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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > February > 01 > Entry
Brunner behind on fund-raising
Brunner behind on fund-raising
If Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner held a party for her big campaign contributors — the ones who shelled $5,000 or more last year — the room would be filled with plumbers and pipefitters. That’s it.
The Ohio State Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters political action committee donated $5,000 to Brunner’s campaign last year. That was Brunner’s single biggest campaign contribution. No one else gave more than $2,500.
Last year, Brunner raised only $40,483 in fresh campaign money — the lowest amount among the five statewide elected officials, according to reports filed Thursday.
Sure, 2007 was a non-election year but Brunner, an elections lawyer and a Democrat, will have to ramp up fund-raising in a serious way. The Ohio Republican Party is sure to target her seat in the 2010 elections. The Secretary of State sits on the five-member Apportionment Board, which draws legislative district maps after the 2010 census. Whichever party controls the apportionment board gets to draw the maps to their advantage, ensuring favorable legislative districts for the following 10 years.
Comments
By Johnny Springfield
February 1, 2008 4:30 PM | Link to this
Ohioans bought a pig in a poke when they elected Jennifer Brunner. She sounded good on paper, but has been a disaster in reality. If Republicans want to unseat her, they’ll have to put up someone that is equal to or better than she is. Someone like Ann Womer Benjamin, a woman, an attorney, a former department director whose administrative and leadership skills are unmatched, and someone from northeast Ohio who can meet or beat the votes Brunner got in Cuyahoga County and Cleveland, which really won the day for her. But then, if Brunner keeps making as many enemies going forward as she has in her first year, the fundraising needs of any Republican might not be that great because voters will have already realized they need to correct the mistake they made in 2006.