Battle over Scalia’s replacement already spilling into Ohio Senate race

The Washington Post features Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and his re-election campaign as a key example of how the upcoming battle to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could impact this fall’s Senate races in swing states.

Portman has come out in favor of President Obama deferring the choice of a new Supreme Court justice to the next president, who will be elected in November and take office in January 2017. Portman’s Democratic opponents, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, disagree and intend to portray Portman as an obstructionist.

The Post quotes Strickland saying that Portman was “failing to do his job, shirking his responsibilities to our nation, jeopardizing the institutions of our democracy and engaging in exactly the kind of dysfunctional behavior that frustrates Ohioans about Congress.” Sittenfeld was quoted as saying that Portman advocated actions that would “put the Senate in violation of both historical precedent and the clear language of the Constitution itself.”

Portman responded in a statement: “With the election less than nine months away, I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations.”

Read the full Washington Post story here.