New York Times
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
February 19, 2016
Senator
Rob Portman, a mild-mannered Republican seeking re-election in the era
of Donald J. Trump, has long pitched himself as a voice of reason in
Washington. He points
to his ability to work with Democrats, and even crossed party lines in
voting to confirm Loretta E. Lynch as President Obama’s attorney
general.
Now
the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has him in a bind. Like other
endangered Republicans in swing states — including Kelly Ayotte in New
Hampshire, Patrick J. Toomey
in Pennsylvania and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin — Mr. Portman, who is from
Ohio, has vowed to block Senate consideration of any nominee to fill
Justice Scalia’s seat.
It
is a stance that has put Mr. Portman, 60, whose earnest demeanor
sometimes earns him plaudits even from Democrats here, in the kind of
ideological showdown he usually
tries to avoid. Many Democrats, Ohio newspaper editorialists and
independents are outraged. But his conservative Republican base is
pressing him to stand firm.
“Please,
have a backbone like steel,” Helen Hiestand, 72, who years ago worked
for Mr. Portman, urged the other night, as he greeted fellow Republicans
in a church gymnasium
here. The senator, with characteristic understatement, replied: “I’m
getting guff.”
In
lining up behind the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, who
insists that the next president should pick Justice Scalia’s successor,
Mr. Portman says voters
deserve a chance to weigh in. He says it is “common practice” for the
Senate not to consider lifetime appointments in the last year of a
president’s term; Democrats disagree.
“We’re
in the last eight and a half months before a major election,” Mr.
Portman said Wednesday in an interview. “We have candidates out there on
both sides making their
case for the direction of the country, and this seat is a critical
seat.”
Justice
Scalia’s death leaves the court evenly divided; his replacement could
shape its decisions for a generation or more. But while Republicans have
effectively told
Mr. Obama not to bother sending the Senate a nominee, in interviews,
many Ohio voters seemed to disagree.
And Democrats are pouncing.
“I
think Senator Portman will pay a heavy price for his irresponsible
behavior,” the senator’s likely Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, a
former Ohio governor, said
in an interview. “I think it’s a violation of his constitutional duty.”
Some
wonder why the independent-minded Mr. Portman was so quick to fall in
line behind the Republican leader. “I don’t know why he just didn’t shut
up,” said Jerry Austin,
a Democratic strategist here.
Around
the country, other first-term Republicans are also feeling the heat. In
New Hampshire and Wisconsin, newspaper editorial boards had harsh words
for Ms. Ayotte and
Mr. Johnson; in Pennsylvania, a news article in Mr. Toomey’s home paper
suggested he was misstating the facts around past nominations in
election years.
In
Ohio, Mr. Portman is clearly weighing a complex calculation. He is a
former House member who served as trade representative and budget
director under President George
W. Bush, and his efforts at bipartisanship help him at home. But he is
seeking a second term amid a raucous Republican presidential primary
campaign; a nominee like Mr. Trump, or Senator Ted Cruz, the
conservative Texan, could hurt him badly in Ohio, whose
voters twice backed Mr. Obama. He must court independents, yet still
satisfy his conservative base.
“This
is a hard one, and Portman’s not the only one with a problem,” said
Jennifer E. Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook
Political Report. “He’s
keeping his base intact, but it could create a larger problem for him
in the general election by alienating some moderates and independents.”
Here
in Hillsboro, a city of about 6,600 people surrounded by snow-blanketed
farmland east of Cincinnati, his mandate from the base seems clear.
Nearly 200 enthusiastic
conservatives, many wearing red, white and blue, turned out for Mr.
Portman at the Highland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner.
The
presidential campaign was on everyone’s mind; attendees voted in a
straw poll by dropping corn kernels in Mason jars with photos of the
candidates. (Senator Marco
Rubio of Florida won, with 44 kernels, followed by Mr. Trump and John
R. Kasich, the Ohio governor, who tied with 36 each.) But the court was
on everyone’s mind, too.
“The
Constitution says he should, and he should,” said Kay Ayres, 78, a
retired cattle farmer and the county party’s executive chairwoman, when
asked if Mr. Obama would
be right to nominate someone. “The Constitution doesn’t say that the
Senate has to hurry on and get it done.”
But
two hours away in the small Ohio city of Delaware, sentiments were more
muddled. Delaware, birthplace of the nation’s 19th president,
Rutherford B. Hayes, is heavily
Republican though not Portman territory; many voters said they had not
heard of the senator. As for the court, some saw no reason to delay. And
some were just disgusted with Washington.
“It’s
not like this is Obama’s last day; this is just political,” said Genti
Koci, an Albanian-American, who admired Justice Scalia and likes Mr.
Kasich for president,
but voted for Mr. Obama in 2012. “I don’t see any good reason to wait
another year, when we’re not even sure who’s going to win.”
Nationally,
polls show that the country is evenly divided, with Democrats
supporting confirmation this year, and Republicans preferring to wait.
Republican and Democratic
strategists say it is too soon to tell whether the fight over Justice
Scalia’s replacement will change the outcome of Senate races, but it
will certainly energize each party’s base.
For
Mr. Portman, a Supreme Court hearing could be particularly problematic.
He was among a handful of Senate Republicans — including Ms. Ayotte and
Mr. Johnson — who voted
to confirm Attorney General Lynch, who is said to be on Mr. Obama’s
short list for the Supreme Court. She would make history as the first
black female nominee, and it could be deeply uncomfortable for
swing-state Republicans to vote against her.
So
while Mr. Strickland, the former governor, faces a primary challenge,
he is hammering away at Mr. Portman’s stance on replacing Justice
Scalia. “You’d better believe
I’m talking about this,” he said .
Mr.
Portman is trying not to take the bait. In Hillsboro, he emphasized
other issues, among them jobs, the threat from the Islamic State and
Ohio’s heroin epidemic, never
once mentioning the justice’s death.
Reminded
that Democrats say he is playing politics with the court, Mr. Portman
bristled, insisting no one knows how the presidential election will turn
out.
“I think it’s best for the country,” he said. “Let the politics fall where they might.”
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