In Wake of Husband's Senate Win, Schultz Resuming Column

By: Dave Astor January will be quite a month for Connie Schultz. Her husband, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), will be sworn in as a U.S. Senator, and Schultz will resume the Pulitzer Prize-winning column she has written for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland since 2002.

"I'm really looking forward to returning to my version of normalcy," Schultz said of her column, which she had halted temporarily to work on Brown's campaign.

Schultz said some people thought, if her husband won, that she might give up her column and be a Senator's wife. They were wrong, she added.

"I'm separate and distinct from my husband," Schultz told E&P in a phone interview this morning. "Women have their own opinions, and I'm one of them." She did note that she and Brown share many of the same views about how Republican policies have hurt the poor and middle-class in Ohio and throughout the country.

Schultz's column, which was syndicated by Newhouse News Service, will again appear twice a week. And the 2005 Pulitzer winner said she'll feel comfortable commenting on everything except legislation Brown is directly involved with.

"Like before, I'll weigh in on all the issues of the day and also do personal columns," said Schultz, who will spend some days in Washington but remain based in Ohio the majority of the time.

Schultz is also working on a Random House book -- titled "And His Lovely Wife" -- that she's trying to finish by early next year for June 2007 release. It will be a memoir of her experiences on the campaign trail.

The columnist decided early in the campaign that she would be herself, not a stereotypical politician's wife. For instance, Schultz wore what she wanted and told her own jokes. She said the political world can still be very sexist, but also can be very "inspiring."

Schultz said she learned a lot being on the inside of a campaign rather than covering it from the outside. The Plain Dealer writer noted that this will help her column in direct ways (she'll have more contacts, for instance) and in indirect ways she won't be able to quantify until the column resumes.

One thing Schultz learned on the campaign trail is that newspaper publishers and editors aren't always on the same wavelength as their readers. Schultz noted that one Ohio editor -- who she declined to name -- said verbally a few months ago that Brown "can't win this race." The columnist added that virtually every major Ohio daily (including The Plain Dealer) endorsed Republican Mike DeWine over Brown, yet Brown won the election handily.

"So many reporters across the state kept coming up to me angry about their newspapers' editorials," Schultz recalled.

The columnist said pro-DeWine newspaper executives might label reporters supporting Brown as liberals, but reporters had a better sense than the executives about the impact conservative Republican policies have had on the average citizen.

"We've lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs in Ohio," said Schultz. "People have lost their health care. And Americans have really had it with the Iraq War, which Sherrod voted against."

Speaking about yesterday's election results in general, Schultz said: "A lot of people in this country who thought they didn't have a voice cleared their throats and were heard."