President's Ohio campaign seeks Portman stories

CINCINNATI (AP) — President Barack Obama’s Ohio campaign is urging people to tell stories about Rob Portman’s “real record,” with the Ohio Republican senator believed to be among the leading contenders to become Mitt Romney’s running mate.

An online appeal states that Ohioans should tell what they think Americans “need to know” about Portman. There is a website form for submitting Portman stories.

The appeal says the former Bush administration official has been part of the policies that have hurt middle-class families and the economy.

A spokesman for Romney’s campaign in Ohio calls it another example of the president using “negative smear campaigns.”

The Obama campaign’s Florida director has launched a similar effort on VP contender Sen. Marco Rubio, urging Floridians in an email to tell “the good, bad and ugly.”