Uncategorized

Columbus, OH — A new report from Cleveland.com reveals Republican Senate candidates are once again in disarray as they waver on Trump’s effort to oust Mitch McConnell as Minority Leader. As Andrew Tobias points out, these candidates — who are always putting their own political interests first — can’t seem to decide between McConnell and Trump, putting them at risk of angering Trump. And we all know in today’s Republican Party, a nasty tweet from Trump can quickly sink a GOP campaign.

The Trump-McConnell feud is just the latest loyalty test for these GOP Senate candidates, whose political positions are always based on placating out-of-state Republicans rather than the needs of Ohio voters. In a sign of how messy this race will get for the Republican Party, these millionaire candidates have been willing to go to new lows each week in attacking each other and debasing themselves to chase Trump’s endorsement – yet most of the Republican Senate candidates are too afraid to cross Mitch McConnell and his army of wealthy special interest donors.

Stay tuned to see how this plays out with Trump world. We’re guessing not well.

“In true millionaire fashion, the Ohio GOP Senate candidates have made clear the endorsement they value most is out-of-state special interest donors,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Cleveland.com: Most of Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates decline to follow Trump’s lead in seeking to oust McConnell

By Andrew Tobias

October 13, 2021

Ohio’s Republican leading U.S. Senate candidates largely have been in lockstep with former President Donald Trump. But they’ve been less eager to join Trump when it comes to one major fight affecting the GOP.

In recent weeks, both former state treasurer Josh Mandel and former Ohio Republican Party chairman Jane Timken have sidestepped questions on whether they think Mitch McConnell should remain leader of U.S. Senate Republicans, a job he’s held since 2007. In doing so, they avoided siding with Trump, who has called for McConnell’s ouster repeatedly months after the powerful Senate Republican leader declined to back the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election.

“I don’t understand your question — is there someone running against him? I’m not going to entertain hypothetical situations that don’t even exist in reality,” Mandel told the Wall Street Journal last month, taking a similar tack as he did when he ran for Senate in 2018. Mandel’s campaign declined to comment further this week.

Timken evaded the question in an Oct. 1 podcast interview with Steve Bannon, a far-right former Trump campaign manager who has called for McConnell’s ouster for years.

[…]

Meanwhile, another leading Republican Senate candidate, JD Vance, has said he supports replacing McConnell, siding with Trump.

In a Sept. 17 podcast interview, Vance said that while he has “no idea” who would run to replace McConnell or how the process works, he said Republicans need widespread leadership change in Washington, D.C.

“I think McConnell has shown at times that he’s a little out of touch with the base … I think that it’s time that we moved beyond the very old leadership class that’s dominated the Republican Party for a long time. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to bring some new blood in. We’ve got to get people the base is really excited about,” Vance said.

A fourth candidate, Mike Gibbons, called for McConnell to be replaced in 2018, criticizing Mandel for not joining him, when Gibbons unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate that year.

This year, he is taking a more neutral approach, according to a statement from his campaign.

“I was the first candidate for Senate to oppose the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but I believe Sen. McConnell understands that the Senate is the last line of defense against far-left Democrats and their radical agenda,” said Gibbons, a Cleveland investment banker. “I have not made a decision on who I will support for Majority Leader as we don’t know what the landscape will look like in January 2022, but we cannot discount Sen. McConnell’s important role right now in defending our Constitution and our country.”

State Sen. Matt Dolan, the only GOP candidate who’s not running an explicitly pro-Trump campaign, similarly sidestepped the issue in a statement: “Political squabbles make for good headlines in Washington, but it doesn’t bring one job to Ohio or defend our state’s interest that remain under threat from the Biden Administration and the Democratic agenda in Congress.”

One more Republican candidate, Bernie Moreno, hasn’t publicly commented. Messages have been left with his campaign.

The candidates are all running to replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, a close McConnell ally who is retiring in 2022. The Republican field hasn’t been shy about supporting Trump in another proxy fight with McConnell – in August, all but Dolan opposed an infrastructure bill negotiated by Portman that McConnell supported but which Trump loudly opposed.

Tom Sutton, a political scientist at Baldwin Wallace University, said he was surprised particularly that Mandel would be circumspect when given an opportunity to align himself with Trump. But he said the candidates might be reluctant to cross McConnell when it may not help their campaign while exposing them to future retribution if they were to win the race.

Democrats hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the Senate; Republicans are considered likely to retake the chamber next year, which would restore McConnell to his former position of power, Sutton said.

“Part of it, quite frankly, is McConnell has been a leader for a long time, and he knows how to manipulate the levers of power at the party and the Senate,” Sutton said. “And if you’re aiming to be the next senator from Ohio, he’s going to hang on to that power, and you’re going to have to work him.”

Meanwhile, Sutton said Vance might be trying to distance himself from his past prolific criticism of Trump from before he became a political candidate. And, he said candidates might view McConnell as having completed his work, given that he helped Trump confirm three judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, cementing a solid conservative majority.

“Some might say… that’s a mission accomplished, and so do we still need him?” Sutton said.

Michael Beyer, a spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said: “As Republican Senate candidates make their next self-interested political calculation in this nasty primary, they face a tough choice: do they go all-out to pursue Trump’s endorsement, or do they court Mitch McConnell and his wealthy special interest donors?”

After working closely with Trump during his presidency, McConnell repudiated Trump earlier this year after the former president falsely claimed he lost the November election due to widespread fraud. The claim has been rejected by his own justice and homeland security departments, some top Republicans and dozens of state and federal courts. McConnell and his aides blamed Trump for losing two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia, and with it, control of the Senate, saying his election fraud claims dampened turnout in Republican areas of the state, according to Politico.

McConnell even denounced Trump in a February speech on the U.S. Senate floor, saying there was “no question” was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the Jan. 6 riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol while lawmakers worked to certify the results of the election.

“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” McConnell said. “Having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

Trump, meanwhile, has said Republicans need to find a replacement for McConnell. He most recently bashed McConnell at an election-style rally in Iowa last Saturday, criticizing him and other Republican senators for voting with Democrats to temporarily raise the national debt ceiling.

“Mitch McConnell didn’t have the courage to challenge the election. He’s only a leader because he raises a lot of money and gives it to senators,” Trump said.

In response to a request for comment for this story, a McConnell spokesman said: “If we have anything to share we’ll be sure to let you know.”

###

Columbus, OH — In his latest column, Cleveland.com’s Brent Larkin lambasted the leading Republican Senate candidates – branding Josh Mandel, J.D. Vance, Jane Timken, Bernie Moreno, and Mike Gibbons as the ‘Foul Five’ – because they have “already shredded any sense of respectability in pursuit of a job for which they are uniquely unqualified.”

Larkin takes turns listing off just how low each member of the ‘Foul Five’ has gone to stand out in this crowded primary. His column comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal article where the ‘Foul Five’ have all admitted they need to spend $10 million each in order to stand out in this crowded primary, which would be “unprecedented” in Ohio. 

“The Republican Party is running a pack of elitist millionaires who have been dubbed the ‘foul five’ while Ohio Democrats stand with working families, and we like our chances,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

Key points below: 

Cleveland.com: ‘Foul Five’ seeking to replace Sen. Portman will heap shame on Ohio: Brent Larkin  

Brent Larkin

October 10, 2021 

Ohioans should prepare for the possibility of another enormous blow to what’s left of the state’s reputation. Of the seven candidates with a plausible chance of succeeding outgoing Sen. Rob Portman, at least five would be a giant-sized downgrade.

This is not to excuse Portman’s silent sanctions of former President Donald Trump’s toxic behavior and lies. But as a person and legislator, Portman possesses qualities far superior to the “Foul Five” who have already shredded any sense of respectability in pursuit of a job for which they are uniquely unqualified.

The Foul Five are Josh Mandel, J.D. Vance, Jane Timken, Bernie Moreno and Mike Gibbons. Should any one of them win next year’s Senate election, those of us who regularly criticized Portman will be yearning for his return the day after he leaves office.

[…]

But to win the primary, Dolan needs at least 30% of the vote, a tall order given that a CNN poll in September showed that 78% of the nation’s Republicans don’t believe Joe Biden won the presidency. More frightening, 54% believe there is evidence it was stolen – although no such evidence exists.

Attractive as Dolan may be to those who believe honesty is a virtue, it’s wise to remember that voter enthusiasm and turnout in Republican primaries tend to be highest among those whose views are far right of center. The same is true of Democratic primaries and far-left voters.

Members of the Foul Five have apparently concluded that embracing an anti-science, anti-fact agenda is the only path to victory in next spring’s Senate primary. The rallying cry of this sick and twisted appeal is “freedom” – freedom for Ohioans to live their lives as they see fit, even if it jeopardizes the lives of others, including children.

The worst of the Foul Five, for now, is Mandel, the former state treasurer whose long service in elected life is best remembered for a 2017 scheme using $1.84 million in tax dollars to promote himself. So egregious was Mandel’s waste of taxpayer funds that the Republican-run legislature amended state law to prevent some future officeholder from repeating it.

Mandel has no soul, no bottom. He uses social media to vaguely hint at the need for violence and often argues the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. On Sept. 23, Mandel took to Twitter with the preposterous claim there was widespread voter fraud in Ohio last year, offering no evidence, because none exists.

But the GOP’s race to the bottom is a competitive event. J.D. Vance, a Fox News favorite and author of the runaway best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” is working hard at proving more repugnant than Mandel. During the 2016 campaign, Vance positioned himself as a truth-teller with, “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Now, it’s Vance who wants to lead America to a very dark place, regularly serving the base helpings of bigotry and hatred. He revels in describing immigrants as “dirty” and regularly rails against “elitists,” then jets off to the Hamptons to fill his campaign coffers with their money.

On Sept. 5, Vance reached a point of no return, raging in a tweet that right-wing conspiracy crackpot Alex Jones “is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow.” Three weeks later, a federal judge in Texas ruled against Jones in a lawsuit brought by families of the children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Jones had cruelly claimed the Sandy Hook shooting never happened. He said the whole thing was a hoax.

If this is Vance’s idea of “reputable,” Ohio would be far better off without him. Not long ago a fresh face with a compelling life story, now it’s Vance who has been unmasked as a hoax. His journey from best-selling author to candidate for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat was best described in a July profile in The Atlantic headlined, “The Moral Collapse of J.D. Vance.”

Timken, who resigned as Ohio Republican Party chair to run for the Senate, and successful Cleveland businessmen Mike Gibbons and Bernie Moreno, are a wee bit less contemptible than Mandel and Vance. But that requires clearing the lowest political bar imaginable.

Of these three, only Timken has a plausible path to victory. But her betrayal of U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez for the Cleveland-area congressman’s vote to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection evidenced a mind-numbing lack of character.

At the end of January, Timken told The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com that Gonzalez had a “rational reason” for his impeachment vote, describing him as “a very good person.”

He is. She isn’t. Barely a month later, the conscience-free Timken called on Gonzalez to resign.

[…]

Trump’s “election fraud” claims are a nonissue to anyone who believes facts matter. But facts clearly matter not all to the Foul Five, because they all lack the constitution to demand Trump stop spreading these lies. Not one of them seems to care Trump’s obvious goal is to undermine voter confidence in democracy.

A far better option for the Foul Five would be for them to take their talents elsewhere.

I’ve found just the spot.

The village of Rendville is the tiniest town in Ohio. Tucked in the foothills of southeast Ohio, about 25 miles north of Athens, Rendville is home to 28 residents, down from 36 in 2010.

Funds are scarce in Rendville. If a road needs repair, residents do it themselves. For police and fire protection, they rely on the generosity of neighboring communities.

Bryan Bailey has been mayor of Rendville since 2000. “I’ve been at this a long time,” Bailey told me. “I’m pretty sure I won’t run again.”

And therein lies an opportunity for the Foul Five. They should all move to Rendville and run for mayor in 2023.

Rendville’s loss would be Ohio’s gain.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

###

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Mike Carey refuses to renounce the endorsement of Corey Lewandowski, even as multiple campaigns around the country have severed ties with him following serious allegations of sexual harassment. On Friday, The Columbus Dispatch’s Haley BeMiller outlined how Carey refuses to answer questions on his ties to his old friend Corey Lewandowski, amid allegations the former Trump campaign manager made unwanted sexual advances towards a former Trump donor.

“The Trump-affiliated super PAC led by Lewandowski spent over $400,000 to back Carey in the primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings. While Carey’s position is unknown, other Republican politicians have started to distance themselves from Lewandowski. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster had been working with him and cut ties after Odom’s story surfaced, Politico reported,” writes the Dispatch.

Even after repeated calls for Carey to renounce Lewandowski’s endorsement, the Republican refuses to speak out. But unfortunately, it’s no surprise that Carey remains silent, especially after an older allegation of sexual harassment against Lewandowski didn’t stop him stumping for Carey “on a two-day, seven-stop tour.”

“Mike Carey’s silence on the accusations against one of his biggest supporters and friend of 25 years is deafening. The continued allegations surrounding Corey Lewandowski and his treatment of women speaks volumes about the company that Mike Carey likes to keep. Mike Carey must renounce Lewandowski’s endorsement immediately,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

You can read more from The Columbus Dispatch here and below:

• The GOP candidate for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District is mum on his ties to a longtime adviser to Donald Trump after the adviser was accused last week of sexually harassing a prominent Trump donor.
• Trashelle Odom said former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski repeatedly touched her and made inappropriate comments at a recent charity event in Las Vegas, Politico reported.
• The allegations prompted Trump allies to remove Lewandowski from the former president’s super PAC and create another fundraising group to keep him out of the fold.
• Lewandowski is a friend of congressional candidate Mike Carey and played a key role in securing Trump’s endorsement of him earlier this year.
• A spokesman for Carey did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the allegations and Lewandowski’s current role in the campaign. Lewandowski did not respond to questions about his involvement in Carey’s campaign.
• An attorney for Lewandowski cast Odom’s allegations as “accusations and rumors,” according to Politico.
• During a telephone town hall in July, Lewandowski said he’s known Carey for 25 years and noted that he joined Carey and Trump for their meeting in Trump Tower. 
• “Mike and I have gone back a long ways together, and I can tell you that when Mike decided he was going to run for Congress, I knew right away that he was the type of person that fit perfectly with the America First agenda,” Lewandowski said.
• The Trump-affiliated super PAC led by Lewandowski spent over $400,000 to back Carey in the primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
• [O]ther Republican politicians have started to distance themselves from Lewandowski. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster had been working with him and cut ties after Odom’s story surfaced, Politico reported. Noem separately disputed a report from a conservative website that she and Lewandowski had an affair.

###

October 8, 2021

Happy Friday, and welcome to another edition of “Buckeye Brawl,” a weekly newsletter from the Ohio Democratic Party highlighting the nasty, chaotic, and expensive Republican primary for Senate. This out-of-control primary is making conservatives “deeply worried” about the prospects of Republicans losing this seat. 

As the Republican Senate primary continues to sink lower and lower, these GOP candidates are injecting even more nasty personal attacks, more chaos and more money into this race. We’re here to help you keep track of all of it. Here’s what you may have missed:

VANCE IS “SLOPPY.” After J.D. Vance made disgusting comments about rape, Bernie Moreno made the understatement of the year when he told Breitbart that it was “sloppy” of Vance to use that word. Moreno also said that Vance could have clarified by saying that “rape is vile,” but Vance refused to do so.  

THE NEVER-TRUMP CAUCUS. Following Evan McMullin’s announcement he is challenging Mike Lee for Senate in Utah, Josh Mandel went after J.D. Vance for his prior support of McMullin in 2016. He tweeted, “JD Vance’s 2016 presidential candidate is now running for senate to join him in the Never-Trump caucus.” He went on to share a clip of Vance trashing Trump and called Vance a “condescending elitist.” Mike Gibbons consultant Kory Wood also went after Vance, quote tweeting the McMullin announcement and saying, “Paging J.D. Vance.”

RINO RIDDANCE. In an interview with the Butler County Republican Party, Josh Mandel said he is running to rid the Republican Party of RINOS like Jane Timken and J.D. Vance. He went on to call them both “squishy establishment RINOS” and said he wants them out of the GOP altogether. He then attacked the rest of the field for not following him down the Big Lie conspiracy rabbit hole enough, saying, “I’m the only candidate out here talking about how the election was stolen from Donald Trump.”   

SITTING ON THE SIDELINES FOR TRUMP. In what should have been a #WaybackWednesday tweet, Jane Timken went after Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance for their record with Trump. She tweeted, “While other candidates sat on the sidelines or hadn’t yet decided to fight for the America First agenda, I was working hard to deliver for President Trump and for Ohio.” Timken is now having to double down on her record with Trump after losing his endorsement because she said Rep. Anthony Gonzalez had a “rational reason” to impeach Trump after the insurrection. 

NEVER TRUMPERS LOVE J.D. VANCE. Josh Mandel continues to find ways to bring up J.D. Vance’s anti-Trump past in the present. In an interview with Newsmax, Mandel said Vance “gets a lot of love from Never Trumpers.” This follows Mandel last week tweeting, “If the election were held today in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and DC, Never-Trumper JD Vance would run away with it. If the election were held today in Ohio he’d get crushed.”

Thanks for reading along – that’s all for the Buckeye Brawl this week. If you have questions, my email is [email protected]. Have a great weekend! 

Columbus, OH — According to Governor Mike DeWine, the largest problem in Ohio this week isn’t even in Ohio. Instead of taking time to do the job he was elected to do and help taxpayers here at home, DeWine left Ohio’s problems behind Wednesday as he headed south to the U.S-Mexico border. It’s an embarrassing political stunt for DeWine, who is doing his best Josh Mandel impression because he’s scared of a primary challenge from a candidate who managed to lose two statewide elections in 2018.

DeWine spent more time in Texas this week pandering to the GOP base than he did looking out for Ohioans. And thanks to his lack of leadership, there are plenty of problems back home in Ohio he should be dealing with, from gerrymandered maps that DeWine voted in favor of, to his son’s refusal to recuse himself from the Supreme Court case involving DeWine’s decision to vote for an unconstitutional map to his own party’s never-ending efforts to pass a bill that handcuffs Ohio businesses and makes Ohioans less healthy and safe from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Mike DeWine’s embarrassing political stunt drags him down to a humiliating level of depravity we’ve come to expect from desperate candidates like Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance. Instead of dealing with the very real issues facing Ohio at home, DeWine is playing politics at the border to placate Republicans who won’t vote for him anyway. It’s a sad end to DeWine’s career,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

###