Salon.com > Josh Mandel

Republican Senate candidate’s family slams his anti-gay beliefs

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:40:00 +0000

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel wants to reinstate "don't ask, don't tell," says marriage equality would undermine “the sanctity of marriage,” and voted against a bill to extend employment non-discrimination protections to gay people. This has earned him criticism from gay rights activists, and also, now, his own relatives.

Mandel's wife's cousins took out an ad in the Cleveland Jewish News to publish their open letter blasting Mandel for his anti-gays views. Nine of his relatives signed onto the missive, most of them from the Ratner family, a prominent Jewish family in Cleveland into which Mandel married. "Your discriminatory stance violates these core values of our family," they wrote.

Dems just might win the Senate

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Six months ago, liberals were preparing for the worst. After a winter of fast growth, the economy had begun to slow down and unemployment had begun to creep back up. Mitt Romney was close behind in the race for the White House, and there was little indication that President Obama could pull ahead and win. And the Senate, a stronghold for Democrats over the last six years, looked vulnerable.

For most of the last eighteen months, the conventional wisdom on congressional elections was straightforward: Due to large majorities, Republicans would hold onto their House majority, and bolster it with a slim majority in the Senate. It wasn’t hard to see why; of the 33 contested seats this year, 21 belonged to Democrats and two were held by Independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders.

GOP’s rape insanity is the norm

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:34:00 +0000

With all of the excitement attending the recent comments of Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, that a pregnancy conceived in rape is “a gift from God,” much of the political class is shaking its collective head at the refusal of presidential candidate Mitt Romney to revoke his endorsement of Mourdock -- or at least to pull his endorsement ad for the former state treasurer from the Hoosier state airwaves. What they’ve missed is the fact that, in the Republican Party of today, Mourdock’s position is the new normal.

Even Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, held a no-exceptions abortion stance -- at least until Romney, who would allow exceptions for rape and incest, elevated him to the national ticket. As reported by TPM:

In Ohio, Mandel’s Senate bid faces Dems’ scrutiny

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:35:00 +0000

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Josh Mandel drew murmurs of approval from a dozen or so Republicans as he delivered a quick rundown on the budget and energy, and plenty of laughs as the U.S. Senate candidate joked about his boyish appearance.

"I look 19 years old," the 35-year-old Mandel said. "Twenty," yelled one woman at the small gathering on East Main Street in the heart of southern Ohio's Ross County. Adding to the levity, Mandel riffed on what year he'll be shaving.

For all the good-natured ribbing, this is serious business for Republicans, underscored by a sign on the wall at the GOP storefront — "We need your help taking back America" — as well as the placards along a winding stretch of U.S. 23 south of Chillicothe that urge Ohioans to "Vote Josh Mandel, Change Washington."

Mandel barely had moved into the state treasurer's office after his November 2010 win before he was running against first-term Sen. Sherrod Brown, a populist Democrat facing strong Republican headwinds statewide. With Ohio the ultimate battleground prize in the presidential election, the fate of the Senate candidates is linked closely to President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney. Four weeks out, polls show Obama and Brown with an edge.

GOP’s absentee candidate

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Earlier this year, Ohio’s Republican State Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is currently locked in a heated bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, got in trouble for skipping meetings of a three-member commission he chairs. He attended his first meeting of the Board of Deposit, which determines which banks hold the state’s public monies, in March after the AP and other news organizations reported he had skipped the previous 14 meetings. During one meeting in late January, Mandel was instead attending a $2,000 a ticket breakfast fundraiser in Washington, D.C.

Did GOP Senate hopeful bilk treasury?

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:22:00 +0000

As the presidential candidates make tax policy personal, the same thing is happening in Ohio, where Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign is accusing his Republican challenger, Josh Mandel, of bilking the same state treasury he runs. As Mandel ran for state treasurer in 2010, he classified at least nine of his senior staffers as independent contractors instead of full-time employees, according to campaign finance disclosures reviewed by Salon, which allowed him to forgo paying some taxes to the state and the IRS.

Classifying workers as contractors instead of employees gives employers more flexibility and lower costs, as there’s no legal requirement for them to provide health benefits or withhold payroll (Social Security) and Medicare taxes. Contractors are supposed to have their own businesses and provide discrete skills, but that norm is often abused by employers who fill positions at lower costs that should be occupied by full-time employees. Employment law prohibits misclassification, and employers who engage in it with “no reasonable basis for doing so ... may be held liable for employment taxes for that worker,” according to the IRS.