” she said.
Source: Springfield News Sun
The Hot Seat: Can a heated race for Senate stay civil till Election Day?
by on 04.20.2010
One Cleveland-area Democratic leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says Fisher's supporters have threatened to make "pariahs" out of those who openly support Brunner with money.
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Catherine Turcer, director of Money in Politics, a Columbus-based nonprofit that studies how dollars affect campaigns and policy, says tactics to shut down opponents' funding happen more often than not — especially when one candidate goes against the party grain. In Brunner's case, some of the party maneuvering could be interpreted as sexism against a stubborn, powerful female, says Turcer.
"She's a woman, and she hasn't been a good little soldier."
Source: Cleveland Scene
Media Release: DFA’s Jim Dean to Join Internet-Aided Brunner Bus Tour Tuesday
by on 04.19.2010
James H. "Jim" Dean, Chair of Democracy for America and brother of former DNC Chair Gov. Howard Dean, will join Ohio Secretary of State and U.S. Senate Candidate Jennifer Brunner aboard "The Courage Express," a refurbished 1991 International Harvester school bus, for bus tour stops in Madison, Clark, Miami, Auglaize, and Mercer Counties.
In a sign of her surging momentum as the May 4th primary election approaches, last week Jennifer Brunner received the endorsement of Democracy for America, a powerful voice for progressives and the largest political action committee in the country. In his national email message announcing the endorsement, Jim Dean praised Brunner's people-powered grassroots campaign and said that it is "time to shake up the U.S. Senate":
Progressives have watched good legislation passed by the House die in the Senate -- the public option, the climate change bill, financial reform -- you name it, they killed it. Why? Because big banks, insurance companies and Wall Street fund too many Democratic Senators' campaigns. On May 4, we'll have our first chance to strike back and elect a leader who will stand up for us in the Senate.
Jennifer Brunner is the progressive running for U.S. Senate in the Ohio Democratic primary. She's running a grassroots campaign powered by people and small donations, not Wall Street and corporate cash. That's why 57% of Ohio DFA members support Brunner, while only 14% support Lee Fisher, her Democratic opponent.
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Although "The Courage Express" is a nineteen-year-old school bus with the distinctly low-tech feel of worn shock absorbers and plain work tables installed between sets of the original school bus seats, the bus tour includes a high-tech internet-based dimension.
Purchased on EBay, The Courage Express features an adapter that enables campaign staffers to power their laptops and recharge their mobile phone and other devices, and it has a mobile wifi "hotspot" to allow broadband internet access on the road. The bus is paired with an internet presence at http://www.TheCourageExpress.com, a stand-alone web page that features an introduction and schedule of tour stops, "video blogs" hosted on YouTube (click the images below to view), photographs from the road, and an interactive live-blogging feature for the candidate and staffers to post stories from the tour and for members of the public to submit comments and questions.
Source: Read more
Brunner has sights set on Senate seat
by on 04.17.2010
As an undergraduate student at Miami University, a professor told Jennifer Brunner that she’d be good at politics.
Brunner, then Jennifer Junk, mused that someday she’d like a seat in the U.S. Senate. The professor responded, “Well, I didn’t mean that.”
Fast-forward 30-plus years, and people are still telling Brunner that she is good in politics but that she should set her sights somewhere other than the U.S. Senate.
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If elected to the U.S. Senate, Brunner said she would like to serve on the judiciary committee, where she would work on criminal justice reform issues, such as putting more money into community corrections programs that work rather than warehousing so many non-violent offenders in costly prisons.
She noted that she'd also serve any committees dealing with labor, agriculture, banking and economic development.
Source: Dayton Daily News
Jennifer Brunner gaining momentum for U.S. Senate
by on 04.16.2010
After the DCCC turned its back on Secretary of the State Jennifer Brunner despite her high polling numbers, Brunner is now showing how running an extremely strong grassroots campaign can change the winds of a race.
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Finally, Ohio voters and the nation are seeing what we knew from the beginning: That Jennifer Brunner is a force to be reckoned with. She’s an established leader, incredible progressive, and very much needed in the Senate.
There’s less than 3 weeks left until the May 4th primary and over 40% of Ohio voters claiming to be undecided. What will bring a candidate to victory—throwing money at the voters, or driving around on a bus and speaking with them face to face?
Source: Women's Campaign Forum
Media Release: Brunner Statement on Fisher Fund Raising Problems
by on 04.16.2010
The following statement may be attributed to Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Jennifer Brunner:
With millions of Americans paying taxes yesterday on April 15th and Tea Party protestors circling their wagons at the Ohio Statehouse, Ohioans should be troubled about the campaign fund raising problems of my primary election opponent, Lee Fisher, who vowed at a Cleveland City Club debate Tuesday that he would work to curb Wall Street abuses that have hurt Ohioans.
Our current severe and prolonged economic recession was ignited when the practices of "banks too big to fail" left America's financial sector in peril of collapsing. Big banks and Wall Street financial institutions were bailed out with massive infusions of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Their careless and greedy financial strategies had left them insufficiently capitalized to withstand historically high mortgage home foreclosure rates. The real estate bubble burst in no small part because of insufficient regulation and lax oversight of the financial services industry by Congress. Many of the members of Congress in both the House and Senate have fared handsomely with large contributions and excessive amounts spent on lobbying them for favorable regulation of the banking industry that fed and rewarded this corporate greed.
Over the last ten years, financial firms spent $3.4 billion dollars lobbying the Washington--both the Administration and Congress. These firms spent $114 million on lobbying in 2008 alone, the year of the collapse. Some firms failed; others merged; others sold additional shares of stock to stay afloat. Of those that have survived, the vast majority were handed over taxpayer funds with little requirement for the kinds of sacrifices and concessions everyday Ohioans now face with job losses, credit freezes, skyrocketing interest rates and penalties, loss of their homes and going without medical care. And to the anger of so many Americans, their CEOs and highest level employees continued to receive eye-popping bonuses as part of compensation packages that continue to encourage the culture that put us here.
Banking reforms loom large in the minds of the American public. Congress will be called on to make the hard decisions that will keep Americans and their families safe from the peril that they saved the banks from. Candidates and members of Congress must stop asking for and taking funds from the financial firms they regulate and give money to. If Lee Fisher is really as serious about curbing Wall Street abuses as he says he is, he should confront his fund raising problems: he should stop asking for and taking money from the very financial firms he would regulate as a member of the U.S. Senate. Soliciting and taking money from PACs and executives of financial institutions saved by the American public with hard-earned tax dollars is irresponsible and guts trust in our government officials.
My opponent, Lee Fisher, said as recently as last week that his performance in office is not affected by whom he solicits and receives money from, citing his days in the Attorney General's office. Obviously, he believes that he, unlike so many others, can do the difficult work of reforming banking regulation even if he asks for and takes money from Wall Street's top officials and banking PACs. The American public watched as Congress was paralyzed during the health care reform debate by the competing and conflicting demands of the many interests that have given its members massive sums of money. We need a new kind of leader that elevates people and their real concerns over the paternalistic interests of institutions that have failed time and again to restore prosperity and the American dream to Ohio and American families.
It's disappointing that Lt. Gov. Fisher, who resigned his position as Ohio's chief job creation officer in February 2009, has without apology solicited and taken tens of thousands of dollars from PACs and executives tied directly to TARP funds, all the while saying, "Trust me." He's solicited and received contributions that include $20,000 from the PACS of financial institutions receiving billions of TARP dollars and nearly $20,000 in large contributions from senior financial firm executives.
Source: Read more
Jennifer Brunner gets standing ovation in Shaker Heights, Lee Fisher’s base
by on 04.15.2010
I went to an event in Shaker Heights last night, organized among eastern suburban Democratic clubs, which featured Jennifer Brunner. . . . The room was full, largely women, specifically the kind of women who are active in eastern Cuyahoga County. The kind of women who would once fill a room in Shaker Hts. for Lee Fisher.
At the end of the Q&A, Brunner got a standing ovation. In Lee Fisher’s home suburb. Where Lee has been running for office for 30 years. Did I mention this was held in Shaker Heights?
Source: Read more
Brunner Blasts Fisher for Negative Tone
by on 04.15.2010
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Brunner brought her Senate campaign, and her newly christened campaign bus, “The Courage Express,” to the Mahoning Valley yesterday. The bus is a refitted school bus that her campaign recently bought on eBay for $2,050.
Brunner started her day with a non-campaign speech at a commencement ceremony for graduates of the Mahoning County Drug Court before visiting Aesir Metals at the Castlo Industrial Park in Struthers. From there, she went to V&M Star in Trumbull County.
Brunner said momentum for her campaign is strong, but lamented that Fisher “has decided to go rather negative,” recently taking a directive she had issued in her role as secretary of state and using “Republican talking points to call it something it really isn’t.” The directive in question involved requirements for voters who chose to switch parties.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s expected because we know his reputation from other campaigns,” she said.
Brunner also acknowledged she got “a little fed up” with Fisher when he kept referring to her by her first name during the candidates’ debate Tuesday at the City Club in Cleveland. “I was elected in my own right and he was elected as part of a team with the governor,” she remarked. “If we can’t show respect to each other, how do we expect the public to respect the government?”
The campaign bus has gotten good response on campaign stops, Brunner said. “Think about the memories people have of school buses,” she said. “Plus, it’s a little homespun. People like that personal touch.”
The bus has a couple of personal connections for Brunner. It was manufactured by American Harvester, where her father used to work, and her father-in-law was a bus driver. Her campaign had investigated renting a bus, which she said would have cost in excess of $8,000.
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Source: Business Journal Daily