Now Hackett’s opponent, former state Representative Jean Schmidt, has been snared in a scandal of her own. On July 8, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Schmidt improperly failed to disclose that a biotech lobbyist treated her last fall to a lavish dinner and skybox seats at a Cincinnati Bengals game.
“We’ve got a real opportunity here,” Burke says. “Even if we lose, you at least are getting a great candidate out there talking the Democratic Party position on things like Iraq and Social Security and health care.”
The DCCC’s failure to support Hackett until late in the race raises questions about party Chairman Howard Dean’s promise to start competing in Republican strongholds. Will the Democrats start taking chances in red-state redoubts like the 2nd? Or will they remain a risk-averse party that falls ever further into minority status?
[let me just add here that I don't think it's really appropriate to credit Dean either way for what the DCCC does. The DNC, DSCC, and DCCC are independent organizations.]
“This race is a long shot,” admits Brewster Rhoads, a Cincinnati-based political consultant. “But the payoff is potentially huge. If Hackett does well, it shows that the Bush bandwagon is losing its wheels even on Republican turf.”
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On economic issues, Hackett is solidly progressive. The corporate-friendly bankruptcy bill, which passed the House with a fair number of Democratic votes, Hackett calls “garbage.” And he’s appalled that Democrats have let the GOP define the debate on the “death tax.” “We should call it the ‘anti-aristocracy tax,’” he insists.
On questions of values, Hackett’s libertarian tendencies take over. “When I elect someone to go to Washington, D.C.,” he says, “I don’t elect a spiritual leader. I get that from my minister on Sundays when I go to church. Congress isn’t invited into my personal life; they’re not invited into the decisions my wife makes with her doctor any more than they’re invited in to check out what guns I’ve got in my gun cabinet.”
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Ultimately, the best case for taking a risk on Hackett may come from Dean himself. In a recent Washington Post profile, Dean said of long-shot races, “If you lose, so what? It’s worth the investment if we can have somebody there who gives the message, who’s articulate and … respectful of the voters, because they’ll get a better impression of Democrats than they would otherwise.”
8 more days...