OH-2: Paul Hackett for Congress?

The Cincinnati Post posts an article dealing with Paul Hackett running for Congress instead of the United States Senate. If Hackett does switch, then I will endorse him. The last thing we need is a divisive primary for the U.S. Senate race.

Democrats have privately suggested for some time that Hackett, who has a national Internet following but faces the more experienced Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in a Senate primary, would be better off running again for the House seat held by Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt of Miami Township in Clermont County. Democrats acknowledge their chances of winning a district that voted 64 percent for President Bush in 2004 are slim without Hackett.

"This isn't talking behind the scenes; I'm saying it publicly. ... I'm petitioning Paul Hackett to run for Congress," Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Sunday.

Hackett declined comment Sunday, but has frequently said he's in the Senate race to stay.[...]

Hackett didn't take kindly to immediate private pressure to go back to the House race and leave the Senate campaign to Brown.

"This isn't about getting someone out for Sherrod Brown; we need more races," Emanuel said.

Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio was one Democrat who urged Hackett to run for Senate when it appeared Brown wouldn't.

Now he, too, is asking Hackett to reconsider.

"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," Ryan said.

Republicans hold a 231-202 advantage in the House with one vacant seat and one Independent. Democrats would have to win 15 seats held by the GOP and defend all of their own to regain the majority they lost in 1994.