SHERROD BROWN DECLINES SENATE RUN: At 8:15 this evening Congressman Sherrod Brown posted a piece at GrowOhio.org announcing that he won't seek the Democratic nomination for Mike Dewine's U.S. Senate seat in 2006.

This, on the same day Ohioans were hearing that the ranking Republican in state government faces criminal charges in Franklin County. The prosecution of Taft pushes the Ohio GOP closer to a historic electoral meltdown next year -- but only if the Democrats can field real candidates at the top of the ticket. This "if" just got significantly bigger.

Brown, Secretary of State for two terms in the Celeste '80s, is one of only two active Democrats who've ever won a statewide election. (The other is 1991-95 Attorney General Lee Fisher, now running a big nonprofit in Cleveland.)

The leading Democratic candidates for governor, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and Congressman Ted Strickland, have had little statewide presence until this year (apologies to Coleman, but being a losing candidate for Lieutenant Governor doesn't really count... ask Charleta Tavares and Peter Lawson Jones).

Congressman Tim Ryan of Youngstown, who's said to be thinking about the Senate race that Brown declined, is only in his second term -- and in a small media market. Wunderkind Paul Hackett scared the bejesus out of the GOP in the 2nd Congressional District a couple of weeks ago, but he still hasn't won any office higher than Milford City Council.

Against this background, I think Sherrod's decision not to reach higher -- either for governor, or to unseat Senator Dewine -- has to be counted as a serious setback for Ohio Democrats. This is not a team that can afford to sit its starters. We just don't have that deep a bench.

Very disappointing.