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Portman, Strickland battle it out in Appalachia over coal and guns
On the side
State Rep. Kathleen Clyde of Kent, D-75th, will be the guest speaker at the 224 Corridor Democratic Club’s meeting Monday at the Boardman library’s meeting room, 7680 Glenwood Ave. The doors open at 6 p.m. and the meeting starts 30 minutes later.
Clyde has been the leading Democrat in the state Legislature on election issues and is considered a potential 2018 Ohio secretary of state candidate.
Meanwhile, Tracey Winbush of Youngstown, a Republican National Convention delegate, says Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, “hasn’t earned my respect and he’s making it very difficult to support him.”
But Winbush said she’s voting for Trump because backing Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is a worse option.
Over the years, Ted Strickland has been the rare Democrat to succeed in Southeast Ohio.
The Appalachia area is where he’s from and he’s enjoyed support from there for years.
The former governor is challenging U.S. Sen. Rob Portman for the incumbent Republican’s seat in the November election. It is one of the most-contested and expensive Senate races in the country.
If he doesn’t win in those rural counties, Strickland is going to have a difficult time beating Portman.
Both campaigns know that and Appalachia is playing a larger-than-usual role in this Senate race.
Portman is working hard to convince those voters – who are largely conservative – that Strickland has abandoned them on two of their most important issues: coal and guns.
Remember that Mahoning and Trumbull counties are part of Appalachia even though there’s no coal there and both are largely Democratic.
Portman’s campaign contends that Strickland’s time working for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive lobbying organization, changed him, and that he’s lost touch with Appalachian voters.
Strickland had an A+ rating from the NRA and voted against banning assault weapons.
During his primary race, Strickland told me: “The gun issue is a legitimate issue for anyone to bring up. I have a history. I dropped my affiliation with the NRA five years ago. They’ve become increasing radicalized.”
Strickland said Wednesday in Struthers that he supports reasonable background checks and not allowing those on the no-fly list to own guns.
“That’s common sense,” he said. “I also believe in the Second Amendment and I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment.”
On coal, Strickland said he is still a staunch supporter and “Rob Portman doesn’t know a damn about what life is like in the Appalachia coal” mines. “I would love to stand side by side with Rob Portman and talk about these coal communities.”
Strickland’s campaign says Portman doesn’t support “Coal Country.”
Portman voted in May 19, 1994, against making it easier for black-lung benefits to be given to coal miners and their survivors, as well as in favor of five amendments to restrict black-lung benefits.
Also, Portman has supported free-trade agreements that Strickland opposed. The former governor said those deals have devastated the economy of Appalachia, among other areas.
But Portman received the endorsement last week of the United Mine Workers of America’s National Council of Coal Miners Political Action Committee, the largest coal-miner union that had supported Strickland in the past.
Strickland says the union is backing his opponent “for reasons that are related to the concern that union leadership has regarding the potential for Rob Portman to do them damage in regard to their pensions. I don’t think it has anything to do with my relationship with coal miners.”
Michawn Rich, a Portman campaign spokeswoman, said Strickland’s “claim is laughable and reeks of desperation.”
That Strickland had a two-day “Working Families First” tour of Appalachia earlier this week, mostly in communities he represented when he was a U.S. House member, is interesting.
The Portman campaign says it shows that Strickland is concerned about winning in places he’s represented.
Strickland said, “The bottom line is this is to emphasize the fact this region of Ohio is important. I care about it. It’s a region I served both as a congressman and as governor.”
In addition to the tour, Strickland began a digital ad focusing on the contrast between him and Portman regarding the Appalachian region.
At some point, Portman will put up a coal commercial on television as part of his $14 million TV ad campaign.
A new ad from Portman starts today focusing on his work to fight prescription drug and heroin addiction. The campaign aired three commercials on the issue that started June 1.
A poll from Public Opinion Strategies of the 18-county 6th Congressional District – Strickland represented most of the counties in Congress – has the Democrat trailing Portman by 11 percentage points. The poll was paid by the campaign of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, a Republican from Marietta who’s served the district for the past five and a half years.
David Bergstein, a Strickland campaign spokesman, points out that Public Opinion Strategies “is the same polling firm that falsely predicted Mitt Romney would win in 2012.”