Unlike Yuengling beer, Sen. Rob Portman is welcome at the Fraternal Order of Police Akron Lodge 7.
At the private bar and kitchen near the Portage Lakes, off-duty officers can fish for bass in a scenic pond. But they’d have to bring Yuengling from home.
A majority of the lodge’s 800 union members decided a few years back that the Pennsylvanian beer would not be sold there in protest of the beer-maker’s president, who publicly backs laws that would eliminate mandatory union membership in some workplaces.
“That’s why there’s no Yuengling at this bar, because the owner wants ‘right to work,’ ” said Jim Tomsho, 75, a retired Akron-area police officer and Mogadore resident.
Portman had supported such a plan in the past. But, in his first term as a U.S. senator, the Terrace Park Republican appears less adversarial toward unions.
For that change of heart, along with championing the fight against heroin and protecting pensioners’ retirements, Tomsho and about 40 FOP members thanked the incumbent candidate during a visit at the lodge on Monday.
Since June, the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, to which the Akron chapter belongs, is among four unions that have endorsed the pro-business Republican, whose support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce makes him an unlikely favorite of organized labor.
To be sure, Ted Strickland, his opponent, has received even broader union support. The former governor is backed by Ohio’s firefighters, teachers, and national groups like the AFL-CIO, which is actively canvassing local neighborhoods for the Democrat.
But Portman’s union appeal is unusual. It includes endorsements from coal miners, police officers and Teamsters who’ve backed Strickland in the past.
“We go with whichever candidate has our back,” said Frank Williams, president of the Akron chapter. “This time it’s a Republican.”
Rolling through Ohio
Aboard a blue RV littered with signatures from supporters, Portman rolled into Akron to thank police officers for their endorsement.
His campaign estimates that, with the help of more than 1,500 volunteers, 100,000 voters have been contacted since he launched the two-week trip Saturday.
The Akron stop was scheduled in late July, days after delegates of Ohio’s police union voted 297-10 to support Portman over Strickland. The union backed Strickland for governor and Portman for Senate in 2010. The national police union, which typically endorses Republicans, plans to announce its presidential preference next month.
Local members applauded Portman’s efforts to fight opioid abuse, which officers said is driving a spike in crime and death in Akron this summer. Retirees liked his Pension Accountability Act. The bill, praised by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, would reverse a 2014 law that makes it more difficult for pensioners to reject proposed cuts to their benefits.
Mike Casper, a Summit County Sheriff’s deputy, said Portman has their backs. “We know what’s going on in today’s society,” he said, alluding to the shooting of police officers in retaliation for the deaths of unarmed black men.
It’s “the thin blue line between chaos and safety,” said Portman, referencing a Georgia officer killed Saturday. “Its like fair game now. Almost every week there’s someone being shot at. Officers are losing their lives, making the ultimate sacrifice. So I want to stand up with you guys.”
Not anti-union?
Portman made it clear that he does not support Republican efforts to curb unions.
“I support your right to collectively bargain. I’m a Republican and I support your right to collectively bargain. Did you hear that? I’m a Republican ...” Portman said, belaboring the point until the audience, some stopping for free hot dogs and baked beans as much as to hear the candidate speak, broke into laughter.
Portman supported U.S. House Resolution 1109 in 2001, a right-to-work bill. “Among the hundreds or thousands of bills” he said he’s considered, he couldn’t recall supporting this one when questioned by a reporter Monday. But Williams, the president of the Akron FOP, said members asked Portman about it only weeks earlier before making an endorsement.
Portman has not signed onto three similar right-to-work bills during his six years in the Senate. “When I ran for the Senate, I took a position that was very clear, saying that I was not going to support doing away with collective bargaining,” Portman said. He added that he opposed Ohio Senate Bill 5, an anti-union law that infuriated organized labor and was rejected by voters.
Politics as usual
Republicans are loading Portman’s unusual union endorsements into political ads.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue their assault on Portman’s lukewarm support of Trump, who one officer said can’t stop “shoving his foot in his mouth.”
“There’s nowhere Portman can take his RV to escape the toxic impact of Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric disparaging women, veterans, immigrants and the disabled,” Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Daniel van Hoogstraten said in a prepared statement on Portman’s trip.
Acknowledging “concern about the top of the ticket,” Portman said he has no plans to campaign with Trump, though he maintains that the billionaire is a better choice than Clinton, especially with GOP leaders fighting to retain a slim majority in the Senate.
Despite his shrug of support, Portman criticized Trump’s more divisive comments, including a ban on Muslim immigration, suggesting that gun advocates can stop Clinton and disparaging the parent of a deceased soldier.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.