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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Portman campaigns with Romney in South Carolina
By Jack Torry
Washington Bureau
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Declaring that “it’s time to take a stand,’’ Sen. Rob Portman Thursday urged Republicans to unite behind former Massachusetts Mitt Romney as “the candidate best equipped to beat” President Barack Obama in November.
Appearing with Romney outside the Republican presidential candidate’s Charleston office, Portman, R-Ohio, said that “with his financial and business experience,’’ Romney “actually knows to create jobs.’’
“He actually knows what Washington ought to be doing, not to create jobs because government doesn’t create jobs, but to create the climate for success,’’ Portman said.
Portman, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley joined Romney in speaking before between 50 and 100 of Romney’s strongest supporters just two days before the state’s crucial Republican primary.
Although polls show that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has cut into Romney’s lead in what has become a vitriolic campaign, most analysts believe that if Romney wins Saturday, he will have virtually clinched the Republican presidential nomination.
With Thursday’s decision by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to drop out of the race, the only Republican contenders remaining are Romney, Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul.
Portman, who clearly is regarded as a potential vice presidential running mate for the Republican nominee, had originally planned to wait before endorsing a candidate. But Portman seemed eager for the party to bridge the deep fissures that have opened up in this race.
“It’s time for our great party to come together around a leader who does know how to turn the economy around, who can beat President Obama in the fall, and who knows how to restore America’s greatness,’’ Portman said.
Portman, who flew to South Carolina with his wife Jane for the event, reminded his audience that he served both Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and that he had “seen the kind of tough issues that comes across a president’s desk. And I’ve seen the kind of steady leadership that’s required in the Oval Office. I’ve seen it first-hand.’’
“Folks, Mitt Romney combines the personal traits and the experience and the knowledge to be that leader,’’ Portman said.
Portman served as a White House aide for the elder Bush from 1989 to 1991, while holding the posts of White House budget director and U.S. trade representative under the younger Bush.
Seth Bringman, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party, assailed Portman, saying that “this endorsement comes as no surprise, seeing that Rob Portman has spent his entire career standing up for big corporations like Bain Capital, where Mitt Romney put profits over people by bankrupting companies, outsourcing jobs, and laying off workers to line his own pockets.’’
Bringman was referring to the private equity firm that Romney headed from 1984 to 1999.
TweetPoll: voters divided on heartbeat bill, want animal ban and hold on fracking
A new poll released Thursday found that Ohioans are divided over the ‘heartbeat’ bill, want hydro-fracking put on hold until its impact is studied and favor a ban on private ownership of exotic animals.
The Quinnipiac University poll also found that Ohio voters favor incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown over his likely Republican challenger Josh Mandel, and they give Gov. John Kasich a negative job approval rating and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman a positive one.
Ohio voters are divided 45 - 46 percent in their support for the ‘heartbeat’ bill pending in the Ohio Senate that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, the poll found.
If it passes, it would be one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country and would likely face court challenges. Half of Ohio voters say abortion should be legal while 44 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
“Abortion remains perhaps the most divisive issue in the nation and there is an almost even split among Ohio voters over the fetal heartbeat bill,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Despite a partisan split over the issue, where Republicans support the measure 2-1 while Democrats oppose it 2-1, lower income voters, who tend to be Democrats, support the bill while high-income voters, who tend to be Republican, oppose it.”
The Quinnipiac University poll also found that 64 percent of voters believe the economic benefits of drilling for natural gas outweigh environmental concerns, 85 percent say drilling will create jobs, but 72 percent say hydro-fracking should be halted until its impact is studied further.
“Ohio votes are conflicted on hydro-fracking. They recognize the economic value of drilling for fossil fuels in the state, but are worried about potential environmental risks of the specific technique - hydro-fracking,” Brown added.
Lawmakers are also considering a bill to ban private ownership of dangerous wild animals - something 68 percent of voters support while 28 percent oppose, the poll said.
In the U.S. Senate race, Brown holds a 47 - 32 percent lead over Mandel, who has been state treasurer for one year. In October, the split was 49 percent for Brown and 34 percent for Mandel.
Both men enjoy strong support among their respective parties and Brown carries independent voters 44 - 27 percent. The poll found that 42 percent of voters view Brown favorably and 48 percent say he deserves another term. Meanwhile, 69 percent of voters haven’t heard enough about Mandel to form an opinion, the poll said.
“Mandel is pretty much an unknown to most Ohio votes and the race will be determined by whether Mandel’s ability to fill in the blanks in voters’ minds positively exceeds Brown’s ability to do so about him negatively,” said pollster Brown, who is not related to the senator.
The poll found that Portman, a Republican in his first term in the Senate, has a 39 - 25 percent job approval rating while Kasich has a 39 - 48 percent approval rating. Kasich had a negative score of 38 - 50 percent in October.
The poll, conducted Jan. 9 - 16, contacted 1,610 registered voters on landlines and cell phones. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percent.
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