New web ads in Portman Strickland race

It’s Tuesday, which must mean that at least one of the candidates in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race is running new web ads.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s ads will target union members and conservative Democrats. They’re made in the aftermath of last week's endorsements of Portman by the Ohio Conference of Teamsters and the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police and the June endorsement by the United Mine Workers of America.

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, meanwhile, is launching a new ad in its web video series: "Rob Portman: The Least Known Man in Ohio." Their ad is a spoof of the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man In the World," but features what appears to be an intern wearing a very bad wig. You can see it here.

That ad focuses on a common refrain from Democrat Strickland: That Portman has supported trade deals that have hurt the state economically.  “I’ve sent Ohio jobs around the world,” the Portman imitator says, sitting next to a globe, before sipping a martini. It also aims to point out that Portman still has low name identification, despite serving six years in the Senate.

The Portman ads, meanwhile, are display ads that will be targeted at them based on data about their occupations available through Facebook and LinkedIn. They’ll appear on more than two dozen targeted websites.

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