by on 12.21.2009
. . . Brunner toured the Beachwood Business Development Center that promotes the growth of local and international early stage companies. The center is a partnership between the city, Cleveland State University and the Beachwood business community.
“We are pleased that the Secretary of State came to Beachwood and our Business Development Center to roll out her new initiative and tour our incubator facility. It was a nice external validation of our job creation program,” said Vince Adamus, the city’s economic development director. . . .
Source: Sun Press
by on 12.15.2009
OHIO: Secretary of State and Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner, who penned a Huffington Post op-ed against President Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan last month, was asked by progressive Ohio blogger Tim Russo whether she would vote against additional funding for the war. “The last thing I would ever do would be to short the troops the supplies and equipment they need to be safe and successful,” Brunner answered.
Source: MSNBC.com
by on 12.11.2009
The Secretary of State made a stop in Dayton on Wednesday, December 9, to spotlight what she calls one of the most innovative companies in Ohio.
Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, said the four-person Daytac team is a great example of what small businesses can accomplish.
"The biggest issue that Ohioans are facing right now is the loss of jobs" said Brunner. "We have so much innovation here in Ohio".
Brunner, who is running for U.S Senate, said she wants to highlight the resourcefulness of residents.
Source: WDTN-TV
by on 12.10.2009
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner visited Marietta on December 1 as part of a series of statewide panel discussions on women’s health care, as well as child and elder care and related topics. The timing for the discussions stems from new information that women now make up more than half of the American workforce, and also that the current recession has dislocated more male than female workers, at a rate of nearly three to one.
“Women are major breadwinners in the country,” Brunner said. “Looking at those issues, women and men need more flexibility with how we handle our time and our workplace, so that we can family obligations as well as work obligations.”
The forum was conducted at Washington State Community College and was the first step in what Brunner said would be a months-long effort to craft new policies aimed at assisting families having difficulty navigating the current health care system. According to Brunner, low-income families are not the only ones facing such difficulties.
“I’m not talking about people in poverty. These are middle-class people who are struggling because we have a system that doesn’t really fit any more.”
Source: The Marietta Register
by on 12.08.2009
Jennifer [Brunner] is seeking to get right into the heart of the beast, where she would be working with Sherrod Brown to put a stop to this kind of unfair attack on the middle class. She understands how devastating a blow this would be for working families in Ohio:
Many union members and their families have agreed to wage and pay concessions in exchange for valuable health care benefits or to stave off decreases in those benefits. They have already “paid” for maintaining what should be a right to health care for themselves and their families. The bill should call for allowing people with existing health plans to keep them, period. By increasing the pool of insureds and improving preventive care, lower health care costs will be achieved and public dollars will be saved. In Ohio this has already been demonstrated in plans such as FrontPath Health Coalition in the Toledo, Ohio, area, a business and labor coalition that is a member-managed, community-based provider network that has undertaken preventive health initiatives. FrontPath provides a nurse practitioner at local union halls and incentives to members for undertaking preventive and cost saving measures in their health care. The excise tax is cheap political cover that will hurt Main Street Americans in the heartland and must be avoided. It creates just one more reason for stalemate on health care reform that can’t come soon enough.
Source: Read more
by on 12.04.2009
Residents had the opportunity Thursday night to express their concerns about health care to a U.S. Senate candidate.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner conducted a women's forum on health care, elder care and child care at Independence Hall.
Brunner said there is a lot of fear about health care reform generated by private insurance companies through television commercials.
"I think what we run into when we start talking about how it benefits all of us as a community -- some say 'no it is socialism,'" Brunner said. "But really what we are talking about is social responsibility."
Brunner hosted the forum, which was attended by about 30 residents. She was hosted by the local Democratic Central Committee.
Residents asked several questions on a wide variety of health care topics including mental health, elder care, insurance companies, prescription costs and the national debate on health care reform.
. . .
Source: Lancaster Eagle Gazette
by on 12.03.2009
Today U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner called on the federal government to use unspent bank bailout money to create jobs building roads, bridges, sewers and needed public works.
"Let's put our money to work, so we can put Ohioans back to work," she said.
Brunner cited Treasury Department reports showing that $210 billion of the $700 billion bank bailout fund known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was not spent. The figure includes $72.5 billion repaid by banks that weathered the crisis, and an additional $50 billion in repayments is expected over the next 12 to 18 months. The future of the funds has not been decided.
"Instead of borrowing more money and digging our deficit hole deeper to fund nation-building activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress should invest a substantial portion of the unspent TARP funding on nation-building here at home," Brunner said.
Her call for the public works program came just days after she called for a timetable to withdraw from Afghanistan and opposed the deployment of additional troops. Her comments marked a rare public disagreement with President Obama who wants 30,000 more troops sent to Afghanistan with a definite timetable to begin withdrawal, starting in July of 2011.
Despite the President's assertion that more troops will lead to a speedier end to the war, Brunner said she would rather have our soldiers building bridges and schools in Ohio than in Afghanistan.
"We have so much rebuilding to do at home, and there are so many who cannot find work, especially in Ohio," she said.
Source: Press release
by on 12.03.2009
Source: U.S. News & World Report
by on 12.03.2009
Before President Obama unveils his new Afghanistan strategy, several Democratic senatorial candidates have already voiced opposition to sending more troops there, including Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak.
Source: MSNBC
by on 12.03.2009
Last night in Marietta, Senate Candidate Jennifer Brunner kicked off a series of “Women’s Forums” that will be held all over the state.
It’s a really interesting concept that she’s having events as a candidate, yet not shoving the campaign in people’s faces. The event I went to last night had the same feel as many of important school board meetings or issue panels I’ve been to over the years. The focus on real issues rather than speeches was a refreshing change.
And while gender equality was the core issue of the night, it wasn’t the only thing discussed. Audience members branched off into all sorts of issues facing the country such as the economy and healthcare and how they fit into the overall topic of the forum.
Source: Buckeye State Blog
by on 12.01.2009
Democrats in serious contests across the country are distancing themselves from Obama's misguided strategy. Some are sitting senators, such as Wisconsin's Russ Feingold. Others are top competitors in key contests, such as Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
Brunner, who is campaigning in a 2010 Democratic primary for her state's open U.S. Senate seat, just penned an opinion piece in which she declares that: "At the risk of being called a naysayer... I believe the costs are too great -- in human lives and economic resources -- to continue along the current path. It is clear to me that America must set a timetable for bringing our troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible."
. . .
With regard to foreign and domestic policy, Brunner's assessment is a wise one, which parallels those of Afghan and American observers who have paid serious attention to the conflict.
Source: The Nation
by on 11.30.2009
U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner today called for America to set a timetable for "bringing our troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible" and she questioned the cost and course of an expanded war.
Her comments come on the eve of President Obama's scheduled address to the nation in which he is expected to call for deployment of 30,000 or more additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
While praising the performance of America's all-volunteer military and acknowledging the complexity of the task facing the President, Brunner said the impact of continuing the status quo is simply unacceptable.
"As the cost to American and Ohioans' lives increases, billions are spent each month on the conflict in Afghanistan, ballooning our national debt and diverting resources we desperately need here at home," she wrote in a posting today at Huffington Post and DailyKos.
"So far, of the 4,367 military deaths in Iraq and 928 military deaths in Afghanistan, Ohio has sacrificed more than 200 lives in military deaths and $33 billion to fund wars on these fronts--priceless loss to Ohio's future and $33 billion from a state with unemployment exceeding 10 percent. Looking just at the dollars, had we invested these funds, Ohio could have funded roughly 6 million Pell Grants, or hired a half million elementary school teachers or provided completely free health care for one year for every woman, man and child in the state."
Source: Press release
by on 11.19.2009
By Molly Alarcon, Contributing Columnist
. . .
Ask your female friends if they’ve considered running for a position of power on campus. Ask them to do so. Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio Secretary of State (who I hope will be the next U.S. Senator from Ohio) is an active proponent of women running for public office. As someone with a lot of experience in this department, she believes that a lot of what determines whether or not a woman will run for office is whether or not she is asked by the powers that be. Let’s be honest: A lot of leadership positions in student groups here are handed down. Sure, elections may occur, but for the most part, there is an informal process through which the outgoing leader implicitly or explicitly designates his or her successor. This is probably less true for eating clubs and USG, but it would still make a difference if these officeholders encouraged women to replace them.
. . .
Source: The Daily Princetonian
by on 11.17.2009
. . .
Democrats had their own intraparty fight the other week over abortion coverage in the health care bill, and the battle lines were decidedly gender-based. The fight to include restrictions in the House bill was led by two men, Bart Stupak of Michigan and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, while two women, Diana DeGette of Colorado and Louise Slaughter of New York, are now leading the charge to strip the abortion restrictions from the final bill. Furthermore, two women, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, were the first Senate candidates to say they'd vote against a Senate bill that included restrictions on abortion coverage.
. . .
Source: National Journal