“Quitter,” “Johnny Come Lately”, And “A Trail Of Destruction”: How Republicans Spent The Week Attacking Their #OHSEN Candidates
October 1, 2021
October 1, 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:
NOEM, ON TIMKEN’S BEHALF, CALLED MANDEL A “QUITTER.” Stumping on Timken’s behalf, Noem went after Mandel, saying she doesn’t “want a quitter in the United States Senate” and that “we need leaders that don’t want the job so bad that they don’t do the job.” Noem attacking Mandel continues the Timken trend of enlisting her allies to go directly after Mandel. Last month, Timken ally Bernard Kerik attacked Mandel, tweeting, “Josh Mandel is the definition of a fraud” and didn’t stop there, tweeting, “You [Mandel] were anti-Trump then, and faking it today. You need to stop.” It sure seems like this trend of Timken allies lambasting Mandel isn’t dying any time soon.
MANDEL “LEAVING A TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION.” In a Jewish Insider interview, Dolan took a direct shot at Josh Mandel, saying, “And I have been very successful…without leaving a trail of destruction of personalities behind me.” When asked to clarify if he’s attacking Mandel, he said, “Yeah. I think tone and rhetoric is not a substitute for results and good policy.” Well, then!
FAILING TO PUT OHIO FIRST. In the same Jewish Insider interview, millionaire Matt Dolan took a shot at the rest of the GOP Senate field, saying, “my opponents all failed the very first test — that they’re going to follow politics before they follow what’s in the best interest of Ohio.” Dolan’s comments are just the latest example of Ohio Republicans running for Senate continuing to attack each other at all costs to win this crowded primary.
WHO’S A JOHNNY COME LATELY? On the Ruthless podcast, Timken took a shot at J.D. Vance and Josh Mandel when she said, “I’m not a Johnny come lately, I didn’t just show up.” J.D. Vance had not been involved in politics before his own senate race. And after Josh Mandel questioned Timken’s loyalty to Trump, Timken allies fired back at Mandel saying he “sat on the sidelines throughout the toughest times of Trump’s presidency” and that “like the career politician he is, Mandel only spoke out when it benefited himself – during another run for office.”
MILLIONAIRE FAMILY FEUD, PART TWO. Upon his entry into the Senate primary, Matt Dolan was greeted with a millionaire family feud from Bernie Moreno. Last week, Moreno revealed that he offered $1 billion to Matt Dolan’s family in order to prevent the name change of the family’s baseball team. Dolan fired back and alleged the offer never happened, saying, “It’s not true, so I don’t know why Bernie would decide to say that. You’re going to have to talk to Bernie as to why he thinks he made an offer.” I guess these Republican Senate candidates are so wealthy they forget if they have offered someone $1 billion or not. It’s an honest mistake.
WHO’S REALLY CONSERVATIVE? Mike Gibbons went after J.D. Vance for his showboating Fox News appearance where he called for revoking the tax-exempt status of the Ford Foundation saying, “This isn’t conservative.” Well, as we all know Vance’s political positions change by the day, and this field of Republicans won’t let him get away with it.
THE NEVER TRUMP COASTAL ELITE CANDIDATE. Josh Mandel went after J.D. Vance for his Silicon Valley and Hollywood past, 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.” Mandel is keeping up the Never Trump drumbeat, calling out Vance saying, ”CNN and J.D. Vance are Never-Trumpers of the worst kind.”
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!