Incumbent U.S. Sen. Rob Portman has nearly erased his trailing status to his top challenger, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a new Quinnpiac University poll shows today.
There are more than 14 more months to go until the election. But if the election were held today, Strickland, a Democrat who held the governor’s office for a single term, would be only 3 points ahead — a statistical tie, based on the poll’s sample.
More telling — this is really what these early polls are about — is that Portman, a freshman Republican in the Senate, has been steadily closing Strickland’s lead. Portmans reelection campaign and outside groups have spent millions already on ads that seek to portray Strickland as responsible for Ohio’s deep job losses during the recession.
Ads blast Strickland for failing to keep companies from moving out of state, and for supporting policies of President Barack Obama. Portman launched a new Web ad Monday criticizing Strickland for supporting the multinational agreement to drop sanctions against Iran and allowing it to keep developing its nuclear energy infrastructure if it agrees not to build nuclear weapons. Republicans deeply oppose the deal — as do a majority of Ohioans, another part of the Quinnipiac survey, released Monday, showed.
The Ohio Democratic Party says that money from outside super PACs have boosted total spending against Strickland to $9.4 million. Portman’s campaign, however, says that figure is wildly inflated and that the real outside spending comes closer to $2.4 million.
Strickland has had outside groups on his side, too. Groups supporting Strickland’s positions, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Planned Parenthood, have spent more than $1 million criticizing Portman, according to Portman’s campaign.
Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Jennifer Donohue said that the high spending to attack Strickland offers proof of Strickland’s strength as a candidate.
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