Partisan fight over court complicates tight Ohio Senate race

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Sen. Rob Portman faces a tough re-election in his swing state of Ohio, and it just got more complicated with the partisan fight over whether President Barack Obama should fill a Supreme Court vacancy in his last year in office.

Two days after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, Portman fell in line behind his Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and said the American people in November's election should "weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations."

[...] in a Senate race that polls have indicated will be tight, the vacancy debate adds a divisive issue that could sway the November outcome by propelling black voter turnout to support Obama or by firing up social conservatives already unhappy about the high court's decision last year to strike down bans on same-sex marriage in Ohio and other states.

Democrats are accusing Senate Republicans of obstructionism and counting on independent and moderate voters to be turned off by any attempt to deny an Obama nominee a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote.

John Green, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, said independent voters tend to be "good government types" who will be turned off by too much political maneuvering on the court issue.

James Campbell, a University of Buffalo political scientist, said there's a strong chance the drama will conclude before November's election and that Obama's determination to proceed will do nothing but fuel the nation's political divisions.