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Ohio senate race heats up in final weeks
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Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and former Congressman Rob Portman both want more job opportunities for Ohioans.
But the two candidates wanting to fill Republican George Voinovich’s soon-to-be-vacated U.S. Senate seat have very different approaches to accomplishing that goal. And they haven’t been shy in pointing out the shortcomings of their opponent.
Fisher, a Democrat who headed the Ohio Department of Development before entering the Senate race, paints Portman as a “Washington insider” who for years supported Republican policies that led to companies’ relocating jobs overseas and a financial collapse that prompted a national recession.
He says he’s been on the ground, working to restore economic order and providing incentives for companies to stay and grow in Ohio.
“Everywhere I go in Ohio, people are mad as hell, and they should be,” Fisher said during a debate in Columbus.
“They lost their jobs, and they see jobs being shipped overseas. They lost their savings, and they see Wall Street banks being bailed out. They can’t seem to get a fair shake, and yet they see millionaires getting their tax break.”
He added, “I’m Lee Fisher, I’m not satisfied. I’m mad as hell, and none of us should take it anymore.”
But Portman, a Republican and former Bush administration official, counters that Fisher is the state’s failed economic-development czar who did little to prevent Ohio from losing 400,000 jobs and who backed federal policies — President Barack Obama’s health-care-reform package, for example — that could lead to a further work force erosion.
He says he’s the conservative fiscal watchdog who has been in the empty factories and talked to out-of-work Ohioans and has the right vision for returning them and the state to prosperity.
“Look, if you like the way things are going and think we’re heading in the right direction, you should probably support my opponent,” he said during the Columbus debate. “If you’re ready for a change, if you believe there’s a better way, I hope you’ll join our cause.”
He added, “I believe there’s a better way to actually get health-care costs down, a better way to help working families and small businesses and give our economy the needed shot in the arm through payroll tax relief.”
Fisher and Portman are the two major party candidates for U.S. Senate. Others vying for the seat are Eric W. Deaton (Constitution Party), Michael L. Pryce (Independent), Daniel H. LaBotz (Socialist Party) and Arthur T. Sullivan (write-in candidate).
plans for job growth
Both Portman and Fisher outlined their priorities during a series of three debates in Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus. They’ve also assembled written plans for promoting job growth.
Portman calls for increased assistance for workers — reforming federal job retraining programs, expanding and refocusing the Pell Grant program, and providing more support for community and technical colleges.
He wants to help small businesses — suspending payroll taxes, extending tax incentives for business investments and small business loans and allowing deductions on small business income.
And he supports initiatives to prompt job creation — reducing business tax rates, providing tax credits for Ohio workers and pushing for stronger enforcement of trade laws.
“Ohio is losing ground, and we need to catch up,” Portman said during the Columbus debate. “And one thing we need to do is not promote policies in Washington that [Fisher] promoted that makes it harder. ...”
Fisher’s plan calls for the establishment of a job creation tax credit, redirection of unspent stimulus funds into infrastructure and home weatherization projects and the creation of a small business loan fund.
He wants to increase tax deductions for small business start-ups, close loopholes that allow companies to defer tax payments on overseas profits and get tough on trade law enforcement.
He also has called for the reinstatement of laws separating financial activities at banks, ending bonus payments at banks that received federal bailouts and creating a national consumer financial protection agency.
“Until we change the national policies that give the tax breaks to the large companies to send their jobs overseas, the unfair trade practice that allowed China to dump cheap product... the tax breaks to the millionaires and instead give tax breaks to small businesses and the middle class, then no matter how hard we work, no matter what we do on the state level, it’s not going to be enough,” Fisher said during the Columbus debate.
On Social Security, Fisher said he supports changes to Social Security to ensure the long-term viability of the system, but he said he does not back raising the retirement age or reducing benefits.
But Portman said Social Security is “heading toward insolvency,” and Fisher is offering no real solutions.
“No one should be doing anything to affect Social Security benefits seniors have earned and that they need and are relying on,” he said during the Toledo debate. “No one should be touching that. But we do need to look at [reforming] the system for the future, strengthening and preserving it.”