Ohio’s Portman VP maybe but no meeting with Romney

Sen. Rob Port­man, R-Ohio, speaks at a media round­table hosted by the New Hamp­shire Repub­li­can Party Sat­ur­day in Con­cord, N.H. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Cheryl Senter)

STEVE PEOPLES

Asso­ci­ated Press

CONCORD, N.H. — He may be on Mitt Romney’s short list for vice pres­i­dent, but Sen. Rob Port­man said Sat­ur­day that he did not travel to New Hamp­shire to meet with the prospec­tive Repub­li­can nominee.

The Ohio Repub­li­can told reporters that he hasn’t vis­ited Romney’s New Hamp­shire vaca­tion home — just 40 miles from where Port­man head­lined a state GOP fundraiser Sat­ur­day night — and has no plans to meet with Rom­ney before he leaves New England.

“I’m here mostly on a col­lege tour with my daugh­ter,” he said. “I have no plans” to meet Romney.

Rom­ney is in the final days of a week­long New Hamp­shire vaca­tion. He was largely focused on his fam­ily but also hud­dled at times with top advis­ers as the cam­paign con­sid­ers announc­ing a run­ning mate ear­lier than pre­vi­ous pres­i­den­tial contenders.

Port­man wouldn’t say whether he’s being vet­ted as a poten­tial run­ning mate, but his sta­tus as a top can­di­date is clear. The first-term sen­a­tor fits Romney’s desire for a qual­i­fied team player who won’t over­shadow him.

Port­man, who serves as Romney’s Ohio cam­paign chair­man, said he doesn’t expect to meet with the for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts gov­er­nor in the com­ing days, but will speak at “a cou­ple of events” in Boston to ben­e­fit the cam­paign on Monday.

He said his goal is to help “raise money for the cam­paign and also doing what­ever I can to help the vic­tory effort.”

Port­man is a long­time con­gress­man who served as a trade rep­re­sen­ta­tive and top bud­get offi­cial in the George W. Bush administration.

“I’m proud of that record,” Port­man declared Sat­ur­day when asked about Bush’s low approval rat­ings at the end of his presidency.

Port­man said he was a Bush bud­get offi­cial “when we had a strong econ­omy — at a time when we had deficits that we would die for today.”

He has played an active role in sev­eral pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns, most recently as the debate part­ner for the 2008 GOP nom­i­nee, Sen. John McCain.

“I want to help in any way I can,” he said.

Posted by AP News on Jul 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.