OH-05: Commish Brown Sits Out Race Due To Blog Attacks

On Saturday the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune published the fact that Commissioner Tim Brown had decided to sit out the Congressional race to fill the deceased Paul Gillmor's seat in the 5th District. The reason?

Personal attacks by anonymous bloggers have prompted a potential candidate for the 5th District congressional seat to not seek that post.

Wood County Commissioner Tim Brown said Friday evening that he decided to not run for the seat previously held by Paul Gillmor after viewing comments posted on Columbus-based Web sites targeting Brown’s sexual orientation. One such blog asks if Northwest Ohioans are ready to have a gay congressman.

“Potential adversaries who look at life in a different manner have decided to attack me on a personal basis,” Brown said. “These things should have no place in the political process.”
But the Bowling Green Republican said his sexual orientation would undoubtedly be a target in a congressional campaign, and would affect his ability to raise enough funding to effectively compete in the race.

You'll recall that last Friday, after receiving an email from an anonymous Republican source, BSB talked about these comments - as did many other bloggers after receiving word from other Republican sources. There was definitely a concerted effort by some GOPers to make sure these questions regarding Tim Brown's sexuality got out there. Interesting how that works over on the Republican side of the aisle, eh?

It is rough though that this whole process is what "outted" Commissioner Tim Brown.

However, late Thursday night, a Republican colleague told Brown of the anonymous blog attacks. It was then that Brown realized raising adequate funds would be impossible.

It was also then that he decided to publicly talk about his sexual orientation.
“This is how I was born,” he said. “This is an orientation.”

Brown realizes that some people will view him as a “gay commissioner,” instead of a “commissioner who happens to be gay.”

Hear that GOPers, it's how he was born.