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Ohio Jobs Picture Not Bad for Romney, Portman Says
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – U.S. Sen. Rob Portman doesn’t believe Ohio’s improving jobs picture complicates Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s message in the state.
Ohio’s May unemployment rate was 7.3%, compared with the U.S. jobless rate of 8.2%. In April, the state posted a jobless rate of 7.4%, while the U.S. rate was 8.1%.
Speaking with reporters on a scheduled conference call Thursday morning, the same day news organizations reported that Romney had asked Florida Gov. Rick Scott to downplay job gains in his state inorder to support his campaign’s efforts to defeat President Barack Obama, Portman said he doesn’t think Ohioans are happy with a jobless rate that’s above 7%.
“As Gov. [John] Kasich has said repeatedly, we can do better and we should do better,” said Portman, often mentioned as Romney's potential running mate. Jobless numbers are higher when the number of people who have stopped looking for work are added in, he noted, and described as “discouraging” national job numbers released Wednesday.
“We are still suffering in Ohio and around the country,” Portman said. “The fact that we’ve got a Republican governor and a Republican legislature has helped in Ohio but they’re still facing headwinds from Washington, and they are still not satisfied with where they are, nor am I.”
Portman was critical of the outcome of this week’s vote on the Environmental protection Agency’s Utility MACT standard, which he said has already caused companies to shut down coal-fired power plants in Ohio and he believes will cause more to close. Under the Regulatory Accountability Act that Portman proposes, EPA would have been required to perform a “more rigorous analysis” of the costs, benefits and impact on jobs. Companion legislation passed the House of Representatives last year, he said.
Democrats sought to capitalize on Romney’s reported request of Florida’s governor during their own conference call Thursday afternoon. Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, credited Obama, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Gov. Ted Strickland for putting Ohio on a “path to recovery. We’ve gained nearly 45,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 27 months and more than 27,000 in the last year alone," he said.
Redfern also praised Obama’s leadership for saving the domestic auto industry. “We won’t let Mitt Romney or Gov. John Kasich or anyone else try to talk that down,” he said.
While Romney won’t “stand up to extreme voices in his party” on issues such as equal rights for women or “give a straight answer to the most fundamental of questions,” he tells Republican governors like Scott to be quiet. “He tells them not to talk about folks finding work and getting back on their feet,” the Democrat remarked.
Redfern described Kasich as “conspicuously absent” from Romney events since April when Romney was “visibly becoming uncomfortable” as the Ohio governor discussed how the state’s economy was recovering. Kasich cancelled a conference call two weeks ago and last weekend did not attend a Romney event “30 minutes from his home,” the Democrat said.
Portman, who accompanied Romney on his visit to Ohio Sunday, said he will attend a retreat Romney is holding this weekend for top donors and was asked to be a host at a dinner there.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.