Sexually suggestive ad attacks Fisher

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a 53-second ad on YouTube and on its own website that gives the impression the Democratic Senate nominee is pleasuring himself.

The ad, released Thursday, May 6, uses a screen shot of Fisher, shirtless with one hand on his chest and the other hidden below his waist, and says “he didn’t get the job done” and “he was more concerned about his job than yours.”

Amber Marchand, spokeswoman for the NRSC, insists that the video is not sexually suggestive.

“The video is about jobs. The video is about Lee Fisher’s record as the job czar and the 400,000 jobs that have been lost on his watch,” she said. YouTube took the ad down after a copyright complaint by a blog, but it was re-posted on the NRSC.org site. A 2006 documentary film produced by Fisher’s son included shots of a shirtless Fisher. Footage from the Buckeye State Blog was also used in the NRSC ad.

Fisher, who is lieutenant governor and the Democratic Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, served as economic development director in the Strickland administration.

“We invite the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who have lost their shirts — their jobs, their homes, their hopes — in the Bush-Portman recession to join our campaign,” said Fisher campaign spokesman John Collins.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Democratic Party set up a fake website and Twitter account that aims to paint the Republican candidate, former Congressman Rob Portman, as a Washington insider who boosted the federal deficit and sent jobs overseas when he served as Bush White House budget director and U.S. trade representative.

RobertPortman.com is modeled after Portman’s own site for his campaign for U.S. Senate. The Twitter account, RobertPortman, tells visitors he will keep them informed about his “failed record in Washington.” The website includes a “Where did your job go?” feature that allows a person to type in a job and a location. Typing in “manufacturing” results in a pop-up map of China and a claim that “Congressman Portman shipped your job here.”