AP: Iraq vet drops out of Senate race in Ohio

By David Hammer

Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett has abandoned his campaign to win a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio less than a year after a strong political debut in which he gained popularity for his staunch criticism of President Bush, according to a published report Tuesday.

Hackett, of Cincinnati, also told The New York Times that he may leave politics altogether, driven from the ballot by the same Democratic leaders who urged him to run after his narrow defeat in a House race last year.

“This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me,” Hackett said.

Hackett’s spokesman, Karl Frisch, did not return a phone call late Monday.

The deadline for candidates to file for the May 2 primary is Thursday.

Hackett captured Democrats’ attention last summer by blasting Bush’s war policies, raising huge sums on the Internet and capturing 48 percent of the vote in one of the country’s most conservative House districts.

Rep. Jean Schmidt won the Cincinnati-based 2nd District special election in a tight race less than a year after Bush captured 64 percent of the vote there.

Hackett declared his candidacy for Republican Mike DeWine’s Senate seat after it appeared Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown would not run.

Brown declared his Senate candidacy shortly after that, however, and national Democrats privately began urging Hackett to step aside.

On Sunday, some national Democrats made those requests public.

“If he stays in the Senate race, I’m with Paul Hackett, but this is about the House race and giving us another member of the Democratic caucus,” said Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, one Democrat who backed Hackett in the early going.

After Schmidt gained notoriety with unpopular comments about the war, Democrats considered her vulnerable in a rematch against Hackett. But Hackett steadfastly said he would not drop out of the Senate race.

“For me, this is a second betrayal,” Hackett told the Times. “First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me.”

Hackett said he previously told three Democratic candidates for Schmidt’s seat that he wouldn’t enter that race, the Times reported.

“The party keeps saying for me not to worry about those promises because in politics they are broken all the time. I don’t work that way. My word is my bond,” he said.

Hackett, an attorney, said he will return to private practice.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said Hackett still has the popular support to have an impact.

“It is my hope that whatever disappointment he might feel about these circumstances, that he will seize a different moment in the future,” Redfern said in a news release.

February 14, 2006 | Filed Under Hackett, News Mentions 

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