Wulsin covers her bases

At the noon hour Monday, Victoria Wells Wulsin, the physician from Indian Hill who finished second to Paul Hackett in last June's 2nd District Democratic primary, showed up at a downtown meeting of Democratic party activists with two sets of candidate nominating petitions under her arm.

One was for the 2nd Congressional District, in case she decides to run again for the seat won in August by Republican Jean Schmidt.

The other was for the 35th Ohio House District, now held by Republican Michelle Schneider, Schmidt's friend and Columbus roommate when they were both serving in the Ohio General Assembly.

By the Feb. 16 candidate filing deadline, one of those sets of petitions will be filed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections and one will go in the dustbin.

Wulsin is not yet sure which will go where.

The doctor, who runs an AIDS prevention agency, said what she does depends a lot on what Hackett does.

Hackett, last summer's natioal political sensation when he came just short of knocking off Schmidt in one of the most Republican congressional districts in the country, has set his sights higher this time - the U.S. Senate seat of Republican incumbent Mike DeWine.

But to take on DeWine, Hackett first has to deal with Rep. Sherrod Brown in the May 2 Democratic primary. That is not exactly a chip shot and a short putt, since Brown has run statewide several times before, started his campaign with $2 million in the bank, and comes from northeast Ohio, which is, after all, where Democratic voters in Ohio tend to congregate.

Some Democrats in the 2nd District - including Hamilton County chairman Tim Burke - would like to see Hackett forego the Senate race and take another whack at Schmidt.

Wulsin says that if Hackett does drop his Senate bid and goes for a rematch, she'll file the Ohio House petitions and skip the 2nd District.

But Hackett shows no signs of getting out. Wulsin said she ran into him recently at a Democratic party function in Columbus and came away with the impression that he was dead-set on taking on Brown.

"It was good old Paul, all firey and feisty and committed to becoming a senator,'' Wulsin said.

If Wulsin does enter the 2nd District race, she automatically becomes the front-runner on the Democratic side, given the nature of the competition.

There are three announced Democratic candidates so far, and none of them have much of a track record. There is Jim Parker, the health care administrator from Pike County, who finished fourth out of five in last June's primary; Jeff Sinnard, the Anderson township civil engineer and stay-at-home dad who finished dead last; and Thor Jacobs, the Newtown businessman who thought about running last year but decided against it.

Wulsin has one thing in common with the rest of the field - she's never been elected to anything either. But, with her second place finish and 27 percent of the vote last June, she looks, in comparison like a political colossus striding the earth.