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Brunner relies on grass-roots efforts to offset cash disadvantage in Senate race

Such a cash-poor U.S. Senate battle is extremely rare.

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By William Hershey, Columbus Bureau Updated 11:55 PM Sunday, February 14, 2010

COLUMBUS — Money talks in politics and right now it’s barely whispering in Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s campaign for the Democratic nomination in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race.

Brunner entered 2010 with just $60,859 in her coffers, less than many Ohioans have in their 401(k) accounts.

“You have to have resources,” Brunner said last week. “You don’t have to have the same amount of resources that consultants tell you (that) you have to have.”

Maybe, but what Brunner’s trying to pull off has little precedent in the United States or in Ohio, where the U.S. Senate candidates in 2006 spent nearly $25 million.

In the most recent campaign finance reports, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, Brunner’s rival for the Democratic nomination, had $1.8 million on hand, nearly 30 times what Brunner reported. On the Republican side, Rob Portman reported $6 million, or almost 100 times what Brunner has. The $1.3 million reported by Tom Ganley, Portman’s GOP opponent, was derived mostly from loans he made to himself. Even so, it amounts to 20 times what Brunner has to spend.

Brunner seems almost to be playing in another league. Even she concedes there is no real precedent for doing what she’s trying to pull off — winning a statewide election with a campaign treasury that’s almost bare.

“No, (but) there’s always a first time,” she said.

David Dettman, Brunner’s campaign manager, has described her as a “female Paul Wellstone,” a reference to the Minnesota Democrat who rocked national politics with a low-budget upset in a 1990 U.S. Senate race against incumbent U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz. Wellstone was outspent nearly 5-1, but got his message across touring the state in a converted school bus.

Brunner said she is relying on a strong grass-roots effort to offset her disadvantage in campaign cash, a disadvantage that could make it hard for her to do any TV advertising before the May 4 primary.

“Voters are looking for authenticity,” said Brunner. “They tend to be suspicious of what’s in commercials.”

She blogs regularly and even campaigns door-to-door. Campaign aides tell her she’s a “terrible canvasser” because she doesn’t cut her visits short.

“When somebody invites me in, I go in,” she said.

Wellstone, too, ran a strong grass-roots campaign but had enough money — $1.3 million to Boschwitz’ $6.2 million — for TV ads. Wellstone died in 2002 in a plane crash, days before seeking re-election to a third term.

Jeff Blodgett, Wellstone’s campaign manager, said that technological innovations not available in 1990 — blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook — provide new ways to “harness the energy of large numbers of passionate supporters.”

However, he said, grassroots and campaign cash aren’t mutually exclusive.

“One of the misnomers of grass-roots campaigning is that you can do it on the cheap,” Blodgett said. “There’s a lot of campaigns out there that think they can do all this without raising the money. That’s a hard thing to do.”

Brunner said she has 1,500 volunteers for phone banks and all the latest social networking campaign tools. But she’s not alone in that. Fisher, too, is actively engaged in Twitter, YouTube and the like.

Fisher, said campaign spokesman John Collins, “is proud of the grass-roots support he has received in all 88 counties.”

While Fisher isn’t ignoring Brunner, he seems to be paying more attention to a possible Republican general election foe: Portman, the former U.S. House member from suburban Cincinnati who served as budget director and U.S. trade representative under former President George W. Bush.

In the Democratic primary, Fisher has the endorsement of Gov. Ted Strickland. Also, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has hosted a Washington fundraiser on his behalf. This establishment support has dampened Brunner’s fundraising.

Brunner said that since Strickland announced his support for Fisher, “many people who deal with state government are hesitant to show their support for me” by writing her campaign a check.

If she wins the nomination, Brunner said she is confident campaign money would come her way.

Political scientist Larry Sabato agreed.

“Democrats are not going to leave the party’s Senate nominee in financial trouble,” said Sabato of the University of Virginia. “This is a critical seat, and it is close enough so that it is winnable, even though Portman is slightly favored for now.”

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