Republicans have wasted no time in launching a counterattack against former Democratic Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, who announced this week he is challenging Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman next year. The Ohio Republican Party has set up a website called retreadted.com and is running web banner ads. In his weekly conference call with reporters, Portman said it's part of the fast-moving campaign he plans to run.
Portman says he'll keep promoting what he feels are economic efforts that help working families, while he says Strickland would take Ohio backward. Strickland says the hundreds of thousands of job losses Republicans have noted during his tenure came during the Great Recession, and he took steps as Governor to get Ohio's economy moving again. Democratic Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld is also running for his party's nomination.