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Indie Candidate Jumps In Senate Race
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An independent candidate is challenging Republican incumbent Rob Portman and Democrat Ted Strickland in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted has confirmed that truck driver Scott Rupert of Mechanicsburg submitted 5,828 valid petition signatures to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot.
The 52-year-old Rupert also ran as an independent in 2012, receiving 4.6 percent of the votes— a quarter million —in the race in which incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel.
He spent about $3,000 on his last campaign.
The Portman-Strickland campaign battle is expected to be one of the nation’s highest-spending as Democrats seek to unseat enough incumbents to retake control of the Senate.