UPDATED--Both parties believe one of the closest Senate races this year will be in Ohio, where former Republican Rep. Rob Portman is outperforming Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in fundraising but slightly underperforming him in the polls.
When it comes down to shoe-leather campaigning, however, schedules suggest Portman is outworking his opponent.
Portman's team made the decision of spending the entire holiday weekend in the state's most populous area, where most Democrats reside, as a way to cut into Fisher's support early. Political analysts have been paying close attention to the Ohio River Valley in the southeast part of the state. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland represented the region when he served in the House, and a couple of the region's GOP-leaning congressional districts now in Democratic hands are very competitive this year.
Portman is a serial parade-walker, who, one year after he was first elected to the House, walked the city of Montgomery's Independence Day parade in his district twice -- at the beginning and the end. This year, he and his wife, Jane, fanned out across the northeastern part of the state over the holiday weekend and split parade-walking duties for a good chunk of it.
Portman's campaign toured "Red, White and Boom" a festival and parade on Friday in Columbus that attracted about half a million people, and on Saturday and Sunday they invaded Fisher's home base in Lake, Cuyahoga and Medina counties by walking in parades in West Park, Berea, Lakewood, West Lake, Medina, Chippewa Lake and Parma.
Meanwhile, Fisher kept a less frenetic schedule. He hit a fair Friday in Marion County, just north of Columbus. He then stopped by the Northland and Westerville parades, which are near the Columbus area in the central part of the state, over the weekend.
But with hefty turnout operations in place from his previous House campaigns, Portman has been able to concentrate his efforts in areas of the state where he can cut his opponent's margins.
It has been a recurring theme throughout this race, as Portman has held campaign events in all of the state's 88 counties. But he still trails Fisher significantly in name recognition and has been trying to overcome that.
Aside from the holiday weekend politicking, both sides are focusing on energy as a central campaign theme.
Both are playing up cap-and-trade legislation, even though its prospects remain slim at best given the tight floor schedule and uncertainty among Senate Democrats on getting enough votes to pass any energy or climate bill.
"There's a new energy tax coming our way from Washington that's a job-killer for Ohio called cap and trade," Portman says in a new ad. He tells voters that it could cost the state 100,000 jobs.
But Ohio Democrats have seized upon a weekly column Portman authored as a House member, in particular one entry from 1996, titled "Protecting The Environment Into The Next Century," that makes a pitch to update environmental regulations from the 1970s.
Portman also made a pitch in that column to find a business-based solution to pricing energy use.
In one line that has made Democratic operatives giddy, he wrote: "Private sector incentives, such as permitting companies to trade discharge outputs, can both reduce pollution and costs. If we can harness the power of market incentives, we will do more with less."
"Just like the big bank bailout, Congressman Portman was for cap and trade before he was against it," said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Haley Morris. "The only thing Ohioans learn about Congressman Portman from this ad is that his positions go whichever way the wind blows."
"The Democrats' cap-and-trade energy tax is no different from the Democrats' big government healthcare bill," responded Portman spokeswoman Jessica Towhey in a statement. "Rob Portman has always called for a cleaner environment and a better healthcare system. Unfortunately, Democrats in Washington and Columbus have endorsed job-killing policies that will hurt Ohio families."
This article appeared in the Saturday, July 10, 2010 edition of National Journal Daily.
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