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Portman Drops Another $1 Million for Ad Buy

Move comes as Ohio Republican solidifies his lead in Senate race

An ad for Ohio Sen. Rob Portman tells how he helped keep a Canton company's competitor from getting an unfair advantage. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
An ad for Ohio Sen. Rob Portman tells how he helped keep a Canton company's competitor from getting an unfair advantage. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Sen. Rob Portman dropped another $1 million on an ad focusing on how he helped prevent a company from going out of business as he consolidates his lead in the Ohio Senate race.

The Ohio Republican, who is running against former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, released the ad statewide featuring Gregory Industries, which specializes in steel products and is based in Canton.

The commercial points out how in 2012, a competitor of the company hired a lobbyist to insert language into a transportation funding bill that would have banned the use of 95 percent of Gregory Industries’ guardrails.

“We were dead in the water if Sen. Portman hadn’t jumped in and helped us out,” a person says in the ad.

[Portman’s Fundraising Firewall Improves]

The ad is the latest in a blitz that Portman is doing in the state. Last week, he released an ad which featured retired Army Gen. Barry McAffrey, who was President Bill Clinton’s drug czar, praising Portman’s work on legislation to curb the heroin epidemic.

That commercial was part of the Portman campaign’s $15 million ad reservation that began in June. Portman has significantly outraised Strickland in the race.

The ads come as a recent CBS/YouGov poll shows Portman running 7 points ahead of Strickland and 6 points ahead of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Another poll from Monmouth University found Portman is leading Strickland by eight points.

Conversely, the independent expenditures group for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees released an ad pushing back on Portman’s touting of heroin legislation, saying that he voted against the funding.

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