Subject: Constitutional Responsibility Project Releases Second TV Ad Highlighting Senator Portman’s Refusal To Do His Job Around Supreme Court Vacancy
From: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
To: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 13:47:28 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2016
Contact: Natalie Raps, [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

Constitutional Responsibility Project Releases Second TV Ad Highlighting Senator Portman’s Refusal To Do His Job Around Supreme Court Vacancy

Washington, DC – Today, the Constitutional Responsibility Project released a 30-second ad<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIjQ_SUNdb4&feature=youtu.be> highlighting Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) refusal to allow Chief Judge Garland – a nominee with broad bipartisan support and the most federal judicial experience in recent history - a fair hearing and an up-or-down vote. The ad will air in the Columbus and Cincinnati media markets over the Senate recess, beginning on May 3.<x-apple-data-detectors://4>
Today’s ad comes days after the Constitutional Responsibility Project released a new survey<http://weneednine.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Ohio-Poll-Key-Findings-4.15.16-2.pdf> of Ohio voters, conducted by Hart Research Associates. Key findings include:
•       70 percent of Ohioans do not know where Sen. Rob Portman stands on Merrick Garland’s nomination. When told that Senator Portman supports the Republican leadership’s refusal to consider any Supreme Court nominee, 59% of all voters express an unfavorable opinion, compared with just 36% who are favorable.
•       As Ohio voters hear of Rob Portman’s decision to follow his party leaders in opposing a hearing for Merrick Garland, two in five of Portman’s own voters are unfavorable to his actions, as are two-thirds of all swing voters.
•       Once voters learned about Merrick Garland and his background, 80 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of independents, and 32 percent of Republicans favor Garland’s confirmation.
•       Once Ohio voters learned about Sen. Portman’s decision to oppose a hearing for Merrick Garland, 48 percent of Ohio voters are less likely to support Sen. Portman, while 52 percent of independent voters are less likely to want him re-elected
o       This potentially puts 15 percent of the Ohio electorate in play this November as possible new voters for Democratic challenger, Ted Strickland.

From April 30 to May 8<x-apple-data-detectors://6>, the Constitutional Responsibility Project, in coordination with Americans United for Change and other coalition partners, has also launched a mobile billboard campaign across nine states over nine days to underscore the urgency for a full and functioning Supreme Court. The campaign will hold over 50 events in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The full ad and text can be found below. It is the second ad<https://youtu.be/HieGSD__sPI> launched by the Constitutional Responsibility Project aimed at educating voters during the Senate recess about their Republican Senators’ obstruction of the judicial branch.

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIjQ_SUNdb4&feature=youtu.be>
Visual                          Copy

“Portman has decided to fall in line with Republican Party leaders in their sharply partisan and uncompromising stand on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination”
Cleveland.com<http://cleveland.com/> March 23, 2016

“…this nominee who has previously received bipartisan support”

 Cleveland.com<http://cleveland.com/> March 23, 2016
         Narrator:
The constitution says the President shall make nominations for the Supreme Court and the senate votes.

No exception for election years

Why is Rob Portman refusing to do the job Ohio elected him to do?
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/sen_rob_portman_should_split_w.html#0<http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/sen_rob_portman_should_split_w.html>

Portman refuses to consider anyone President Obama nominates

Even a former prosecutor with more experience than any other nominee – with bipartisan support.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/03/20/editorial-reject-supreme-court-gridlock-senators/82051382/

But Portman is choosing his party’s leaders – and playing politics with the Supreme Court.

Call Senator Portman and tell him to put the Constitution before his politics.

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