Former Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher heads CEOs for Cities, a group of business, political and civic leaders working together on urban issues.

Fisher invited Portman to be closing speaker Friday for a Cincinnati conference that drew nearly 300 people. He says that while he disagreed with Portman on some issues, he has always liked and respected him. And he spoke glowingly of Portman’s credentials for a national ticket.

Portman continues to downplay the speculation, saying he’s in the right place as senator to play a role in improving an economy that he says is in tough shape.

Republican State Treasurer and U.S. Senate Candidate Josh Mandel lambasted Democratic Senator U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown for that ad, saying Ohioans are sick of the negative tone.

“I was at a transmission shop yesterday in Muskingum County,” Mandel says, “and this guy comes up to me, was working on one of the trucks in this transmission shop, and he says ‘hey, I’ve been watching these ads on t.v.’ And I said ‘What do you think?’ And he said ‘I see that you are running all positive ads. You have blue collar roots. And I see this other guy is running all negative ads. Why is that?’ And I said ‘His only path to victory is to tear me down.’

But there are plenty of anti-Brown on television sets around the state.

That ad is sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group that has endorsed Mandel. The chamber doesn’t have to reveal its donors, and Mandel has tried to downplay any association with the chamber or any other group running negative ads.

“All we can control our own campaign and in what we can control, we are running a positive, upbeat, vibrant campaign and we are talking about my positive vision for the country,” Mandel says.

Sherrod Brown’s campaign insists otherwise.

“Josh Mandel lies a lot,” says campaign spokesman Justin Borasky.

“And when he tries to say his campaign has been 100 percent positive, it’s simply not true. 6 point 5 million dollars in negative attack ads by his friends. And he’s been launching negative, ridiculous attack ads against Sherrod from day one.”

Barasky says an independent fact checking organization, Politifact, has found many of Mandel’s claims to be patently false.

Barasky says Brown won’t have as many outside groups doing messages on his behalf.

“Not nearly as much. Right now the third party spending gap in this race is 6.5 million dollars for Josh Mandel to about 750 thousand dollars on Sherrod Brown’s end. So while there will be some third party spending on each side, it far outweighs anything that will be on our end.”

But it’s hard to know how much money will be spent on behalf of either of the candidates. By law, candidates are not allowed to be part of those third party efforts. And large amounts of cash can be injected fairly quickly into any of these outside spending groups …without the public knowing how much is being spent or who is spending it. And the accuracy of third party ads is an issue too. Many of the ads that have been fact checked so far by fact checking organizations have been found to be untrue or only partially true.

The move came Wednesday after Gov. John Kasich’s  administration intervened. The proposal was broadly criticized as discriminatory to the poor, ineffective in other states, and potentially unconstitutional.

A Senate spokeswoman said the governor’s office pledged to work with the Senate on the issue as a stand-alone bill. Angela Meleca said the process would allow senators and the governor to work out implementation issues.

The proposal called for piloting drug tests for welfare recipients in three counties that volunteer, with those who test positive losing access to their benefits for at least six months.

Meleca said a timetable for acting on the proposal was under consideration.

The county’s Republican Central Committee on Wednesday appointed Delaware Police Chief Russell L. Martin to fill out the term of Walter Davis.

Martin will also be a candidate for the office in the November general election.

Davis resigned earlier this year after being accused of using county money for trips and dinners where he reportedly met with a female deputy. Davis, who is married, agreed to repay the money and the female deputy was later fired.

Opponents say it will largely cut or altogether eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. Anti-abortion groups have praised the idea.

It’s unclear how much traction the proposal will get in the Republican-controlled Ohio House. A House finance committee stripped a similar plan from a budget bill last month.

Lawmakers were to hear testimony Wednesday from opponents and supporters.

The measure calls for eligible public entities or other community health groups that help uninsured and underinsured women to receive money from the state departments of Health and Job and Family Services before other providers like Planned Parenthood.

Republican state Sen. Bill Seitz cast his yes vote after reciting the lyrics of the 1960s sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” saying shale gas drilling will turn poor Ohioans into “modern-day Jed Clampetts.”

Supporters say it balances the environment and commerce by expanding reporting.

Critics say the proposal is meaningless because it would only require annual reporting and would not require companies to disclose what chemicals they use to fracture shale rock to free trapped oil and natural gas.

Click the play button above to hear more reaction from supporters and critics of the proposed rules.

The demographic was key to the President winning the White House in 2008, but African Americans have traditionally been less reluctant to support gay marriage.

Lehigh University African Studies Professor James Peterson says there are several reasons for that.

“Some of the mesogyny and much of the homophobia that is generated or becomes more pervasive within the African American community is tied to this really, really complex history that has to do with the emasculation of black males during slavery and the systematic oppression of black folks over time,” Peterson says.

The issue of gay marriage was the talk of many African American churches this past Sunday, says Sam Gresham, a political consultant and former director of Common Cause Ohio and the Columbus Urban League.

Gresham says the topic of same-sex marital vows has never been louder within black churches than it is now.

“It’s an interesting discussion when you get eight to 10 African Americans in a room. And that’s happening all over America this week, particularly on Mother’s Day. It happened in the pulpit I was in – the pastor spoke about it,” Gresham says.

One pastor who did not speak about it: Elder Michael Reeves, pastor at Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus.

While Reeves says he preached about other topics on Sunday, he says gay marriage is among the issues African American churches need to address in a more-intelligent way.

“It’s like church has been a spiritual drug that when you’re stressed out you, you go to church, get a little drug, feel good, go home and live happily ever after.

“That is not real life. That is not what God intended the church to be.”

Reeves is staunchly opposed to gay marriage. He says same-sex marriage compounds parental questions and concern faced by many African Americans.

The latest poll from the Pew Research Center says African American support for gay marriage has increased by 20 percent since 2008.

The Senate Finance Committee set a Tuesday vote on a provision allowing three Ohio counties to volunteer to administer drug tests to prospective welfare recipients. Those who failed would get treatment and lose benefits for six months or more.

Its author says the provision’s wording avoids legal roadblocks encountered in other states. It’s among dozens of Senate changes to a midterm budget bill to be voted on Wednesday.

The think tank group Innovation Ohio says a recent constitutional amendment in Ohio against federal health care mandates prohibits mandatory government programs that collect health care data.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is suing CTI group for calling Ohio customers who were on the national do not call registry and for violating Ohio’s consumer laws.

DeWine says the company, which sells trading and investment software, repeatedly called customers who were on the list or who had asked not to be called. And DeWine alleges the company ripped off customers who purchased over the phone by charging their credit cards without written consent and refusing to issue refunds.

The lawsuit asks for consumer restitution and civil penalties. DeWine says the best way to avoid telemarketing calls is to register phone numbers on the national do not call list. In addition, he says to watch for scams and do not trust caller ID because it can be manipulated.

Portman says voters are most concerned about jobs, deficits and economic uncertainty, and that’s the best opportunity for Mitt Romney to win in November. Recent speculation tags Portman as a possible running mate for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Portman opposes same-sex marriage, but he tells The Associated Press that President Barack Obama’s statement this week in favor of gay marriage doesn’t change his view that the economy remains paramount.

Portman was campaigning Friday across southern Ohio with Brad Wenstrup, the GOP nominee in the 2nd House District that Portman formerly represented. Wenstrup upset Rep. Jean Schmidt in the March primary.