The Cleveland Plain Dealer (12/3, Smyth, 375K) added that Brown “all but dismissed his primary opponent for the seat, outspoken Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, to focus on” DeWine. Hackett campaign spokesman Karl Frisch “said the Cincinnati attorney provides a clear contrast to Brown. ‘Voters are going to have a clear choice when they go into the ballot box between someone who has a fresh voice and a unique perspective on the direction he wants to lead the state, and more of the same,’ Frisch said.” Brown “railed against DeWine’s support of the war in Iraq, privatization of Social Security and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.”

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Toledo Blade: Candidate Brown Challenges GOP Establishment

By Jim Tankersley

The room was packed, the lattes foamy, the coffee stamped “fair trade,” and the announcement as bold as a French roast.

Sherrod Brown ripped federal free-trade agreements, cheered workers’ rights, and lumped U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio) with a pair of struggling Republican leaders - President Bush and Gov. Bob Taft - in a formal campaign kickoff at Toledo’s Downtown Latte yesterday.

The brief speech, and an earlier telephone interview with The Blade, brimmed with the sort of anti-Bush, anti-free-trade, anti-drug/insurance/oil/chemical-company rhetoric that has drawn Mr. Brown, a Democratic congressman from suburban Cleveland, admiration from labor unions and liberal bloggers - and leaves critics questioning whether he is too liberal for Ohio voters.

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Toledo Blade: Sherrod Brown Makes Candidacy for Senate Official

Congressman zeroes in on DeWine, plans to ignore fellow Democrat

By Steve Eder & James Drew

U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, announcing his U.S. Senate bid yesterday, lashed out at GOP incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, saying he shares responsibility for the “ineptness” and “incompetence” in leadership in Washington and Columbus.

“I will be critical of the Bush, Taft, DeWine team - critical of their incompetence, and their ineptness in the way they have taken the direction of the country,” said Mr. Brown (D., Lorain), accompanied by his wife and adult children.

Mr. Brown, a 13-year congressman who served two terms as Ohio secretary of state, will face Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, in the Democratic primary May 2. The winner is likely to face Mr. DeWine.

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Cleveland Plain Dealer: Rep. Brown Joins Senate Race Vowing to Help Working People

By Julie Carr Smyth

U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown jumped into the race for U.S. Senate on Friday, pledging, if elected, to represent working Ohioans against the “greedy self-interest” of Republican one-party rule.

“Instead of public servants, we have monied interests — in Columbus and Washington — who see government simply as a profit center, a chance to reward their friends, punish their enemies, and shower money on themselves,” said Brown, flanked by his family at a packed news conference.

Brown, a favored son of the Democrats, said his party has led “the battle of social and economic justice” in America and has a chance in 2006 to “change the direction of our country.”

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Columbus Dispatch: DeWine is Senate Hopeful’s Main Target

Brown concentrates on incumbent, not Democratic primary

By Jim Siegel

Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown kicked off his campaign for the U.S. Senate yesterday, vowing to focus on the record of incumbent Mike DeWine and not his likely primary opponent.

“On the one hand, I will be critical of the Bush-Taft-DeWine team, critical of their incompetence and their ineptness in the way they’ve taken the direction of the country,” the seven-term U.S. representative from Avon told a group of Statehouse reporters. “On the other part of my campaign, I will boldly lay out specific answers to the problems I criticize.”

Brown, 53, has started a four-day statewide swing that includes stops in Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati and his hometown of Mansfield.

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