The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) today called on failed jobs czar Lee Fisher (D-OH) to break his silence and make his position clear after the Ohio Department of Development, the state agency he abandoned to run for Senate, was caught exporting jobs to Central America. 

As NBC 4 in Columbus reports:

A state program designed to stimulate Ohio’s economy created jobs in Texas and Central America instead… Ohio’s Department of Development contracted with Texas-based Parago to run the appliance rebate program for roughly $500,000… [T]he company outsourced the call center jobs to Central America. In that sense, an American stimulus program helped to stimulate Central America’s economy.

Fisher’s boss, Democrat Governor Ted Strickland (D-OH) has said he is “incredibly disappointed” in the decision.  But Fisher, who oversaw the loss of nearly 400,000 Ohio jobs as head of the Ohio Department of Development, has remained ominously silent on the controversy.

“After overseeing the loss of nearly 400,000 Ohio jobs and abandoning his post to pursue his own narrow political interests, where does failed jobs czar Lee Fisher stand on this decision to export Ohio jobs to Central America?” asked National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Press Secretary Amber Marchand. “Governor Strickland has admitted he is ‘deeply disappointed,’ yet Fisher has remained ominously silent on the issue.  Ohioans deserve a straight answer from Lee Fisher: Does he agree with his boss that the agency he headed ‘could have done a better job’ of protecting Ohio jobs?”