Posted on 08/22/2016 3:18:15 PM PDT by oblomov
Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and a few other key states are struggling under the weight of Donald Trump’s candidacy. But there seems to be at least one exception: Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio.
Polling released in the past few days — including a Monmouth University survey of Ohio released on Monday — confirms that Portman is not being swamped by the anti-GOP sentiment Trump is stirring up. The Monmouth poll found Trump down by 4 percentage points and Portman ahead by 8.
The new Monmouth survey is in line with the polling averages: Portman holds a clear advantage over Democrat Ted Strickland, leading in all four polls taken since both conventions ended. And in that time, Portman has expanded his lead while Trump’s position has deteriorated. Trump trails Hillary Clinton by 4 points in Ohio, according to our polls-only model, while he trailed Clinton by about 1 point just before the GOP convention started. But Portman leads Strickland by a little over 7 points, on average, in post-convention polls. In the month before the conventions, Portman led Strickland by an average of just 1 point.
How is Portman resisting Trump’s downward pull? Here are three factors that may be helping him separate himself from the presidential nominee in the eyes of Ohio voters:
1. Portman is in many ways the opposite of Trump. He’s a quiet, Chamber of Commerce-type of Republican, whereas Trump is a bombastic populist. Moreover, Portman has been in Ohio politics for over 20 years — he has an established brand in the Buckeye State that is distinct from Trump’s. 2. Ohio’s Republican Party has distanced itself from Trump in a way that few other state parties have.
(Excerpt) Read more at fivethirtyeight.com ...
How do you have kids if you’re gay? That doesn’t work.
Portman is actually marginally better than most on immigration.
He’s weak, no doubt, but he’s not totally deluded like these morons who think they can just legalize 12 million illegals and problems solved.
Most Senators are terrible on stance & understanding, except David Vitter & Jeff Sessions.
Ayotte’s a big neocon and online gambling opponent, that will hurt big time compared to some Senators with same neocon voting record but dont run their mouths like they are king/queen of Sunday morning shows.
Ayotte would have done much better as a quiet RINO.
http://cis.org/tale-of-two-senators
If Schumer can be seen as the id of immigration policymaking — eager and insistent — Portman is the superego, assessing risks and warning of consequences. If Schumer is its broker, Portman is its quality control engineer. If what Schumer fears most is failure to produce a bill, Portman warns about the futility of passing a defective bill that is bound to fail.
From what I read before,
after convention (i.e., Trump officially being nominated as Republican candidate) your donation to Trump ‘directly’ is going to Republican party (RNC).
Somebody correct me if I mis-remember it.
Money intended for Trump going to the RNC predates the convention:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/25/politics/donald-trump-fundraising-rnc/
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