Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown
United States Senator from Ohio
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2007 Serving with Rob Portman
Preceded by	Mike DeWine
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 13th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Don Pease
Succeeded by	Betty Sutton
47th Ohio Secretary of State
In office 1983–1991
Governor	Dick Celeste
Preceded by	Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr.
Succeeded by	Bob Taft
Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from the 61st district
In office January 3, 1975 – December 31, 1982
Preceded by	Joan Douglass
Succeeded by	Frank Sawyer
Personal details
Born	Sherrod Campbell Brown November 9, 1952 (1952-11-09) Mansfield, Ohio
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Larke Ummel Brown (div. 1987) Connie Schultz
Children	Emily Brown Elizabeth Brown
Residence	Avon, Ohio
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A.) Ohio State University (M.P.A./M.A.)
Occupation	Teacher
Religion	Lutheran - ELCA
Website	Senator Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Campbell Brown (born November 9, 1952) is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007. He previously served as Ohio Secretary of State (1983–1991) and a member of the Ohio House of Representatives (1974–1982).

Brown defeated two-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine in the 2006 U.S. Senate election. In the U.S. Senate, he is chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms and the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, and is also a member of the Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and Select Committee on Ethics.

Early life

Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Emily (née Campbell) and Charles Gailey Brown, M.D. He was named after his maternal grandfather. He became an Eagle Scout in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University in 1974. At Yale, he was in Davenport College, the same residential college as U.S. Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush. He went on to receive a Master of Public Administration degree and a Master of Arts degree in education from the Ohio State University in Columbus in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He taught at the Mansfield branch campus of The Ohio State University from 1979 to 1981.

Career in politics

State politics

Brown served as an Ohio state senator from 1974 to 1982. He was one of the youngest state representatives in Ohio history, and supposedly, shortly after taking office, he was mistaken for an intern and asked to fetch coffee by a staffer. In 1982, he won a four-way Democratic primary that included Dennis Kucinich, now a Cleveland Congressman, then defeated Republican Virgil Brown in the general election for the office of Ohio Secretary of State, succeeding Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr.. In 1986, Brown won re-election as secretary of state, defeating Vincent C. Campanella. In 1990, Brown lost when trying for a third term as secretary of state to Republican Bob Taft.

U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman Brown

In 1992, Brown moved from Mansfield to Lorain, Ohio and won the heavily contested Democratic primary for an open seat in Ohio's 13th district, located in the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, after eight-term incumbent Don Pease announced his retirement. The Democratic-leaning district gave him an easy win over the little known Republican Margaret R. Mueller. He was re-elected six times, never facing substantive opposition with the exception of during the Republican landslide of 1994 when his opponent was a popular long-time local prosecutor.

Brown was the ranking minority member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee. He also served on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. As a member of the House International Relations Committee, he also served on the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. He was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In 2001, the Republican-controlled legislature threatened to draw Brown's district out from under him. Brown threatened to run for governor in 2002 against incumbent Bob Taft. The Republicans backed down, and in fact made his district even more heavily Democratic by adding most of Akron and drawing out Geauga and Portage counties.

In 2005, Brown led the Democratic effort to block the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). For many months, Brown worked as whip on the issue, securing Democratic "nay" votes and seeking Republican allies. After several delays, the House of Representatives finally voted on CAFTA after midnight on July 28, 2005 which resulted in passage by one vote.

2006 Senate campaign

Main article: Ohio United States Senate election, 2006

Brown hosts a panel of advisers to Barack Obama's presidential campaign during the first day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

In August 2005, Brown announced he would not run for the United States Senate seat held by Republican Mike DeWine. In October, however, Brown reconsidered his decision to enter the ring. This announcement came shortly after Democrat Paul Hackett also stated that he would soon announce his candidacy.

On February 13, 2006, Hackett withdrew from the race, all but ensuring that Brown would win the Democratic nomination. In the May 2 primary, Brown won 78.05% of the Democratic vote. His opponent, Merrill Samuel Keiser, Jr., received 21.95% of the vote.

In the middle of his Senate campaign in April 2006 Brown, along with John Conyers, brought an action against George W. Bush and others alleging violations of the Constitution in the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The case (Conyers v. Bush) was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing.

On November 7, 2006, Brown faced two-term incumbent senator Mike DeWine in the general election. Brown won the seat with 56% of the vote to DeWine's 44%.

Campaign Politics

Brown faced a tough challenge from DeWine in 2006. The campaign brought under scrutiny his vote against an emergency $87 billion spending plan in 2003 that included provisions for better armor and living conditions for U.S. soldiers as well as allegations of drug-dealing among his employees.

One of DeWine's ads, aired in October 2006, suggests that opponent Sherrod Brown did not pay an unemployment tax bill for 13 years. This claim led to the Associated Press reporting on October 19, 2006 that, "Several Ohio television stations have stopped airing a Republican ad because state documents contradict the ad's accusation that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown didn't pay an unemployment tax bill for 13 years." Brown has produced a commercial citing these facts. Citing a clerical error, Brown actually paid the $1,700 bill, which was due in 1993, in April 1994. However, this clerical error made it appear as if he had not paid this bill.

Brown was the subject of a misunderstanding by Rush Limbaugh on his radio program on February 14, 2006. Commenting on Hackett's withdrawal from the Senate race the previous day, Limbaugh declared there was a racial element to that withdrawal, making that statement on the erroneous assumption that Brown was black. (Limbaugh apparently perceived "Sherrod" as a more common name among African-Americans than among whites.) He was corrected and withdrew his statement later in the same program.

2012 Senate Campaign

Senator Brown will come up for reelection in 2012. His likely opponent is Josh Mandel, who has been described by some as a “rising GOP star” who in 2010, which was generally considered a good year for Republicans nationwide and in Ohio, defeated the incumbent appointed state treasurer by 14 points. Brown's opponent, Mandel, has been consistently criticized by the Ohio Democratic Party for failing to file legally required financial disclosure forms. In 2011 Mandel had already raised $2.3 million in the second quarter of 2011 alone, to Brown’s $1.5 million. Currently Brown has a consistent lead in the polls.

Controversy

In March 2011, Brown came under controversy for a senate floor speech in which he cited the names of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin while he criticized Republican efforts in Ohio and Wisconsin to mitigate the power of public employee unions to negotiate with state and local governments. In his speech he said "some of the worst governments that we've ever had, do you know one of the first things they did? They went after unions. Hitler didn't want unions, Stalin didn't want unions, Mubarak didn't want independent unions". Brown, however, added that he was not comparing the two situations. He later apologized for his speech.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Brown likened rooting for the Red Sox to rooting for drug companies. "I mean it's like they have so much money, they buy championships against the working-class, middle-America Cleveland Indians." The statement ruffled some Red Sox Nation members.

Political positions

An earlier photo of Senator Brown.

In 2011, among the National Journal’s annual rankings, Sherrod Brown tied with eight other members for the title of the most liberal member of Congress.

Internet Freedom

Brown is a cosponsor of the Protect-IP Act ("PIPA").

Iraq war

Brown has opposed the war in Iraq since voting against the Iraq Resolution as a House Representative. He voted against the $87 billion war budgetary supplement. He also voted for redeploying US troops out of Iraq by March 2008. In 2008, Sherrod Brown voted to appropriate funds for military matters of the Department of Defense, equaling $99.65 billion for the fiscal year 2008, and $65.92 billion for the fiscal year 2009. The bill also extended unemployment compensation and provided education funding for veterans.

LGBT rights

Brown is a strong advocate of equal rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Americans. He opposed an amendment to Ohio's constitution that banned same sex marriage. Brown was also one of the few U.S. Representatives to vote against the then highly popular Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. He also voted against prohibiting same-sex couples from adopting children in Washington D.C., and received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign. On November 30, 2010 Brown made a contribution to the It Gets Better Project from the Senate floor, and on December 18, 2010 he voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.

Economy

Sherrod Brown has been an open and frequent critic of international free trade. In 2011, the Columbus Dispatch noted that Brown "loves to rail against international trade agreements." Brown's book, Myths of Free Trade, details why "an unregulated global economy is a threat to all of us." He recommends adopting measures that would allow for emergency tariffs, protect Buy America laws, including those that give preference to minority and women-owned businesses, and hold foreign producers to American labor and environmental standards.

Brown is also the co-author and sponsor of a bill that would official declare China a currency manipulator and require the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on Chinese imports.

In 2009, when the vote on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act came down to just a few votes, Brown (an ardent advocate of the legislation) was attending services for his deceased mother. The White House provided a plane in order to fly him back to vote for the bill when it was determined that no commercial flight would make it on time. "Although most senators voted shortly after 5:30 p.m., the 60th and final vote was not cast until 10:46 p.m. by Sen. Sherrod Brown."

Health care

In 2007 Senators Brown and Sam Brownback (R-KS) sponsored an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. President George W. Bush signed the bill in September 2007. The amendment created a prize as an incentive for companies to invest in new drugs and vaccines for neglected tropical diseases. It awards a transferable “Priority Review Voucher” to any company that obtains approval for a treatment for a neglected tropical disease. This provision adds to the market based incentives available for the development of new medicines for developing world diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and African sleeping sickness. The prize was proposed by Duke University faculty Henry Grabowski, Jeffrey Moe, and David Ridley in their 2006 Health Affairs paper: "Developing Drugs for Developing Countries."

Brown supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, voting for it in December 2009, and he voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Family

Brown's wife, Connie Schultz, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former columnist at Cleveland's The Plain Dealer newspaper. She is also the author of Life Happens and ...and His Lovely Wife in which she describes her own experience with her husband's campaign as a feminist. Throughout her husband's political career Schultz has occasionally come under scrutiny for her position as a political reporter. In September, 2011, she was accused of playing politics for her husband while covering a Tea Party event for her column, when she started video recording her husband’s opponent, Josh Mandel, whom she did not cover in the column. Schultz later apologized in her column for giving “the appearance that I was covering Mandel for The Plain Dealer.” The same month, Schultz resigned her post at the newspaper, citing a conflict of interest while her husband runs for re-election.

Brown's has three daughters: Emily, who works for the Service Employees International Union, Elizabeth, who was an editorial assistant at New York magazine and is currently a communication staffer for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus; and Caitlin, who is currently performing a year of service with City Year Rhode Island, an Americorps program. Stepson Andrew C. Gard is a Ph.D. student in mathematics at Ohio State University. Brown's sister-in-law Anne M. Swanson is a communications attorney in Washington D.C. Brown and his family are Lutherans. They reside in Avon, Lorain County, Ohio.

Books authored

Brown is the author of two books:

• Congress from the Inside: Observations from the Majority and the Minority ISBN 0-87338-630-2
• Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed ISBN 1-56584-928-0

Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
• Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support
  • Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms (Chairman)
• Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Economic Policy (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development
  • Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance
  • Subcommittee on Children and Families
  • Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
• Committee on Veterans' Affairs
• Select Committee on Ethics

Electoral history

Ohio's 13th congressional district: Results 1992–2004

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1992		Sherrod Brown	134,486	53%		Margaret R. Mueller	88,889	35%		Mark Miller	Independent	20,320	8%		Tom Lawson	Independent	4,719	2%	*
1994		Sherrod Brown	93,147	49%		Gregory A. White	86,422	46%		Howard Mason	Independent	7,777	4%		John M. Ryan	Independent	2,430	1%
1996		Sherrod Brown	148,690	61%		Kenneth C. Blair, Jr.	87,108	36%		David Kluter	Natural Law	8,707	4%
1998		Sherrod Brown	116,309	62%		Grace L. Drake	72,666	38%
2000		Sherrod Brown	170,058	65%		Rick H. Jeric	84,295	32%		Michael Chmura	Libertarian	5,837	2%		David Kluter	Natural Law	3,108	1%
2002		Sherrod Brown	123,025	69%		Ed Oliveros	55,357	31%
2004		Sherrod Brown	201,004	67%		Robert Lucas	97,090	33%

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, Werner J. Lange received 3,844 votes (2%).

U.S. Senate (Class I) elections in Ohio: 2006 results

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct
2006		Sherrod Brown	2,257,369	56%		Mike DeWine	1,761,037	44%	*

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2006, Richard Duncan received 830 votes.

See also

• Ohio United States Senate elections
• Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 13th District
• List of United States Representatives from Ohio
• Brown–Kaufman amendment

External links

• United States Senator Sherrod Brown official U.S. Senate site
• Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Sen. Sherrod Brown's Blog at Huffington Post
• Profile on SourceWatch
• Profile at Campaign 2004 at USA Today
• Profile at PoliGu.com

Political offices
Preceded by Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr.	Ohio Secretary of State 1983–1991	Succeeded by Bob Taft
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Don Pease	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 13th congressional district 1993–2007	Succeeded by Betty Sutton
United States Senate
Preceded by Mike DeWine	United States Senator (Class 1) from Ohio 2007–present Served alongside: George Voinovich, Rob Portman	Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Bernie Sanders I-Vermont	United States Senators by seniority 61st	Succeeded by Bob Casey, Jr. D-Pennsylvania