Paul Hackett has been making waves in the blogosphere ever since he nearly won a closely contested special election in the heavily Republican Ohio 2nd District. His success in that race and general high profile led him to throw his hat into the 2006 OH Senate race to displace the right-wing toady Sen. Mike DeWine. Last week he bowed out of the race and a future political career, claiming he had been forced out by Democratic Party leadership. Now, as The Nation reports, another reason has appeared.

…It appears that an even bigger factor was a poll that showed Hackett trailing far behind his progressive primary opponent, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown. With the filing deadline for the May Democratic primary rapidly approaching, Hackett was confronted with new numbers from his own pollster, which showed Brown was ahead among likely voters by an almost 2-1 margin — 46 percent for the congressman to 24 percent for Hackett.

While we certainly would have hoped that the dynamic Hackett would continue his career by running again in the Ohio 2nd, this news does leave doubts about his long-term viability as a Democratic candidate in these ferocious political times. Hopefully Mr. Hackett will sit down with us soon and tell us the full story.