Ohio braces for fierce Senate race

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Senator Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio, wants you to know he is not President Bush, whose popularity has plummeted. Nor is he Ohio's governor, Bob Taft, who was fined for taking unreported gifts. Or Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, who is under indictment. Or Representative Robert W. Ney of Ohio, who is under investigation.

Yet the well-publicized troubles of DeWine's GOP colleagues are becoming one of the biggest obstacles to his election to a third term in November against an energized Democratic opponent, Representative Sherrod Brown, whose long-thwarted party smells a chance to paint red-state Ohio blue.

''Look, it's a tough climate," said DeWine, a battle-tested campaigner who is undeterred. ''My experience is that Ohio voters are fiercely independent; they make decisions on their own."

The race is expected to be among the most competitive in the nation, and its outcome will help determine whether the Republicans can retain their current majority of 55 to 45 seats. Thirty-three Senate seats are up for grabs this year: 15 held by the GOP and 18 in Democratic hands.

Political analysts agree that the Democrats face an uphill battle to regain control of the Senate but that DeWine's seat offers an inviting target because of his party's woes.

For his part, Brown is staking his seven terms in the House on becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Ohio since 1992. The state, which narrowly put President Bush over the top in the 2004 election, is dominated by Republicans. They control the Legislature and have occupied the governor's office for 15 years.

And that, Brown and his fellow Democrats contend, is a blessing for them.

Polls suggest voter frustration with political corruption, a faltering economy, and an Iraq war that has hit Ohio particularly hard. Brown, 53, a staunch liberal Democrat and onetime boy wonder of Ohio politics who was first elected to the state Legislature when he was 21, tells audiences DeWine shares responsibility for a federal government that has ''betrayed its public trust."

Both Senate candidates face minor opponents in a May 2 primary. Brown avoided a significant challenge when Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett dropped out of the race.

Jennifer Duffy, who studies Senate races for the Washington-based Cook Political Report, considers the Senate race a tossup. She said DeWine's biggest problem is the growing unpopularity of Republican-led governments in Ohio and Washington.

But with DeWine's campaign working to portray Brown as too liberal, Duffy contends that some of Brown's votes will hurt him. He voted against the USA Patriot Act and opposed bans on gay marriage and late-term abortion; he voted before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to cut intelligence spending.

She also said Brown may have a difficult time defining DeWine, 59, as a Republican worthy of alarm. DeWine is a moderate Republican who has worked well with Democrats, sometimes to the dismay of conservatives in his own party. He is also a strong campaigner who won his last election with 60 percent of the vote.

Brown's take on DeWine, elected to the House in 1982 and the Senate in 1994, was more direct.

''He's almost become a Massachusetts Democrat," Brown said. ''He's gotten religion. He's also got a tough race on his hands."