Fast-forward 30-plus years, and people are still telling Brunner that she is good in politics but that she should set her sights somewhere other than the U.S. Senate.
At the Montgomery County Democratic Party’s annual Frolic for Funds event recently, people told her so to her face. Many party faithful are mad that Brunner turned her back on the secretary of state’s race and the secretary’s seat on the five-member Apportionment Board. The political party that controls the Apportionment Board in 2011 controls how the legislative districts look for the next 10 years.
“She would have been very vital if she had stayed in that position,” said Tony Curington, 59, a Delphi retiree from Harrison Twp. who attended the Frolic for Funds. He added that for the good of the party, she should have remained in her current job.
Brunner is unapologetic.
“(State Auditor) Mary Taylor isn’t running for re-election, either, so it’s a jump ball,” Brunner said. The auditor is one of five Apportionment Board members.
Brunner, 53, is nothing if not stubborn.
Despite pressure, she decided to take a chance to become the first woman to represent Ohio in the Senate, which has just 17 women among its 100 members. Brunner is making use of Rosie the Riveter images in her campaign material — the ultimate appeal to can-do feminist voters.
She needs every edge she can muster. Brunner, a former Franklin County common pleas court judge, is running against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who lined up Gov. Ted Strickland’s endorsement and campaign donors early on. He last reported $1.8 million in his campaign account compared to just under $61,000 in Brunner’s account.
Brunner charges that Strickland and Fisher have pressured donors not to give to her campaign — something Fisher denies. But Brunner notes that she didn’t have trouble raising money in 2006 when she first ran statewide and she doubts she’ll have difficulty attracting donors if she wins the May 4 primary.
Brunner’s campaign bought a used school bus on eBay for $2,050 and volunteers painted it silver. It passed an inspection, but Brunner wouldn’t take passengers on it until it made its maiden voyage without a breakdown.
Brunner grew up on the west side of Columbus, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a teacher, and the oldest of four children. She met her husband, Rick Brunner, on a summer job for Columbus parks and recreation while she was still in college. By fall, they were engaged and a year later, they were married.
Brunner attended law school at night at Capital University. With three children under the age of 7, she started her own law practice in her home and focused on election law and campaign finance.
By 2000, when she ran her first campaign, Brunner had six kids at home — her three, plus her cousin’s three — and spent her spare moments shuttling them to girl scouts, soccer games and band practice.
“I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to live a regular life. I never thought I’d run for office. I had enough candidates as clients that I thought I’d never want to be like them,” she said.
But she ran for Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge and won. While on the bench, she started a drug court, which she said helped people put their lives back together.
She waited until her youngest graduated from high school in June 2004 before deciding to run statewide, seeking the secretary of state’s office in the 2006 election.
If elected to the U.S. Senate, Brunner said she would like to serve on the judiciary committee, where she would work on criminal justice reform issues, such as putting more money into community corrections programs that work rather than warehousing so many non-violent offenders in costly prisons.
She noted that she’d also serve on any committees dealing with labor, agriculture, banking or economic development.
But before she measures for drapes in an office in Washington, D.C., Brunner has to defeat Fisher and then beat former Congressman Rob Portman, the Republican candidate who served as George W. Bush’s budget director and trade representative. Polls show a close race between either Fisher and Portman or Brunner and Portman.
A recent poll indicates Brunner is lagging a few points behind Fisher among likely Democratic primary voters. Plus, she has no money to respond to Fisher’s TV commercials.
Still, she isn’t willing to concede any ground. “A lot of people think I can’t win the primary,” Brunner said. “I think I can.”
Contact this reporter at (614)224-1624 or
lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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