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Wehrman: Battle for Voinovich’s seat heats up early

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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff writer 7:48 PM Sunday, May 31, 2009

The 2010 election to replace retiring Republican Sen. George Voinovich is a little less than 18 months away. We haven’t a clue who the Democratic candidate in that race will be. But have no doubt: The race is on.

As evidence, check out the heavy influx of press releases from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last week on Rob Portman: Beginning on Friday, May 22, the DSCC sent out a steady stream of e-mails jabbing at the likely Republican nominee.

On Friday, they sent out an e-mail linking to a Politico story questioning whether Portman would campaign with former Vice-President Richard Cheney.

On Monday, they sent out a story from this newspaper reporting on Portman’s trip to the Dayton VA. On Wednesday, they leapt on comments by Portman that he wanted voters to judge him on his legislative record, sending out a press release detailing Portman’s voting record as congressman from Ohio’s second district.

Thursday, the DSCC seized on Portman’s comments to the National Journal that Republicans don’t have their own alternative health care plan yet. And Friday, more e-mails went out about a story from Youngstown’s Vindicator detailing comments Portman made that seemed to separate himself from former President Bush.

Not that Portman hasn’t fired out his own missives: He sent out a press release Friday, May 22, critical of Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a Democrat hoping to win the Senate seat.

All of these releases indicate a couple of things. First, the U.S. Senate race in Ohio is already garnering attention from national political media outlets, indicating an intense interest in this seat from outside Ohio. It also indicates that while Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Fisher are among the Democrats duking it out to see who will face Portman, the DSCC is trying to make sure that Portman doesn’t enter the general election in too strong a position.

“I think it’s largely, ‘Let’s try to define Portman while our nominee is not known,’” said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.

Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the DSCC, said his office is capitalizing on stories being published about Portman’s campaign stops. He said the seat — one of five so far where Republicans are retiring — represents a big get for Democrats, and said they feel responsible for holding Portman’s feet to the fire.

That this race seems to be so intense so early is indicative of the environment we’re in. Not only is Ohio a key state, but the political environment is such that campaign season is now as interminable as 24-hour cable news. You can’t get a break for trying. “We have an election cycle on fast-forward,” said Duffy, “and that’s not always a productive thing.”

Bob Paduchik, Portman’s campaign manager, thinks it’s a sign that Democrats are worried. “It’s a badge of honor,” he said. “They recognize how good a candidate Rob is ... they’re investing time and resources in this.”

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