WWRD?: He'd blog if he had been lobbied to declare a primary campaign hopeless

[WARNING: "Inside baseball" blogger crap below.  Proceed with caution.] 

Russell Hughlock (aka "staff" and "Pounder") was the founder of BSB who made his blogging name focusing how Paul Hackett was mistreated by the Ohio Democratic Party establishment and how Marc Dann was being forced down our throats.

Shortly after the 2006 elections (roughly a year after BSB formally started), Russell announced that he was leaving to go to work for Rich Cordray.  What Russell didn't tell alot of people is that he still owns the right to our domain name, which means he could literally pull the plug on BSB anytime he wanted.  Whenever I've suggested in the past that BSB, LLC should buy the rights to the domain name from Russell to make it a clean break, I've been told that he's not interested in selling it.

Which is what makes what happened last night so awkward.  Last night, Russell e-mailed David and I to suggest that we should declare Brunner's Senate candidacy dead.  In his words, "It seems pretty obvious to me that Brunner has no support for this Senate bid at all."  First of all, that's bullshit and that's the very kind of thing Russell used to openly mock here on BSB when he was a blogger and before he become nothing more than a guy who uses his past "fame" and reputation in the blogsphere to try to get us to tow the ODP line (this is not the first time Russell has comeout of the woodwork with spin that struck us all as nothing more than carrying water for his boss or ODP... a practice we bloggers have for far too long given Russell a pass on because our past association and affection for the guy.)  Russell's pitches have been known as being 180 degress away from what he used to advocate as a blogger.  If he were in his current position back in 2006, he'd be telling us why Hackett isn't a serious candidate.  It's pretty breathtaking.

Now, I should mention that what was so unusual about this is the fact that I could count on one hand the number of emails I've gotten from Russell that wasn't sent out to every progressive blogger in Ohio.  I'm struggling to recall the last time Russell e-mailed me to suggest content for this site.  I should also mention that the last time I actually talked to Russell was back in April, and he was saying essentially the same thing then, too.  And yet, hanging over my head is the fact that Russell has leverage over us because he owns the rights to our domain name.

So, I thought what would Russell, the "blogfather" of Ohio political blogging do?  And I suddenly remembered the only thing Russell ever taught me about blogging: everything is and should be bloggable.  I never agreed to hold his entirely unsolicited content advice "off the record."  Will I be "fired" from this entire voluntary, unpaid freelancing?  Maybe.  I'll live if I am, and there's plenty of other blogs that would take me, so I really have nothing to lose.   Will Russell actually threaten to pull the plug?  I doubt it, and he's never implied he would do that if we didn't do what he wanted.  But still, it hangs over our head.  Will Russell be pissed and threaten all sorts of shit?  Yeah, probably, but if I were going to translate this gig into a cushy state job, I would have by now.  So other than pull the plug on BSB, what can Russell really do to me?  Half the world knows my identity, so that's not even leverage anymore.  So fuck it. 

I think you, our readers, have the right to know that David and I are being lobbied to declare Brunner's Senate campaign dead and that she should be running for Secretary of State, especially from someone from Rich Cordray's office (although I have absolutely no reason to believe that Russell's personal email was known, authorized by, or even endorsed by Cordray.)  I saw this coming a country mile away which is why I wrote what I wrote last week.   This is the make or break moment for the Brunner campaign, because once she files and is on the ballot people who have been sitting on the fence believing that she's not really in this race will realize that she's going to weather the criticism and short-sighted money primary focused pundits.  So everyone against her is pulling out all of the stops, and they're hoping to see signs that we're abandoning her.  And all the people who are sick of ODP denying us Hackett, or Chandra, or Brown, or forcing Sykes and Garrison down our throats will finally be able to be heard.

They want us to say that there's no support for Brunner.  But that's a fucking lie.  Brunner does better than Fisher does with Independents-  a vital voting bloc in the general elections.  She's close if not within the margin of error against Fisher with primary voters despite all of Fisher's flaunted advantages as a candidate, and a majority of primary voters are free for the taking.  I honestly believe most of that majority are people afraid to commit to Brunner because they think like Brown or Hackett, she's not going to be on the ballot. 

David and I haven't been able to get anyone willing to go on the record, but we've both independently and separately heard about intimidation tactics being used to get people not to donate to Brunner.  People who have interests tied to the State in some form or another being told that their business will dry up if they donate or visibly help Brunner.

Lee Fisher will not beat Rob Portman.  He's never been outfundraised by the nearly 4:1 margin he's being outraised by Portman right now.  Hell, Fisher has lost his statewide races despite raising and spending more than his Republican opponent.  Brunner has won races despite being outspent.  And Fisher's running out of donors.  For two straight quarters, his campaign has raised less and less money.  This suggests that Fisher could be looking at a massive fundraising disadvantage against Portman, even if Fisher DOESN'T have a contested primary.  Why is nobody writing that?  Because they aren't interested in fair coverage, they're interested in keeping Brunner out of the primary.

I won't sugarcoat the last campaign finance report for Brunner.  It WAS a disaster.  But it's not the fatal blow everyone on Fisher's side is trying to make it out to be.  She can recover, especially when people realize that no matter what her opposition tries to do, she will be on the ballot.

If I honestly thought the money primary was the only thing that mattered, then I wouldn't be a blogger.  If I believed that conventional wisdom is wise, I wouldn't be a blogger.  And if you thought those things, you wouldn't come here.

And if I honestly thought Brunner's Senate campaign was "dead in the water,"  I'd write that.  But I don't.  And I'm not going to write it simply because a guy with a cushy state job with Rich Cordray is telling me to, domain name rights be damned.