Brunner pitches progressive agenda in U.S. Senate race

Ohio Secretary of State in race for seat to be vacated by Voinovich.

Jennifer Brunner((cq)), current Ohio Secretary of State and candidate for the United States Senate, talks to some of the about 75 people at the LCNB Bank Building on Wednesday, Aug. 26, who attended a talk she gave sponsored by Butler County Progressive PAC and Miami University College Democrats. She spoke about her role in managing elections in the state of Ohio and what she would hope to achieve as a senator.

Staff photo by Samantha Grier Jennifer Brunner((cq)), current Ohio Secretary of State and candidate for the United States Senate, talks to some of the about 75 people at the LCNB Bank Building on Wednesday, Aug. 26, who attended a talk she gave sponsored by Butler County Progressive PAC and Miami University College Democrats. She spoke about her role in managing elections in the state of Ohio and what she would hope to achieve as a senator.

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 9:52 PM Wednesday, August 26, 2009

OXFORD — In courting support for her U.S. Senate run, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made a pitch to roughly 75 residents Wednesday night, Aug. 26, around the corner from her alma mater, Miami University.

The race for the seat currently held by Sen. George Voinovich isn’t until 2010, starting with a primary race against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. But the overwhelming issue on residents’ minds was a current one: health care.

“I would be standing very strongly in favor of a strong public option,” she said when asked about proposed reform. “When you apply the free market to health care, it really doesn’t work.”

She defined herself as a progressive, supporting same-sex marriage, environmental controls, caps on credit card interest rates and ending the war in Afghanistan.

She wants to be part of an “activist Senate,” she said, along with Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“It will take people who are willing to take the heat and stand up and say ‘I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do,’ ” she said.

When asked what she has to offer more conservative-leaning voters, Brunner said she wants to work across the aisle to make government more efficient.

But first, she has to beat Fisher, whom she trails far behind in fund-raising dollars.

“I am not really the Ohio Democratic party’s establishment candidate,” she said. “I kind of look at myself in this primary as the Barack Obama of this primary, but I’ll get the Hillary Clinton votes, too.”

Brunner plans to close the money gap with Fisher, and said she is confident she can beat Rob Portman, a front-runner for the Republican nomination.

“I need enough to win. I don’t need as much as Lee does,” she said.

Brunner’s Oxford visit was sponsored by the MU College Democrats and the Oxford-based Butler County Progressive Political Action Committee.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.

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