The Hill...
Citing conflict of interest, Sen. Sherrod Brown’s wife resigns as columnist
Alicia M. Cohn  
September  26, 2011 

Connie Schultz, who is married to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), resigned as a columnist at an Ohio newspaper this week due to her husband’s re-election campaign. 

“In recent weeks, it has become painfully clear that my independence, professionally and personally, is possible only if I’m no longer writing for the newspaper that covers my husband’s Senate race on a daily basis,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “It’s time for me to move on.” 

Schultz’s decision followed a controversy with the Ohio Republican Party over a column that mentioned a campaign event including a speech by one of Brown’s 2012 potential Republican challengers, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine had approached The Plain Dealer about Schultz’s perceived bias due to her husband’s position. 

“I am in the unique position of being a newspaper columnist married to a U.S. senator,” Schultz wrote in a column during the controversy. “My opinions are my own, but I must be ever vigilant to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.” 

Schultz, who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2005, had written for The Plain Dealer for 18 years. She temporarily resigned from the position when Brown ran for Senate in 2006. 

Schultz added that she will keep busy writing a book, national syndicated columns and essays. 

Read it at The Hill