By Jo Ingles
Former Gov. Ted Strickland won a big victory last night as nearly two thirds of Democratic voters chose him to be their candidate for U.S. Senate.
The mood was upbeat at the Columbus brewpub where Strickland watched returns with his supporters.
Strickland says he looks forward to running against incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman this fall. Strickland says he’ll look out for working Ohioans. One way he said he would do that is to fight plans by many Republicans to raise the retirement age before workers could collect social security.
“I’m sick and tired of people like Rob Portman and Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership in Washington D.C., trying to tell working people that they ought to work longer before they can retire.”
It was a disappointing night for Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld, who, despite TV ads and campaigning, lost the race nearly 2-1. He says Strickland was a well known and well liked opponent. And he said it was hard to get name recognition, especially since the presidential race sucked air out of the room.
“To make it statewide, you have to reach a certain level of name recognition that we didn’t reach so it’s not the outcome that we had hoped for, but I’m proud of the race we ran.”
Sittenfeld says the next big plan in his future is to get married this summer. Cincinnati area activist Kelli Prather came in third.
