In his prepared remarks before the Akron Press Club, Rob Portman never mentioned the prominent Democrat challenging him in a tight race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate next year.
Instead, the Cincinnati Republican attacked heroin, a scourge that looms large around Akron and Ohio, and only talked politics in response to questions after the speech.
Portman used his speech Monday to campaign not for his re-election bid — acknowledging former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, his opponent, only when asked to — but for bills like the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which he first sponsored in 2014 with a Democratic colleague in the Senate.
The legislation would boost funding for drug treatment. It flew through the Senate last month and awaits action in the U.S. House.
“I think he was really smart to do that,” University of Akron professor Dave Cohen said after hearing Portman avoid politics during his half-hour speech.
“He’s not a hard-line ideologue,” Cohen added. “He’s willing to discuss issues and cross party lines if he thinks it’s important.”
Work horse
Portman, a first-term Senator who worked in both Bush administrations as a trade representative and a budget director, served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He reminded the 150 attendees at the Monday luncheon that he’s visited 200 factories in Ohio, spearheaded efforts to raise awareness of heroin addiction and has backed dozens of successful bills since heading back to Washington, D.C., in 2011 as a pro-business senator.
Politics aside, Cohen called him a “work horse.”
“I feel like you hired me to get stuff done,” Portman told the audience. “We can point to over 40 bills that I have written that have now become law. And for the Republicans in the room who are kind of nervous about me saying that — because President [Barack] Obama signed them — I can tell you they are all good bills that moved the country forward.”
Wages down, jobs up
Taking an indirect shot at Strickland, Portman praised Ohio Gov. John Kasich for turning an $8 billion projected deficit into a $2 billion surplus after inheriting an empty rainy day fund, then adding hundreds of thousands of jobs that had disappeared.
U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics data actually show jobs returning more quickly in the months before Kasich won election in 2010 than immediately after assuming office.
Still, in an interview after the luncheon with the Beacon Journal, Portman criticized Strickland for creating a regulatory environment that drove Ohio jobs to neighboring states, a claim repeated by well-heeled outside groups that support Portman’s re-election bid with million-dollar political advertisements.
Portman recalled companies and jobs that moved away, but he couldn’t quantify job loss due to a crashing financial sector and housing market as America shed millions of jobs.
“I don’t know,” Portman said. “That’s a good question. I don’t know the exact number.”
But the number he routinely uses — 350,000 jobs lost — he repeated to the crowd.
At the same time, Portman acknowledged that average Ohio salaries, down since before Kasich took office, have not recovered. Meanwhile, the cost of living, including health care, continues to climb.
“So you have lower wages and higher expenses … which is actually a squeeze,” Portman said.
Economic cure
To kick Ohio’s economy back into gear, Portman said Ohio must encourage manufacturing jobs that export goods, which he said pay 18 percent more on average.
Washington D.C., he added, can help by ensuring fair trade.
Foreign governments, particularly China, can weaken their currency against the dollar, creating an imbalance that makes American goods more costly and less desirable. Other times, Portman said, foreign governments subsidize and cheapen their exports to undercut American industries, which cannot compete.
“When I talk about trade,” said Portman, tackling a subject that has become a political football between his and Strickland’s campaigns, “I talk about the sweet spot, which is more exports for Ohio, which we can do better on, but also having a level playing field.”
No confirmation
Despite Portman’s accomplishments, the crowd was critical of his refusal to consider Obama’s pick for an open Supreme Court seat, vacated by a conservative judge.
Standing in a line outside Quaker Station, protesters held up signs and shouted “Do your job, Rob.”
Portman didn’t speak of the contentious court nomination that Republican Congressional leadership has demanded is non-negotiable until a new president is elected. But several attendees submitted questions asking Portman why — after meeting last week with Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick — he still refuses to give an up-or-down vote on the Washington, D.C., circuit judge in an appointment only the Senate can make.
“He’s a smart guy. We had a good discussion,” Portman said of the meeting. “I was able to talk to him about a number of issues. But I also talked to him about my view not to have the nomination go forward in this highly partisan atmosphere.”
Portman’s unwillingness to budge on the confirmation vote, which national polling by CBS, CNN and the New York Times shows most Americans support, drew mutters of disapproval from the crowd.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.