Portman campaigns in the Valley

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The campaign for the general election does indeed begin the day after the primary.

Rob Portman, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, kicked off his campaign Wednesday for the November general election with an early-morning campaign stop in Youngstown — a longtime Democratic stronghold.

“It’s an area of Ohio that’s not received the attention it deserves by those in Columbus and Washington,” Portman said of the Youngstown area. “It’s an area that’s been left behind. We need to turn things around.”

Republicans typically fare poorly in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

“But if you have a good candidate with good proposals, [Valley voters] will support you,” he said. “I’m optimistic I can win in the Mahoning Valley.”

Portman will face Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a frequent visitor to the Valley who won Tuesday’s Democratic primary, in the November general election.

Portman criticized Fisher during his Wednesday campaign stop.

“He presided over the state when it lost more than 400,000 jobs and doubled its unemployment rate,” Portman said. “He’s running from his record. Lee Fisher’s approach is to support the status quo.”

Portman is a former congressman and served as President George W. Bush’s U.S. trade representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“While Congressman Portman was giving tax breaks to companies to ship their jobs from Mahoning to Mexico, Lee was working to create jobs at Lordstown [General Motors complex] and V&M Star,” said John Collins, Fisher’s campaign spokesman. “If we wanted to see the jobs that Congressman Portman created, we’d have to go to Mexico, India or China.”

Portman visited Trumbull MARS Inc. in Youngstown on Wednesday.

The company manufactures custom-engineering rubber products for the aerospace, hydraulic, pneu- matic and electronics industries.