Dispatch - Ohio Senate race in national spotlight

WASHINGTON — In the interval between their workaday lives on Capitol Hill and all-out campaign war in Ohio, Sen. Mike DeWine and Rep. Sherrod Brown prepare for their autumn showdown with a resolve fueled by survival.

Analysts say their U.S. Senate race is one of the top three in the nation, and Nov. 7 could end the political careers of Republican DeWine or Democrat Brown, each of whom has spent the past three decades in elected offices.

That the usually cautious Brown is willing to give up the safe 13 th Congressional District seat in northeastern Ohio he has held since 1993 to challenge DeWine, an 11-year Senate veteran, speaks volumes about the dismal political climate for Republicans.

"Brown wouldn’t have even given it a thought in a previous cycle," said Nathan Gonzales, an analyst for the Washingtonbased Rothenberg Political Report.

"In the absence of Coingate, Gov. (Bob) Taft’s problems and President Bush’s unpopularity, DeWine wouldn’t have a race," said Jennifer Duffy, editor of the National Journal. "All of that has sort of created one."

Sipping tea and honey at breakfast recently in the Capitol’s Senate Dining Room, DeWine was resigned to the ill winds.

"I can’t change the political climate any more than I can change the weather," he said. "But I think in the end, people will have a choice between Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown. Both of us have been in politics for a long time. Both of us have been in Washington working a long time. The question is, which one of us is the most likely in the future to get things done on a bipartisan basis and make things happen for the state? I have a record of doing that."

While DeWine posits the race in local terms by discussing his bipartisan approach to getting things done for Ohio, Brown hopes to nationalize it, tying DeWine to the Iraq war, Bush’s unpopular policies, GOP scandals and potential voter fatigue with one-party rule in Washington and Columbus.

Still disheveled from a redeye flight after a fundraising foray to California, Brown paused during a dialing-fordollars session at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters to rhetorically frame the race:

"Since George Bush and Mike DeWine raised their right hands in January of 2001, Ohio lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs, tuition has doubled at a lot of state universities, the minimum wage has not been raised, health-care costs and gasoline prices and prescription-drug prices have gone through the roof, and these guys have not responded with anything. They’ve got to defend that, and we’re going to be aggressive about it."

Brown, 53, and DeWine, 59, have retained their seats with relative ease since their elections to Congress in 1992 and 1994, respectively. They express respect for one another, but say they’re prepared for a bruising campaign.

"I know what he’s going to say, and he knows what I’m going to say," said Brown, estimating that he will spend $15 million and DeWine will spend $20 million.

So far, the race has been relatively tame on the surface, but below the ground it is turning nasty, as illustrated by a DeWine fundraising letter in April. In it, DeWine said that Brown’s "record on national defense and security is frightening" and that Brown "wants to decimate our military power, and leave America vulnerable to terrorists."

DeWine will highlight Brown’s votes against increased spending for national security as part of a wider effort to portray him far to the left of most Ohioans.

"He’s got a consistent record of not supporting the intelligence community," said DeWine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Intelligence is how we defend this country."

Brown, who voted against authorizing force in Iraq, said the $1.5 billion a week spent on the war would be better used "to protect our ports, to do cargo inspections, to fortify our chemical plants and our nuclear installations and our public water systems. My votes against the intelligence budgets were because the intelligence community in this country has failed the American public."

At a time when voters are craving change, Brown, a vociferous "fair-trade" advocate, said substance will trump labels in the race.

"They can call me far-out Brown or whatever, but it’s not going to work," he said. "On the things that matter to people’s everyday lives, the public and I are on the same page."

He said DeWine has "had an election-year conversion" of decreasing support for Bush policies, a departure from Bush’s first term when "on every major issue, DeWine was with Bush."

DeWine countered that his voting record has been consistent, supporting Bush on such issues as tax cuts and national security and opposing him on bills to exempt gun manufacturers from liability and allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

DeWine, noted for his advocacy for children, said he has "a wall full of important bills" signed by Presidents Clinton and Bush that illustrate his ability to work with senators in both parties, a trait that riles some hard-right Republicans.

"The problems this country faces do not lend themselves to partisanship," DeWine said. "Whether it’s fixing Social Security or fixing Medicare, it can only be dealt with on a bipartisan basis. I’ve shown that I am the one candidate of the two who can do that, and I’m the only one who can work across party lines to get things done."

The National Journal’s Duffy said Brown’s weaknesses are a "voting record that gives Republicans a lot to work with, and he still needs to build voter identification outside of his district."

DeWine, she said, "is not the most charismatic guy, and because of that he hasn’t left a big impression on a lot of voters, which stands in contrast to his record, because he does have a considerable record to run on."

"His other weakness is just being a Republican this year."

jhallett@dispatch.com