Despite a rather lopsided campaign, it’s an easy choice between incumbent U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, the Republican in the fight and his challenger, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. We’re going with Strickland.
Strickland, and the Ohio Democratic Party, haven’t been very effective in battling against flimsy charges by the Portman camp that the former governor wrecked Ohio’s economy. In a race dominated by working class issues, the former governor is the one with the winning record.
To be sure, Strickland’s not a perfect candidate. He has fallen behind by more than 10 points in a race that should have been his to win by failing to run a smart, energetic campaign. Strickland hasn’t effectively taken advantage of Portman’s support of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is now trailing in Ohio even as Portman is winning. What’s more, Strickland hasn’t been very nimble in dodging Portman’s charges that he chased off jobs in the state during his tenure as governor from 2007 to 2011. That stretch coincided with the greatest economic catastrophe the nation has seen since the Great Depression, making Portman’s charges against Strickland’s economic record thin at best.
The loss of America’s industrial might has become a hot-button political topic. Though there are a host of reasons for the decline, many, including both Senate candidates, have laid blame at the feet of free trade policies enacted since the 1990s. If that’s true — as Portman today will tell you it is — the Republican bears more of the responsibility than Strickland does, judging by his record of voting for trade agreements.
Though he’s voted for free trade legislation as recently as last year, Portman has mostly reversed his stance on trade agreements, aligning himself with GOP presidential nominee Trump. Trump has made a more protectionist trade policy a signature piece of his campaign as he moves to woo dissatisfied working-class voters.
But Portman has a lot of baggage when it comes to the free trade agreements, making his current protectionist stances come across as dishonest and pandering. He served as U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, where he helped broker free trade deals like the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Before that, during his tenure in the House of Representatives in the 1990s, he voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Those agreements are a major sore point for American working class voters, who believe they allow companies that make cars, steel and any number of other heavy industrial goods to easily move their production overseas.
Strickland was also serving in the House during voting on NAFTA and opposed it. He has also gone against his own party to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Portman, once a supporter of the deal giving fast-track trading status to some Pacific nations, has recently reconsidered his stance on the legislation. That makes sense given the demographic Portman is reaching out to. A Pew research poll released this spring showed that 67 percent of Trump’s supporters see free trade agreements like TPP as negatives.
That’s not the only area where Portman has changed his tune. After sticking with Trump through a litany of controversies — racist, xenophobic and misogynistic statements and actions too varied to recount here — Portman finally ditched his party’s presidential nominee at the last moment following some particularly politically inopportune revelations on a 2005 video tape where Trump bragged about sexual assault. While the statements on that tape were certainly disqualifying in our eyes, one wonders why Portman stuck by Trump through equally troubling scandals.
Portman has decried new environmental regulations he says are killing jobs, using support of those regulations by Strickland to woo working class voters. But if Ohio is going to move forward, it must balance productivity with environmental stewardship. It must also cash in on the growing green economy. We think Strickland can provide the leadership to do so, making his environmental record a plus, not a minus.
Strickland’s record on environmental regulation has cost him a big endorsement from the United Mine Workers of America. The union endorsed Portman, a rare example of a union supporting a Republican candidate. Earlier this month, the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, which represents 50,000 workers throughout the state, also put its backing behind Portman.
But while Portman has won a few endorsements from organized labor, Strickland has backing from other big unions, including the United Auto Workers, the AFL-CIO and AFSCME.
Portman has hammered Strickland again and again for his economic record. But, ironically, it’s Portman’s record supporting both free-trade policies and, more recently, a toxic presidential nominee that should cost him the election. It seems like many voters have already forgotten this version of Portman, but we haven’t.
CityBeat Endorses:
• Hillary Clinton for President
• Denise Driehaus, Todd Portune for County Commission
• Hamilton County: Alan Triggs, Seth Walsh, Aftab Pureval, Jim Neil and Lakshmi Sammarco
• Congress and State House: Brigid Kelly, Catherine Ingram and Alicia Reece
