OH-Sen 101

The upcoming Ohio Senate race is a hot topic in the blogosphere this week. Earlier this month Democrat Paul Hackett challenged Republican incumbent Mike DeWine. Hackett had held off announcing his candidacy until after veteran Congressman Sherrod Brown announced that he would not seek the nomination. Three days after Hackett's announcement, Brown changed his mind and entered the race. That decision sparked nothing short of a civil war in the political blogosphere.

Hackett won the affection of the liberal blogosphere with an aggressive netroots campaign in the 2005 special election in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District.

Brown's decision outraged Hackett supporters, others were outraged by the outrage.

David Sirota published an lengthy analysis of why Brown could Beat DeWine, as did Kossak displacedyankeedemocrat. Fellow Kossaks Pounder and Brigham have been voiciferously defending Hackett all week.

We still don't know whether there will be a Democratic primary. There are conflicting reports about whether Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) of the DSCC called Hackett to pressure him to drop out. Stay tuned for more exciting developments.

[David Sirota, Swing State Project, DailyKos, Buckeye Senate Blog.]