The recent focus of the Senate race between Ohio incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, thought to be among the most vulnerable Republican Senators this midterm, and Democratic challenger Rep. Sherrod Brown, has been on taxes. Odd, since Brown's reputation and voting record has been one which strongly favored higher taxes and spending . . . Greg Giroux of CQ Politics has the story:

In recent days, DeWine and Brown have brandished their records on tax issues, with each pointing to congressional votes to burnish his own credentials or criticize his opponent. The national parties' campaign committees have also chipped in with independent expenditures on ads to try to affect one of the year's most highly competitive -- and potentially decisive -- contests in the battle for control of the Senate.

At a campaign appearance in Columbus today, Brown announced a plan to provide "targeted" tax cuts for middle-class families whose incomes he said have stagnated during the presidency of George W. Bush.

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DeWine's ad, as well as a spot from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) that began airing last week, reference Brown's 1993 vote for a deficit-reduction measure promoted by President Bill Clinton that included tax increases on gasoline, some Social Security benefits and the incomes of wealthier taxpayers. No Republican in either chamber voted for the measure, which narrowly cleared a Congress then controlled by the Democrats.

"Disappointed in Washington?" says a narrator in the NRSC ad. "This congressman voted in favor of higher taxes over 35 times. Sherrod Brown let us down." DeWine's ad says that Brown's "yea" vote for the 1993 pact was equivalent to backing the "largest tax increase in history."

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett also piled on, saying today that Brown "continues to be exposed as someone whose election-year rhetoric doesn't match his far-out record."

Read the whole story at the link above.

One really must wonder about Democrats' strategy in many of these midterm races. They want to run on antiwar themes in many races, playing into the natural Republican advantage on national security. Now Brown, with a strongly liberal record in Congress, is trying to take on DeWine on tax cuts, another issue traditionally dominated by the GOP.

The advantage for Democrats this year seems to be the general dissatisfaction with incumbents and the President. The advantage for Republicans this year is that they get to run against Democrats.