One day after their final debate in Cincinnati, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel began making the closing arguments in what has been a long and contentious campaign.

Brown, whose opening statement at the debate touted Ohio’s new manufacturing jobs in the wake of the auto bailout, launched a sweeping 25-stop tour of the state aimed at emphasizing Ohio’s job growth.

Yesterday, that included stops in Cincinnati, Springfield and Lima, with an unannounced stop at the Democratic County Headquarters in Dayton where he rallied the troops.

Mandel, meanwhile, was scheduled to appear at a Romney-Ryan event in North Canton Friday night and was scheduled to join Paul Ryan’s bus tour around the state on Saturday before doing national media appearances on Sunday, according to Travis Considine, a spokesman for Mandel’s campaign.

Considine said the Republican proved in the Thursday debate that “the best path forward for Ohio is new ideas and change in Washington.”

“Josh Mandel boldly detailed his vision to create an environment for job creation while Sherrod Brown danced around his record of failure as a career Washington politician,” Considine said.

Mandel’s campaign manager Ray Yonkura sent out a fundraising appeal via email Friday morning saying that Mandel “went 3-0 in these Senate debates.”

Brown, meanwhile, said he thought voters who watched the debate “saw the seriousness with which I take this job and how I wake up every day and really do fight for the private sector to create jobs.”

He touted that job growth in Springfield, where he toured Navistar and rode a truck off the line. After the tour, Jason Barlow, the head of the UAW Local 402, said that at one point before the recovery, the company was down to 300 employees making 35 trucks a day. “He called us and said, what can I do? What do you need in Springfield?” he said.

Today, he said, the plant is producing nearly 100 trucks a day and employs about 800. “The future looks positive,” Barlow said.

The Democrat didn’t mention his opponent in Cincinnati or Springfield, but made an exception before a crowd largely made of union members at the Montgomery County Democratic headquarters. During that appearance, he said he expects outside groups will spend $30 million against him before the campaign is over. In 2006, his campaign spent about $11 million against then-Sen. Mike DeWine. He said about $6 million of that was ads. A Brown spokeswoman said in 2006, both candidates spent a total of about $20 million.

“We know there is going to be a record set,” he told the crowd of about 100. “And that record set is that come Nov. 6, the record set is that never in the history of this country will there have been this much outside money spent for a losing candidate.”