Portman tries to steal some of Obama’s thunder in Ohio

LEBANON, Ohio -- A couple of hours before President Obama was to address an overflow crowd in nearby Cincinnati on Monday afternoon, Republican Sen. Rob Portman made a media-friendly stop about 30 miles away in a town where his family owns a historic Shaker inn, the Golden Lamb. Portman’s goal: fire up supporters at a Romney call center, and maybe steal a little of the president’s thunder.

“I’m glad he’s coming to Ohio, I really am,” said Portman, whose decades of legislative experience and status as a popular Ohio politician have made him a favorite of those engaged in fevered speculation about Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick. “I hope he’ll go on the shop floor and talk to some workers in the greater Cincinnati area.

“I hope he’ll come out to Warren County” — this Republican-dominated area — “and talk to some small business owners. If he does that, you know what? He’s gonna find a private sector that isn’t doing just fine. People are worried, people are concerned. There’s a reason people aren’t investing in jobs, in plants, in equipment. It’s because they’re concerned about the federal policies.”

This important corner of southwest Ohio has played an outsized role in recent presidential contests. A relatively few votes can make the difference between victory and defeat in November. Keeping voters motivated, and bringing independents into the fold—even as negative political ads are already dominating the airwaves and threatening to turn them off--will be the key, both sides say.

“Folks, do you agree with me that we cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama?” asked Portman. “This is his solution: He said all we need to do is take your tax dollars, send them to Washington, have Washington take out its cut, having Washington then send it back to the states, have the states then go out and hire public employees. Does that make sense to you? Is that how to get the economy moving?”

(The president has not used those words exactly, of course, but the idea of creating more public sector jobs in order to stimulate the economy is embraced by many on the left and some on the right as an effective technique.)

In a brief session with reporters outside after his appearance in the call center, Portman continued to deflect questions about his status and interest in the vice presidential vetting process. Despite his refusal to address the question head on, a recent visit to Romney headquarters in Boston, where he spent six hours in meetings with campaign officials, plus a press conference with reporters in New Hampshire set tongues wagging. Portman maintained he was in New Hampshire to raise money for Romney and visit colleges with his daughter, Sally, who will be a high school senior this fall.

“I’ve not gotten into that at all,” he said when asked about the job. “The campaign can choose to talk about it or not. I supporting him very strongly as you know … I am going to do everything I can do to help him. I plan to do it as United States senator…People vote for the presidential candidate, not the VP.”

Portman said he thought Ohio voters were tiring of Obama campaign attacks centering on whether Romney dissembled on SEC documents when he said he was the owner, president and chief executive of the Boston private equity firm Bain Capital after he took over leadership of the 2002 Olympics and moved to Utah in 1999.

“I was home this weekend for the first time in a couple weekends, and everybody I talked to said they’re tired of the attacks,” said Portman. “The TV ads have been coming hot and heavy in Ohio. I think the Obama campaign has outspent the Romney campaign by two-to-one or three-to-one, depending on the analysis you look at. People are tired of the attacks already, and here we are in July.”

As Portman and his wife, Jane, departed, a local reporter continued to press them about the vice presidential selection process.

Jane, who has a blinding smile and disarmingly friendly manner, turned to the reporter, and, sounding almost apologetic, she said, “He really doesn’t know.”

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robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Twitter: @rabcarian