The Washington Post
Original Article

Former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman is running for Senate in 2010. Bloomberg News photo by Dennis Brack

In a political world where candidates are falling all over themselves to tout their “outsider” credentials, Rob Portman is a rare exception to the rule.

Portman, a former Congressman and Bush Administration official, is casting himself as a deal-making insider in his campaign for the seat being vacated by Sen. George Voinovich (R) in 2010 — portraying his resume as just the sort of thing that will help him get things done in Washington.

“I know enough now about where the bodies are buried [and] how the Senate works that I know I can be effective there for Ohio,” Portman said during a recent interview with the Fix as part of our “Rising” series.

Portman’s resume includes twelve years representing a Cincinnati-area House district as well as two one-year stints in the Bush Administration as the director of the Office of Management and Budget and as U.S. Trade Representative.

It’s those latter two jobs that Democrats have seized on to argue that Portman is fundamentally flawed as he seeks a Senate seat in one of the states hardest hit economically over the eight years of a Republican president.

The argument goes that Ohio voters won’t be keen on electing a close confidante of a President who remains deeply unpopular in the state.
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By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
Original Article

YOUNGSTOWN — While Rob Portman, the leading Republican candidate for the 2010 U.S. Senate race, says, “You don’t turn away support,” he hasn’t sought it from former President George W. Bush, his ex-boss, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

In an interview Thursday with The Vindicator, Portman also said Bush and Cheney haven’t offered their support for his Senate bid.

“I think endorsements are overrated, even the ones I’ve made,” he said.
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Youngstown Vindicator
Original article

YOUNGSTOWN — While Rob Portman, the leading Republican candidate for the 2010 U.S. Senate race, says, “You don’t turn away support,” he hasn’t sought it from former President George W. Bush, his ex-boss, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

In an interview today with The Vindicator, Portman said Bush and Cheney haven’t offered their support for his Senate bid and he hasn’t asked for it from either of them.

“I think endorsements are overrated, even the ones I’ve made,” he said.

Portman served as a U.S. House member in southwest Ohio from 1993 to 2005.

Portman resigned the seat in May 2005 becoming Bush’s United States trade representative. In May 2006, Portman became director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he held till his resignation in June 2007.
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Posted by Elizabeth Auster
PD Extra
Original article

Suzanne Nielsen still remembers a strange conversation she had more than 40 years ago at her children’s elementary school in Cincinnati. Nielsen was talking with a secretary when the principal suddenly popped out of his office and asked her if she knew a boy named Rob Portman. Nielsen knew him, but not well.
“Mark my words,” the principal told her. “Someday he’s going to be president of the United States.”

Nielsen laughed and pointed out that Portman was only six or seven. The principal, undaunted, repeated his prediction and walked back into his office.

“And that was the end of the conversation,” she says. But not the end of the story.

Several years ago, Nielsen ran into Portman, who by then was a U.S. congressman, and told him about the conversation. Portman got a kick out of it – so much so that when he learned The Plain Dealer was writing a story about him, he twice suggested the reporter track down Nielsen.

If there is a message here, it isn’t necessarily that Rob Portman is planning to run for president anytime soon. It’s that Portman, a former international trade lawyer whom President Bush nominated last week to become the next U.S. trade representative, is no longer shy about advertising that people see that potential in him.
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New York Times
By ELIZABETH BECKER
Original article

President Bush announced on Thursday that he had selected Representative Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who is one of his closest friends in Congress, to be the next United States trade representative.
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Original article

Rob Portman has been closely allied with both Bush administrations, in roles ranging from White House staffer, shepherd of legislation through the House and stand-in on debate rehearsals.
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