PERSPECTIVE: Ohio Dems looking to Brown name too

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — To be blue in Ohio this year, you almost have to be Brown.

Ohio Democrats have two candidates on the 2010 ballot that share the surname of the history-making Republican senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown.

Gov. Ted Strickland has chosen former juvenile judge and nonprofit leader Yvette McGee Brown as his running mate. Franklin County probate judge Eric Brown has jumped into the mix as a candidate for chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

Historians and political scientists say the name is inoffensive and especially attractive in rural Ohio. That could help Democrats, who are fighting a growing tide of discontentment.

The name may not have been a charm for Democrat Marilyn Brown, who dropped out of the running for Ohio secretary of state.