In a campaign stop for a nominee for U.S. Senate, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Democrats may be vulnerable in the summer but voters will look at contrasts in the fall.
"This is not about the next election," Biden told about 200 people at a fundraising lunch for Democrat Lee Fisher at the Great Lakes Science Center. "This is about the next generation."
Biden, noting the science center overlooking Lake Erie, also said "Republicans don't believe in science.
"Look at the previous eight years and how much investment went into science and technology," he continued, referring to the George W. Bush administration.
Fisher is running against Republican Rob Portman, a former congressman, and the latest poll shows the race is close. A Quinnipiac University survey of Ohio voters released Wednesday showed Fisher with 42 percent and Portman with 40 percent. Seventeen percent were undecided.
The Ohio GOP launched a Web video in response to Biden's appearance in which it said Fisher was a failure when he ran Ohio's economic development programs.
Biden also weighed in on the hottest summertime topic in Cleveland: whether LeBron James will re-sign as a free agent with the Cleveland Cavaliers or play elsewhere.
"LeBron James is coming back and Lee is going to Washington," Biden said. The free agency period begins Thursday.
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