Hackett’s Out

Paul Hackett has dropped out of the Ohio senate race, and says he will leave politics altogether.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.

But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.

"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."

If it’s true that his donors were being called and told to stop contributing to his senatorial campaign, that’s absolutely outrageous, and, frankly, I’ve no reason to think it isn’t true. The Dems are just shooting themselves in the foot again. That Sherrod Brown was likely to trounce Hackett in the primary makes no difference. Better to let a candidate compete honestly in a primary and lose than push him out—especially a candidate with a big mouth and a penchant for saying it like it is, which by no means should be taken as a criticism of Hackett.

Honestly, I wish Hackett had given more consideration to a House run, because it would have been better for Ohio than this all-or-nothing scenario. I don’t agree with the Dems’ tactics at all, and Hackett isn’t the only candidate they’re messing about. Political parties play politics—even (perhaps, especially) within their own ranks.

The truth is, he’s a political novice who just got a rude awakening, so I understand his chagrin. But I hope instead of giving up on politics altogether, he regroups, and finds a way to play politics with the Dems, or runs as an Independent.