Ted Strickland, a former Democratic governor of Ohio, recently attacked Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) for outsourcing jobs despite the fact that Strickland’s administration gave taxpayer stimulus funds to a company that outsourced jobs in 2010.
Strickland, a candidate for Senate in Ohio, accused Portman of "send[ing] all of our jobs to other countries," according to a video obtained by America Rising, a conservative group. Strickland, who was wrapping up a visit in Warren, Ohio, earlier in November, then pointed to a "Made in America" bumper sticker on his vehicle, a Ford Escape, which is partially built overseas.
"This says ‘Made In America.’ Don’t ship jobs to other countries!" Strickland, who served as governor of Ohio from 2007 to 2011, shouted.
The Ohio Democratic Party has been attacking Portman, Strickland’s opponent if he wins the nomination in 2016, for his vote in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, describing it as a job killer.
However, Strickland found himself at the center of an outsourced jobs scandal during his final year in the governor’s office. The Strickland administration’s Department of Development came under scrutiny after awarding a $375,300 contract to a company that outsourced jobs to El Salvador.
The department selected the Texas-based Parago Inc. over eight other companies, two of which were based in Ohio, to handle the state’s $11 million appliance rebate program that gave consumers federal stimulus dollars for buying energy-efficient appliances. Ohio received the $11 million as part of President Obama’s stimulus package.
Parago outsourced its call-center functions to hundreds of workers in El Salvador, a fact that came to light only after the contract began when a resident who phoned the call center inquired about its location.
The Ohio Department of Development had not asked the company to specify the location of its call center, from which workers answered consumer calls and processed applications.
While Lisa Patt-McDaniel, Strickland’s director of the Department of Development, was "horrified" by the discovery and sent a letter to the company asking it to move the call center to the United States, it remained in El Salvador throughout the rebate program.
The agency said the company never told the administration that it was outsourcing the jobs, but an internal review later found that Nadeane Howard, the director of the Ohio Energy Resource Division, knew before the contract was finalized that the company had outsourced the jobs. She was forced to resign her position.
The controversy led Strickland to bar state contractors from using offshore workers in August 2010, insisting that "outsourcing jobs does not reflect Ohio values."
Still, Strickland told Ohio Public Radio in July 2014 that he had spent Ohio’s stimulus funds wisely.
"I was criticized by some in the media for using the stimulus resources. I’m not sure what they expected me to do—just not accept them and go without?" Strickland said. "I have no doubt that, if it had not been for the use of those dollars—and I think the wise use of those dollars—Ohio would have gone deeper into the recession which would have made it more difficult for us to try to climb our way out."
Representatives for the Strickland campaign did not immediately respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for comment.
Strickland, who faces 31-year-old Cincinnati city councilman P.G. Sittenfeld in the Democratic primary race for Senate, has focused on criticizing Portman in recent weeks.
"I am running for this office and I am running against Rob Portman," the former Ohio governor said at a Democratic Party event in Cincinnati last month. "Rob Portman is my enemy and the enemy of those of us who hold Democratic values."
"Ted Strickland has never met a job he couldn’t outsource to another state or country. Under his watch, Ohio ranked 48th in job creation and lost over 350,000 jobs, many to other states," Portman campaign manager Corry Bliss told the Free Beacon in a statement.