Republican Josh Mandel appears unable to support his oft-made claim that legions of Democrats are supporting his candidacy for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.
The Brown campaign says that Mandel’s boasts of strong Democratic support are false and not borne out in campaign-finance data, polls or even anecdotes. In fact, the Brown campaign has received stronger fundraising support from the wealthy Ratner branch of Mandel’s extended family than has Mandel.
“I think he makes these statements that are pretty verifiably untrue,” Brown said.
Asked by The Dispatch for evidence of the backing Mandel says he is receiving from Democratic voters and groups, the Mandel campaign offered only the names of four registered Democrats willing to comment. But one of them actually is an independent who says she has supported candidates from both parties.
The issue of Democratic support has come to the fore because Mandel unfailingly brags about it in speeches and interviews. A May 10 Quinnipiac University poll showing Brown with a 6-point lead in the race found that only 5 percent of Democrats surveyed said they plan to vote for Mandel, compared with 10 percent of Republicans who indicated support for Brown.
In campaign speeches, Mandel says that not long after he became state treasurer in January 2011, Democrats and other voters beseeched him to run for the U.S. Senate this year.
Mandel tells audiences that “a good mix of Democrats, Republicans and independents” approached him in restaurants, supermarkets and drugstores to express their alarm over the direction of the country, identifying him as a candidate who could help right the ship.
“Over time, a lot of people said, ‘Josh, you need to take this guy on, you need to take our country in a different direction,’ ” Mandel told a business group in Worthington in October.
In speeches and interviews, Mandel says he was compelled by this groundswell of support to run for the Senate almost immediately after winning his first statewide office, potentially forsaking the treasurer’s job in which he had promised to serve a full four-year term. A significant number of Democrats are among those who urged him to run, Mandel says.
“We have a lot of people who supported (former Democratic Gov.) Ted Strickland and (former Lt. Gov.) Lee Fisher in 2006 who are supporting us now instead of Sherrod Brown,” Mandel told The Dispatch late last year.
In an interview on April 5, Mandel said, “Every week we get phone calls from union leaders and Democrats who are military veterans and Democrats who are entrepreneurs who say, ‘I’ve been a Democrat for a long time, but I just can’t pull the lever for Sherrod Brown.’ ”
Mandel added that his Senate campaign is “the only challenger in America that is outraising an incumbent Democrat, and one of the reasons we’re outraising him is that we have so many Democrats supporting us in addition to Republicans and independents. … We’ve got tons of Democrats who are small-business owners helping us out.”
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A Dispatch analysis of campaign-finance records found no union contributions to Mandel and, so far, he has received no union endorsements. Brown’s campaign has received at least $332,500 from labor unions since he was elected in 2007 and he has received money from or been endorsed by most of the state’s unions.
Also, Brown’s campaign raised more money in the past two quarters than Mandel’s. The fifth-largest business contributor to Brown’s campaign and his political-action committee, with $54,425 donated so far, is Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland-based publicly traded national real-estate developer to which Mandel has family ties.
Mandel, 34, is related to the wealthy Ratner family by marriage; his wife, Ilana Shafran Mandel, is granddaughter of one of nine Ratner children from a generation that started Forest City. Last year, Josh and Ilana Mandel reported income of between $1.9 million and $5.7 million and assets worth $7.4 million, according to financial-disclosure statements.
Members of the Ratner family have been consistent contributors to Brown. So far this campaign cycle, 15 Ratners donated $51,050 to Brown. By comparison, Mandel’s campaign has received a total of $10,000 from Albert and Audrey Ratner. Those two also gave $30,000 to an account Mandel shares with the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The four Democrats that Mandel’s campaign cited as supporters include Julie Bloom, 49, a Dayton-area bookkeeper, who said, “I’m not a registered Democrat. I kind of go independent.”