| By Dave Harding, ProgressOhio - Nov 11th, 2009 at 2:35 pm EST |
Ohio automobile dealer Tom Ganley is airing a statewide television ad to introduce himself to the Republican voters who will decide whether he or former Rep. Rob Portman should be the party nominee in a key open-seat Senate race next year.
The 60-second ad touts Ganley's business background and takes an anti-Washington tone, with a narrator saying that Ganley's 47-year career of creating jobs and balancing budgets amounts to "hard work the Washington politicians don't understand." Ganley speaks only at the end of the ad, in a required disclaimer approving the communication.
Ganley is expected to spend millions of dollars ahead of the Republican primary election next May. Portman, a former budget and trade official to President George W. Bush, is well-funded, with $5.1 million cash-on-hand in his campaign account as October began. GOP officials are backing Portman and Ganley is running as a political outsider.
Watch It:
