The Paul Hackett Controversy

Rather than bowing out of the Senate race gracefully, it appears that Paul Hackett is quitting politics altogether. What a shame to lose a veteran to party politics. True, I would have rather seen him running for Congress instead of the Senate race. But to see a military veteran quit politics altogether is a dire tragedy. I thank him for his military service and I hope he reconsiders the race in OH-2 before the filing deadline.

Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.

But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.

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

Kos, who earlier called Dr. Chuck Pennacchio a candidate who was not serious, added the following:

To be clear -- Hackett didn't stand a chance. He had a tenth of Brown's money, and that was before party people allegedly tried to stop Hackett's donors from giving. His field operation in the special election was literally put together and implemented by Dan Lucas. Who is Dan Lucas? Sherrod Brown's campaign manager. Hackett's netroots effort in the special election was put together by Tim Tagaris. And while Tim is now at the DNC, he helped put together Brown's netroots operation.

So it was Brown's people who helped put together the nuts and bolts of Hackett's special election campaign, and they were now working for their boss -- Sherrod Brown.

Still, it is a shame that we have to lose people like Paul Hackett due to party politics.

Contact Paul Hackett and encourage him to run for Congress!

Ohio 2nd has some more on the Hackett controversy and some words from former Senator John Glenn via Cleveland.com:

But former Sen. John Glenn, a one-time Marine fighter pilot and astronaut, has some political wisdom of his own for Hackett, a Marine Reserve major: Tune out what all the others are telling you. "All the people that want to advise you, tell ‘em to save their breath."

Glenn said in a telephone interview that if he had listened to the party’s wise men way back when, he might not have made it to the Senate.

"They wanted me to run for lieutenant governor with Gilligan," he said. That would be ex-guv John Gilligan, who served a single term in Columbus — and now sits on the Cincinnati School Board.

Former Senator Gary Hart added more.

Based on news reports alone and knowing nothing (thank goodness) about behind-the-scenes politics, the pressure brought on Paul Hackett, the bold Iraqi veteran, to abandon his campaign for the U.S. Senate from Ohio is deplorable.

This is simply old politics at its worst. There is a party which hand-picks its candidates, decides who can and cannot run, directs money to the favorite candidate, and dictate terms. Up till now, that party has been the Republican party.

Now, it seems, my Democratic party is once again imitating the Republican party in a desperate effort to regain power. With the McGovern democratic reforms in the early 1970s, political bosses were diminished and grassroots voters were elevated. The theme was, Let the people decide.

Telling Paul Hackett that he cannot run for the Senate, and purportedly calling contributers to dry up his funds, is the worse kind of old politics. It will drive voters away from the supposedly "open" party, the Democrats, and further add to public cynicism about how politics in America is played in the early 21st century.