GOP begins drive to oust Sen. Brown of Ohio in 2012

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Republicans eager to defeat Ohio’s senior U.S. senator in 2012 are grappling with a field of potential contenders that includes feisty former elections chief Ken Blackwell, a new state treasurer and a former state senator who has never won statewide.

Recent polls show Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown with a comfortable lead so far over Blackwell, state Treasurer Josh Mandel and former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin.

But the race is young, and Republicans believe Brown’s left-of-center politics give them a good chance of recapturing the seat Mike DeWine lost in 2006.

With almost a year and a half to go before Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has already begun its attack on Brown. Spokesman Jahan Wilcox says the committee will emphasize that Brown “has spent the last 18 years in Washington maxing out the government credit card, raising taxes and driving up our debt.”

Democrats have seized on Blackwell’s potential candidacy with equal vigor, painting him as an extremist to the far right of average Ohioans.

A seasoned campaigner, Blackwell relishes Democrats’ attacks — perhaps even more so because he’s on the road promoting a new book, “Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America.”

The former state treasurer, secretary of state and GOP gubernatorial candidate even recently re-tweeted a Twitter posting by Ohio Democrats that blasted positions he states in the book. He thanks them for reading and spreading the word on his views.

“Dogs don’t bark at parked cars, so they must know I’m on the move,” Blackwell said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ohio Democratic Party press secretary Justin Barasky says Blackwell and Coughlin have both supported a plan by congressional Republicans to send future Medicare beneficiaries shopping for health insurance in the private market — a plan he believes middle-class Ohio residents reject.

Blackwell is equally as well known by his enemies and his friends. He was at the helm as Ohio’s top elections official in 2004, when the presidential election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry hinged on Ohio’s result. Bush’s tight margin of victory — fewer than 118,000 votes of 5.6 million cast — was the subject of election challenges that linger to this day. At the same time, he is a darling of social conservatives..

Blackwell told the AP he will decide whether he’ll run after his book tour ends later in June.