Daily News - Candidate's wife encourages other women to get involved

(Dayton Daily News)

Candidate's wife encourages other women to get involved

Connie Schultz, Pulitzer winner, is married to Sherrod Brown, who's challenging incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine.

By Joanne Huist Smith

Staff Writer

DAYTON — It was like having lunch with a girlfriend.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist. She also is the wife of the candidate, U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, who hopes to unseat U. S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, in November. On Tuesday, Schultz joined a group of Miami Valley women interested in politics to applaud their activism and encourage them to get others involved in the process.

"I ask you all to find five women ... adopt them through the next 100 days before the election. If they have young children, offer to baby-sit so they can vote. If they are older, offer to drive them to the polls," Schultz said.

The group of up to 25 women from the Dayton region meet monthly at the Engineer's Club to talk about progressive causes, said Clayton Democrat Beverly Smith, who is challenging state Rep. Arlene J. Setzer, R-Vandalia, for the 36th District seat in the Ohio House.

Schultz spoke informally to them about women — as leaders, as politicians, as engaged voters — and discussed her two-year marriage to Brown, D-Avon.

"I have spent my entire career encouraging women to get involved in the political process and stepping up," Schultz said. "This is strategic. I would speak at any women's group. Women are the backbone of Ohio."

Schultz, a columnist for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, took a hiatus from her column during her husband's campaign.

"It was hard. I'm not going to kid you. I love my job, but I love my husband more," she said.

Schultz said she hasn't abandoned her writing career, just veered in another direction for now. She is currently writing a book about her experiences on the campaign trail for Random House, tentatively to be called, And His Lovely Wife.

"I want to speak for all the women who never felt they could," Schultz said. "I feel that responsibility."