He was appointed in January 1997 to fill the vacancy caused by Dennis Kucinich, who was elected to Congress.

However, in 1998 he opted to not run for election to his Senate seat, and he was succeeded by Dan Brady in 1999.

[1] Sweeney held a master's degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and worked at Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs as Assistant to the Vice President of Governmental Relations.

Sweeney was also president of public policy advocacy firm PASCo Consultants.

[2] Sweeney was born in Cleveland, Ohio and served in the United States Air Force.