http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2015/01/19/Portman-could-face-primary-challenger.htmlU.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) enjoys an unbroken record of election success, has a campaign war chest that is one of the Senate’s deepest, and claims the endorsement of just about every Republican party officer and elected official in the state.
But he’ll still face a Democratic opponent in the general election, and possibly a primary opponent.
Two weeks ago Mr. Portman released a list of endorsements with about 250 names including elected Republicans, county chairmen, and state central committee members.
He also said he had $5.8 million in his campaign fund, which would be the Senate’s fourth highest, according to the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, opensecrets.org.
In the statement kicking off his campaign, Mr. Portman’s staff said that in the past two years he introduced 69 bills, of which 15 became law. In his first two years in the Senate, Mr. Portman introduced 38 bills, 10 of which became law.
He said his efforts have focused on “job creation and spurring Ohio’s economy, restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington and eliminating government waste, combating poverty, and protecting our national defense.”
It’s a daunting list and bank account, which was probably the intent as Democrats and some Tea Party Republicans search their ranks to find a challenger for Mr. Portman’s bid for a second term in the Senate.
Some social and religious conservatives have predicted Mr. Portman will face a political backlash for declaring support for same-sex marriage in 2013. Mr. Portman said at the time he was inspired by his son Will’s disclosure that he is homosexual.
Tom Zawistowski, the head of the Ohio Citizen PAC Tea Party group and the movement’s leading spokesman in Ohio, said Mr. Portman deserves a primary opponent for that reason.
Mr. Zawistowski also cited the senator’s role, as vice chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, in supporting U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran (R., Miss.), who is known for bringing federal “pork-barrel” project funding to his state — a practice Tea Partiers oppose.
“[Citizens for Community Values] did a survey in September that showed 72 percent of Republicans are against Senator Portman’s stance on marriage. It shows his lack of representation,” Mr. Zawistowski said. “It’s basically a bait and switch.”
The national Republican platform opposes same-sex marriage, one of a number of hot-button issues he said some elected Republicans like to ignore.
But Mr. Portman’s list of endorsers includes many Republicans who are known for being conservative or for being associated with the Tea Party.
Those include Bill Delaney, a Republican state central committeeman from Toledo; James Horton, a conservative state central committee member from Delta; U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Urbana); who is a leader of the Tea Party faction in Congress, and former state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann of Napoleon, whose socially conservative beliefs earned him the nickname of “Caveman” from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Matt Borges, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said that even though Republican voters will decide in the 2016 primary who will carry the party’s nomination into the general election, the party committee is fully behind Mr. Portman.
“We’ll be ready to defend him should that primary come along. If it does, we’ll flex the muscle of the Ohio Republican machine, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of that,” Mr. Borges said.
The pugilistic tone struck by Mr. Borges and the show of force from Mr. Portman struck some as a warning to rivals from the conservative side, as well as from Democrats.
Mr. Borges said he does not expect a repeat of other Republican Senate incumbents who were knocked out in primaries by conservative candidates who didn’t have the ability to win the general election. He attributes that to Mr. Portman stepping up as vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“What we did see in 2014 was the NRSC really got its act together and made sure the strongest candidates emerged. Senator Portman was a big part of putting that organization together in 2014,” Mr. Borges said.
Mr. Portman, 59, has a law degree from the University of Michigan, is an outdoorsman, and participates in a family business that owns the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio.
In politics, he is known for advocating international free trade as a prescription for job growth, while also keeping up a senator’s role in local and state issues.
Among the issues Mr. Portman has championed are the need for better flood protection on the Blanchard River, ending open-lake dumping in Lake Erie, and fighting human trafficking.
Mr. Portman served seven terms in Congress from a Cincinnati-area district, resigning in 2005. He put in two years as a top officeholder in the administration of George W. Bush, first as U.S. trade representative, then as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
He returned to elective politics in 2010, kicking off his race for the U.S. Senate at Tony Packo’s Cafe in East Toledo. He defeated Democrat Lee Fisher, a former lieutenant governor, with 58 percent of the vote.
The Democratic Party has plenty of candidates with sufficient name recognition to compete statewide, but so far none have declared interest in taking on a well-prepared Mr. Portman.
David Pepper, the Ohio Democratic Party’s new chairman, said presidential election years are more favorable to Democratic candidates because of the bigger turnout.
In 2010, the gubernatorial election year when Mr. Portman ran statewide for the first time, 3,956,045 Ohioans voted. Two years later, with President Obama on the ballot, 5,633,246 voted — a 43-percent increase.
“That’s going to be a competitive race. Given the amount of money it takes to win an Ohio Senate race, I would think serious candidates are considering it right now and would be stepping forward in the next couple of months,” Mr. Pepper said.
“Ohio is clearly a state that leans slightly blue in a presidential year,” he said, acknowledging that depends on the Democratic nominee being able to energize voters.
The amount of money needed to mount a serious Senate campaign would take a long time to amass, he said.
The 2012 campaign between U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and unsuccessful challenger Ohio Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel cost at least $82.6 million, with Mr. Brown raising and spending $24.8 million and Mr. Mandel $18.9 million, and outside groups spending at least $38.9 million to influence the election.
The candidate making the most noise about possibly running is P.G. Sittenfeld, a Cincinnati city councilman.
Mr. Pepper said Mr. Sittenfeld has taken more action steps than other potential candidates but also has a lot more ground to make up because of his newness in state politics.
“He has worked very hard to build a network. He’s also been out front on some big issues,” Mr. Pepper said, including leading a tour of local officials complaining about cuts in local-government funds by the Republican-controlled Ohio government.
Mr. Sittenfeld, 30, has a master’s degree in English literature and American studies from Oxford University and bachelor’s degrees in the same subjects from Princeton University. He works part-time as the assistant director of a community learning institute and is in his second two-year term on council.
Of his possible Senate race, he said, “we’ll be making an announcement in the days ahead.”
Others who are believed to be considering a run on the Democratic side are former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton from the Akron area, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan from the Youngstown area, and former Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman.
Justin Barasky of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s said Mr. Portman has to answer for supporting the 2013 government shutdown, supporting a proposed budget sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (R., Wis.) that would have “ended Medicare as we know it,” and for his role in the George W. Bush administration when the Great Recession hit.
“Democrats will run a strong candidate against Rob Portman, who is one of the most vulnerable candidates in 2016,” Mr. Barasky said.
The Democratic challenger won’t match Mr. Portman’s fund-raising, he said, but will have adequate resources to run a campaign.
The Portman campaign issued a statement defending his tenure.
“Despite Washington dysfunction and stalled economic policies under the Obama administration, Rob Portman successfully delivered for Ohio during his first term in office, but we have more work to do,” the campaign said.
The Ohio state establishment has just warned anyone thinking about running(and anyone thinking about donating to a challenger) against Portman, that it ain't just Portman's multi-million dollar war chest, and the NRSC's war chest, but also the state GOP's coffers and network.
