U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner will be in New York Thursday to meet with Caroline Kennedy but first she came to Newark on Sunday to connect with many members of Licking County's female power base.
Brunner, Ohio's secretary of state and presumptive candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination, was in Newark today to give advise to women running for public office -- and to reassure them that she -- and they -- can win.
Although she's not yet officially in the race to succeed Republican George Voinovich in next year's Senate race, Brunner worked the room in campaign-mode and dropped word of her upcoming meeting this week with Empire State supporters at Kennedy's New York apartment.
"I can do this," she told her mostly female audience during today's reception for local Democratic women officeholders at the Buckingham Meeting House. And she dismissed doubts among some members of her own party that she's up to the job in D.C., citing the reform record she's already built over the last two years as Ohio's elections chief.
Some Democrats, including Governor Ted Strickland, have indicated they'd prefer that Brunner stand down so that Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher can be the Democratic nominee without a contested primary.
"Take one for the team?," Brunner responded. "Even if the other guy can't win? I don't think that makes sense."
And as for party leaders who worry that her Senate ambitions put in jeopardy Democratic control of the remapping of state legislative districts after 2010, Brunner also thinks such fears are unfounded.
She's already at work recruiting a strong woman candidate to replace her as Secretary of State if she moves on to the U.S. Senate, Brunner said.
"I have no doubt we'll hold on to that seat," she said.
Women often shy away from running for public office out of concern for their families, or self-doubts about their qualifications, or simply because nobody asks them to the political dance, she said.
Most of her remarks today were designed to give women activists the courage to run, as well as tip them to strategies which will make them winners at the ballot box.
Most important is that women have a clear idea as to why they're seeking public office, she said. And that they always are honest and direct with the voters.
"There will be all kinds of political consultants who tell you what to say and what not to say," she said. "But at some point, you've got to take a stand. Sometimes you have to be willing to take a stand because it's the right thing to do."
Not that she doesn't harbor some male envy, especially when it comes to President Obama and his money-raising prowess during last year's campaign.
"I wish I had his e-mail list," she said.
The reception was hosted by the Licking County Democratic Women's Caucus, a two-year-old independent political action committee created to get more women involved in politics and run for political office. For more information on the caucus and its programs, contact Pam Wilson of Granville at 740-321-1156 or Grace Cherrington in Pataskala at 739-3145.
(Gray Hunter)
Comments