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Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), running for reelection in one of the most important contests in the battle for the Senate majority, is going up with his first TV ads of 2016, three commercials that seek to highlight his record fighting Ohio's severe prescription drug and heroin addiction problems. The commercials, shared with The Washington Post and slated to hit the airwaves Wednesday, are in line with a broader Senate Republican strategy to talk mostly about local issues this year, in order to create some distance from the top of the ticket. Senate GOP officials have instructed Republican senators to run as though they are running for sheriff. Many dodged and diverted when recently asked whether they would campaign with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Sullivan, 5/31)

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is pointing to his work fighting opioid addiction in new ads as he faces a tough reelection race this year. One ad focuses on Portman’s work on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which passed the Senate in March. (Sullivan, 5/31)

For two and a half weeks in February, Sen. Rob Portman worried that his opioid bill, the product of two decades of work fighting drug abuse, was going to become a political football in the Senate. He was determined to keep that from happening. ... Portman bristles at any suggestion that his work on CARA has anything to do with his campaign. He has been pushing the bill for three years along with his partner in the effort, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). He has been heavily invested in tackling drug addiction for the past 22 years. He has chosen to do so through what he calls “demand-side” policies, which focus on prevention and education rather than the war on drugs themselves. (Owens, 5/31)

A conservative group is doubling down, accusing Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Russ Feingold of ignoring problems at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisc., when he was in the Senate. And on Tuesday – as Republican Sen. Ron Johnson planned to hold a field hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in Tomah – Senate Democrats attempted to turn it against the vulnerable Republican. ... [Feingold] aired an ad of his own claiming, “On Tomah, it was Ron Johnson who failed.” (Yokley, 5/31)