Ohio Senate faceoff proves to be nasty, expensive

This file photo taken Sat­ur­day, May 5, 2012, shows U.S. Sen. Sher­rod Brown speak­ing before a cam­paign rally for Pres­i­dent Barack Obama at Ohio State Uni­ver­sity in Colum­bus, Ohio. Job expe­ri­ence has been as much an issue as pol­icy posi­tions in the hotly con­tested, super-expensive fight for Ohio’s Sen­ate seat this fall. Incum­bent Demo­c­rat Sher­rod Brown says Repub­li­can Josh Man­del has ignored his job as state trea­surer. Man­del says Brown has been in his job too long and Wash­ing­ton needs new blood. (AP Photo/Mark Dun­can, File)

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — Job expe­ri­ence has sur­faced as the defin­ing issue of the hotly con­tested, super-expensive fight for Ohio’s Sen­ate seat this fall.

Incum­bent Demo­c­ra­tic Sher­rod Brown faces Repub­li­can Josh Man­del in the race, which is one of the highest-profile con­tests in the country.

Brown’s lib­eral vot­ing record and sur­prise vic­tory six years ago over incum­bent Mike DeWine in a closely divided bat­tle­ground state make him a prime tar­get for Repub­li­cans seek­ing to gain Sen­ate seats.

In a fight infused with out­side money, Brown has painted Man­del as ignor­ing his job as state trea­surer in a con­tin­ual quest for higher office. Man­del says Brown has been on his job too long and Wash­ing­ton needs new blood.

The spat has played out in mil­lions of dol­lars of tele­vi­sion ads across the state. The Wes­leyan Media Project found that $6 mil­lion was spent on more than 10,000 ads in the state Sept. 9–30 alone.

Mandel’s youth and back­ground made him a prime con­tender to take on a pop­u­lar incum­bent. Besides being a U.S. Marine vet­eran who served two tours in Iraq, he’s proven a gifted fundraiser. Mar­ried into the well-heeled Rat­ner fam­ily of Cleve­land, Man­del has raised $8.4 mil­lion to Brown’s $10.5 mil­lion, accord­ing to the most recent fed­eral elec­tion filings.

But more than half the money being spent on the race is com­ing from out­side groups. Wes­leyan found more than 53 per­cent of the Sep­tem­ber spend­ing came from non-campaign enti­ties. On behalf of Man­del, they’ve included the GPS Cross­roads orga­ni­za­tion affil­i­ated with for­mer Bush strate­gist Karl Rove and the U.S. Cham­ber of Com­merce. On behalf of Brown, the National Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion and other unions are putting money into the race.

At a Sep­tem­ber rally with AK Steel work­ers and other unions, Brown ripped the blitz of neg­a­tive cam­paign ads aimed at him.

“You can’t turn on your TV with­out see­ing these nasty ads,” he said.

The ads take on some­one well-known to Ohio vot­ers. Brown began his polit­i­cal career in 1974 as the youngest state rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Ohio his­tory, and went on to serve as sec­re­tary of state and congressman.

Brown has cam­paigned along­side Pres­i­dent Barack Obama, tout­ing their shared sup­port for the fed­eral health care over­haul and the bailout of the auto indus­try so piv­otal to the man­u­fac­tur­ing state’s economy.

Mar­ried to Pulitzer Prize-winning jour­nal­ist Con­nie Schultz, Brown had opened up a lead of 7 to 10 points in polls taken before the first pres­i­den­tial debate.

Man­del was elected to his first statewide office in 2010 after stints as a stu­dent body pres­i­dent at Ohio State Uni­ver­sity, Cleveland-area city coun­cil­man and state legislator.

He has shared polling with donors show­ing ded­i­cated vot­ers are in his cor­ner. He has joined Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney in appear­ances around the state and could ben­e­fit from a post-debate bump.

Man­del touts his fis­cal con­ser­vatism and sup­port for Wash­ing­ton reforms such as salary restraint and term limits.

“When you look in the dic­tio­nary under ‘career politi­cian,’ you see a pic­ture of Sher­rod Brown,” said Man­del, who is 35. Brown is 59.

Man­del has faced a steady stream of crit­i­cism: for hir­ing friends and polit­i­cal oper­a­tives into his state office, for being a no-show to his offi­cial state duties, and for accept­ing dona­tions later tar­geted in an FBI probe.

Posted by AP News on Oct 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.