Politics brought a taste of Hollywood to an Akron union hall Thursday, for the re-election campaign of Senator Sherrod Brown.

Helping pack in about 150 people at the Tri-County Regional Labor Council was a fictional TV president - actor Martin Sheen, who played the role on the popular show "The West Wing".

In Akron, the Dayton native's role was throwing his support behind Senator Brown, calling him one of his heroes.

"Well, there's very few people with the courage and commitment that Senator Brown has displayed, his whole time in the Senate and in the House before that," Sheen commented to reporters outside the hall. "So, I'm drawn towards these great sources of nourishment in these very difficult times."

And Senator Brown pointed to Sheen's long-time activism towards Democratic causes, such as organizing a union, then leading a caddy strike, as a 14 year-old caddy at a Dayton country club.

"He has devoted so much of his life to, as from the days at the Dayton country club literally as a caddy, to what he's done to help people that have less advantage," Senator Brown told reporters, "And that's really the way he's lived his life, that's why I'm glad he's here."

Brown's November opponent, Republican state treasurer Josh Mandel, wasn't impressed.

In a statement, Mandel's campaign called Sheen "one of the most radical of all the Hollywood elites" and pointed to the actor's past statements on the Iraq war.

Sheen called the Mandel statement about him "slander" and says he's already talking to his lawyers.