Is there magic in the name Brown in Ohio elections?

February 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — To be blue in Ohio this year, you almost have to be Brown.

Ohio Democrats have two candidates on the 2010 ballot that share the surname of the history-making Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown.

Gov. Ted Strickland has chosen former juvenile judge and nonprofit leader Yvette McGee Brown as his running mate. Just last week, Franklin County probate judge Eric Brown jumped into the mix as a candidate for chief justice.

Scott Brown’s capture of the Senate seat long held by Democrat Ted Kennedy sent reverberations of discontent to Democrats who control Washington. Republicans have cast it as a precursor to the party’s political comeback in upcoming elections.

Democratic party officials in Ohio aren’t exactly being copycats. Though it may not have been a charm for Democrat Marilyn Brown, who dropped out of the running for Ohio secretary of state, the last name has long been a politically winning one in the state.

Ohio has had two governors named Brown — the first, Ethan Allen Brown, was elected in 1818. Three Browns have served as lieutenant governor, two as attorney general, four as secretary of state, and one as state treasurer. Ohioans sent Ethan Allen Brown to the U.S. Senate in 1822 and repeatedly sent Clarence Brown to the U.S. House.

Another U.S. Senator named Brown, Sherrod, holds one of the state’s two Senate seats today.

“Brown is sort of the name to be reckoned with in Ohio,” said Alexander Lamis, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University.

The Strickland campaign is clearly aware the name pleases voters. Though his running mate is known in central Ohio by her two last names, his campaign team has been dubbed Strickland-Brown, not Strickland-McGee Brown.

But Lamis views it as merely coincidental the Ohio Democrats have picked so many Browns to run this year — let alone that these candidates might ride the Scott Brown tide to Democrats’ favor.

“Frankly, I don’t think many people will notice,” Lamis said.

That’s part of the idea, said Ohio historian George Knepper.

“It’s about as neutral-sounding a name as you could get,” said Knepper, a distinguished emeritus history professor at the University of Akron. “In an opinionated person’s mind, it doesn’t conjure up something that he’s mad about.”

Voters nationwide are displaying increasing anger with the ruling party, whether it’s the Obama White House, the Democrat-led Congress or Strickland’s administration in Ohio. Ohio Democrats could neutralize some of that with a dose of Brown.

Knepper said both Clarence and John Brown, an 11-day governor, were conservative Republicans, while Sherrod is classified as a liberal. Party platforms don’t seem to sway the support for the name, he said.

“Brown is an inoffensive name. It doesn’t get anybody’s hackles up,” he said. “People coming from Cleveland — especially those with ethnic names, like Voinovich and Celebreeze — have historically had trouble in rural Ohio. Somebody voting in Wood County is more apt to vote for a Brown than a Voinovich. There are these old attitudes.”

James Armistead Brown Jr., volunteer project administrator for the Brown/Browne/Braun DNA Study, said via e-mail that Ohio’s ballot won’t look much different this fall from those across the nation. Studies have shown that four to seven of every 1,000 Americans is a Brown, he said.

Since lists of political candidates aren’t purely random and because those who run must be legal citizens and probably aren’t new immigrants, he estimates the number of Browns on ballots is probably even higher.

“I should expect that if we could total up a list of all political candidates from across the USA, 1 to 2 percent would be Browns,” he wrote. “Anything more would be a mystery worth dissertations by several Ph.D candidates in political science at Ivy League universities!”

Scott Brown probably benefited from the familiarity and comfort level of his name, Knepper said.

Lamis said that whether the Brown name will work magic for Ohio Democrats as it did for the Massachusetts Republicans remains to be seen.

“In Ohio, the Brown name carries great meaning with voters, a very positive meaning,” he said. “I guess it’s like Kennedy in Massachusetts.”