Obama battles Boehner for Ohio

President Obama and House GOP Leader John Boehner are at war over the battleground state of Ohio.

The stakes are a governor’s mansion, a seat in the U.S. Senate, and possibly control of the House. A Republican sweep of six House seats now filled by Democrats could edge the GOP closer to the 40-seat pick-up the party needs to make Boehner the speaker this fall.

Ohio also will be crucial to Obama’s reelection hopes in 2012. A traditional battleground state, Ohio last picked a losing presidential candidate in 1960, when its electoral votes went to Republican Richard Nixon instead of Democrat John F. Kennedy.

Given those stakes, Obama has become a frequent flier to Ohio; Wednesday marks the ninth time since taking office that he has visited the Buckeye State, which he won by 5 points in the 2008 presidential election over Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). It’s the fifth time Obama has visited Ohio this year.

Boehner, the state's most prominent Republican besides Sen. George Voinovich, who is retiring, is Obama’s critic in chief, particularly when it comes to Ohio.

He has pilloried the president’s handling of the economy, an issue that resonates in Ohio, where unemployment has more than doubled from 5 percent in May 2007 to 10.5 percent in June 2010.

“More than 130,000 Ohioans have lost their jobs since February 2009, and the states’ unemployment rate remains at a painfully-high 10.5 percent,” Boehner said Wednesday in a statement from his office.

Boehner has also taken shots at individual House Democrats from Ohio, suggesting they will lose this fall.

In March, he said that freshman Democratic Rep. Steven Driehaus, who, like Boehner, represents a district in the Cincinnati suburbs, was a “dead man” after his vote for healthcare reform.

“He can’t go home to the West side of Cincinnati,” Boehner said in a quote that received attention from the Ohio and national press.

Obama has appeared to enjoy teasing Boehner from time to time in Washington, such as when he described the bronzed minority leader as a “person of color” at the White House correspondents dinner in 2009.

But Obama and the White House have not been shy at firing back at Boehner over the economy.

After Boehner likened the Wall Street reform bill's response to the financial crisis to using a nuclear weapon on an ant, Obama and Democrats seized on the perceived gaffe and have made it a repeated element of their campaign rhetoric. The White House also went after Boehner last week when Vice President Joe Biden's top economic adviser accused the GOP leader of “want[ing] people to lose their jobs.”

Boehner and the White House also sparred Wednesday over whether new regulations issued by the administration are pulling down the economy. In response to a request from Boehner for a list of all pending regulations that could have a cost to the economy of more than $1 billion, the Office of Management and Budget in a letter to Boehner said regulations issued under Obama had a $3.1 billion positive impact on the economy.

On Wednesday, Obama met with local families in Columbus to press his argument that policies enacted by Democrats have helped the economy. Those meeting Obama included Joe Weithman, who is hopeful he’ll be able to add employees to his architectural firm because of stimulus projects, according to the White House.

Weithman’s wife Rhonda, the White House said, was able to keep her health insurance after losing her job because of subsidies provided through the $787 billion stimulus package, which Boehner on Wednesday again attacked.

“The fact is, the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending spree is not delivering the results he promised it would,” Boehner said in a statement, noting Ohio has lost 130,000 jobs in the last 18 months.

Polls suggest Obama and Democrats have their work cut out for them if they want to hold on to electoral offices won in 2006 and 2008 in Ohio.

Republican Rob Portman, a former Bush administration trade representative and budget director running for the Senate seat Voinovich is vacating, leads Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in two recent polls.

Democrats have tried to use Portman’s ties to the previous administration against him, but a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month suggested those arguments haven’t gained traction. The survey showed Portman up by 7 points among likely voters.

Driehaus and fellow Democratic freshmen Reps. John Boccieri and Mary Jo Kilroy are in toss-up races, according to the Cook Political Report. Kilroy, who voted for healthcare reform, Wall Street reform and climate change legislation, attended Wednesday’s event with Obama.

Another two Ohio House Democrats, Reps. Betty Sutton and Zack Space, both second-term lawmakers, also face tough races this fall.

Gov. Ted Strickland (D), who also attended Wednesday’s event with Obama, narrowly trails former House Republican John Kasich.

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