With much of the media focus on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign launch, President Obama is waging his own partisan battle this week against several Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in 2016.
The White House rolled out the red carpet Monday for local TV anchors from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and South Dakota — all states in which GOP senators are facing re-election next year — to conduct exclusive one-on-one interviews with the president.
Mr. Obama’s plans talked about his tax-cut proposals for the middle class, “while Republicans continue to slash taxes for the wealthiest,” said White House communications director Jen Psaki.
The White House also released a report Monday detailing Mr. Obama’s “middle-class tax cuts,” mostly tax credits for child care and other benefits, saying the president would pay for his proposals by closing tax loopholes for wealthier families and corporations.
The president also did an interview with a TV outlet from Portland, Maine, a media market that covers parts of New Hampshire, where GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte is also up for re-election next year.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, for an event on his budget priorities. Sen. Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, also is up for re-election in 2016.
Ms. Psaki said the president plans to take aim particularly at a GOP proposal to repeal the estate tax.
“It is hard to believe that anyone claiming to represent working people would fight for a tax cut that benefits only 5,400 households across the country while failing to protect tax cuts already benefiting millions of working families trying to make ends meet or pay for college,” she said in an email to supporters. “As millions of Americans finish filing their tax returns this week, the choices between these competing priorities could not be more stark.”
A spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee said the tax-week media blitz from the president “should be called an apology tour.”
“Thanks to Obama, Americans are paying more in taxes and are having a harder time finding good paying jobs, clearly not a message their candidates will be able to run on next fall,” said NRSC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek.
In Ohio, where Republican Sen. Rob Portman is seeking re-election, the state Democratic Party finds itself embroiled in controversy for endorsing former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland over Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld to run against Mr. Portman.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice William M. O’Neill, one of two Democrats holding statewide office, is urging fellow Democrats to leave the state party and calling for its leaders to resign over the early endorsement. The party’s rules say that endorsements should only occur during the same year as the actual primary.
“Leave the Ohio Democratic Party immediately,” Justice O’Neill wrote to followers on his Facebook page. “I have just learned that they have made an endorsement in the US Senate race for my dear friend Ted Strickland. When you see Ted, give him a hug and kiss him goodbye. He is a walking dead man.”
The justice said the endorsement makes it clear that the party learned “nothing” from its losses in 2014, and that Mr. Strickland would be a better candidate after emerging from a contested primary.
“And now I am told the brain trust who LOST EVERY SINGLE STATEWIDE OFFICE IN 2010 is back and in charge,” he wrote. “Run people. Run. The inmates are running the asylum.”
He told the Columbus Dispatch that the party has “badly wounded Ted Strickland’s chances of becoming a U.S. Senator,” saying that Mr. Strickland will spend the next year not being challenged.
“We’re giving him a free ride to the nomination, and by doing that, we’re telling all the young people who wanted to get involved in that race to get lost,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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