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House Speaker John Boehner talks with poll workers after voting Tuesday at Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester. Photo by Al Behrman (AP).

Charles Babington of The Associated Press reports:

President Barack Obama’s re-election, coupled with Republicans’ continued hold on the House, gives both parties a chance to rethink, and perhaps undo, the bitter partisanship that has gripped Washington for four years and frustrated Americans who see big problems going unsolved.

It won’t be easy. Both sides claim, with some justification, a mandate from the voters.

“We’ll have as much of a mandate as he will,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said shortly before the election, correctly anticipating the results.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was frostier in his post-election remarks. “The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term,” McConnell said.

“Now it’s time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House,” he said, “and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office.”

After three straight swing elections, Americans decided to keep Obama in the White House, leave Republicans in control of the House and let Democrats stay atop the Senate, with Republicans still able to block measures with filibusters.

There’s an irony, or self-flagellation, there. Americans express exasperation at the partisan sniping and gridlock that pushed the nation to the brink of defaulting on its loans last year, and which might trigger new crises soon. The narrowness of Obama’s win accurately reflects the nation’s nearly 50-50 partisan divide. It’s a split that will make progress on any major issues difficult for at least another two years, and probably longer.

Every newly elected president claims a mandate, and Obama can point to the roughly $1 billion that Mitt Romney and his GOP allies spent trying to oust him. Yet, for all its tactical brilliance, Obama’s campaign was built on relatively modest ideas. It focused on helping the middle class, which is a coalition of identity, not ideology.

It may have been a status quo election. But if the White House and congressional Republicans simply stand their ground on taxes and other issues, they run risks — not just for the nation’s well-being, but also for the legacies of a barrier-breaking president and a Republican Party that has tapped a deep vein of conservative, almost libertarian emotion. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, utler County Election 2012

Sherrod Brown. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

Deirdre Shesgreen reports:

Sen. Sherrod Brown won a second term to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday – fending off a hard-charging, well-funded GOP challenger and more than $30 million in withering attack ads from outside groups in one of the most expensive and closely watched match-ups in the country.

“Today in Ohio, the middle of America, the middle class won,” a jubilant Brown told supporters gathered at the Hilton in downtown Columbus, where the Ohio Democratic Party held its election night celebration.

Brown said the race was “never about me” but about veterans, steelworkers and other hard-working Ohioans who he promised to fight for in Washington.

Josh Mandel. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

Brown’s voice was even more raspy than usual, barely audible over the crowd, which interrupted him with chants of “Sherrod, Sherrod, Sherrod.”

Supporters waved placards with a thick red line through the number $40 million – the amount outside groups spent against Brown in the race, which includes about $30 million in ads and $10 million on billboards, literature and other campaign items.

Brown eventually ceded the microphone to his wife, Connie Schultz, to finish reading his speech.

“They spent more money against Sherrod Brown than any Senate candidate in the history of the United States,” Schultz said of the outside groups. But “these groups they don’t know Ohio.

“They didn’t know that we had tens of thousands of volunteers,” she said. “They didn’t know that Ohioans could not be bought.”

Brown’s victory in Ohio – along with other Democratic wins in Missouri, Virginia and elsewhere – means that Democrats will keep control of the Senate come January. So Brown will return to Washington as part of a triumphant majority, not a vanquished minority.

Brown’s comfortable margin on Tuesday night belied a bruising, expensive and nationally watched race that began nearly two years ago. In the process, Ohioans were subjected to a dizzying 12,000 TV ads trying to influence their vote in the race, and the two candidates shattered spending records. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, utler County Election 2012

Where did the money goin Ohio’s US Senate race?

Deirdre Shesgreen reports:

Any Ohioan who turns on a TV knows that Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Josh Mandel are spending lots on ads to shape the outcome of their super-charged Senate race. Those millions account for just a fraction of their political spending, though, in one of the most expensive Senate contests in the nation.

Brown and Mandel are also blowing through millions of dollars on other campaign expenses – from high-priced pollsters to Cincinnati Reds tickets to a used Jeep Cherokee.

An analysis of 18 months of expenditures by the two candidates offers a glimpse at the eye-popping price tag of modern-day campaigning, the high-tech tools they each deploy, and how easy it is to burn through a fat war chest. Overall, the two candidates have spent nearly $30 million so far this election cycle, making it the fifth most expensive Senate race in terms of spending, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group.

“It’s completely out of the control,” said Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. He said the spending in Ohio and other Senate races is overkill, with the campaigns so flush that their spending on ads and other items have reached the point of diminishing returns.

“They will overdo anything,” Sabato said.

From January 2011 through June 2012, the most recent detailed spending data available, Brown and Mandel spent a combined $12.8 million – nearly $25,000 a day. Their spending is in many ways typical – they’ve both spent gobs of money, for example, on campaign mailers and Washington consultants. Other items are unique, however, offering some insight into the candidates’ different styles and competing strategies. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

Cindi Andrews reports:

Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel – in a debate with incumbent Sherrod Brown that was moderately less snippy than the previous two – reiterated Thursday night that he supports abortion only to save the life of the mother.

“I do respect that people have different positions on this issue,” Mandel said. “One thing I think we can work on is better laws for adoption.”

He accused Brown of supporting abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy, to which the Democrat responded: “That’s the first time I’ve heard that. I’m not aware of that.”

Earlier in the day, Mandel defended Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock in the wake of his comment that pregnancy from rape is “something God intended to happen.”

“He’s a gentleman. He’s a class act,” Mandel said on the Laura Ingraham Show. “He apologized for his comments and I accept that.”

Josh Mandel. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

The campaign has a national profile, as it could help determine whether Democrats retain control of the Senate. Polls taken within the past week show Brown with a lead of 1 to 9 percentage points. Brown started with a double-digit lead but it tightened in recent months as outside groups have made the race one of the most expensive in the nation.

In the first three weeks of October, the race ranked fifth nationally in ad spending, with the two candidates and outside groups combining to spend almost $10 million on more than 12,300 TV ads, according to a report by Kantar Media and the Wesleyan Media Project.

The final Senate debate, co-sponsored by NBC and the AARP and moderated by Chuck Todd, was more controlled and issue-oriented than the first two. For instance, Mandel was asked if he would have supported GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s budget bill, in which a Medicare overhaul figured prominently.

“I don’t have a position on it,” Mandel said. “I will have my own bill to save Medicare when I go to Washington.”

Later Mandel asked Brown: “Senator, where did the money go for Social Security? What did you do with it?” (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

Hiring cronies? Anti-business? Brown, Mandel keep tension high

Deirdre Shesgreen reports:

Sen. Sherrod Brown and state Treasurer Josh Mandel have been sparring about high-stakes policy issues – such as the merits of the auto bailout and who has a better energy policy.

But they’ve also leveled a barrage of accusations at each other in their highly charged contest for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat.

Josh Mandel. Photo by Carrie Cochran.

The race is among those across the country that will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate, and may prove to be the most expensive as Republicans seek to oust Brown.

As the two head into their first debate today, The Enquirer examines facts behind Mandel’s and Brown’s most often-lobbed salvos – along with the political strategy driving their competing charges. We found mostly shades of gray open to interpretation, as is often the case in political advertising and rhetoric.

Was Mandel a no-show at board meetings?

Charge: Brown’s campaign says Mandel is a “serial no-show” at meetings of the Board of Deposit, which he chairs as Ohio’s state treasurer.

Political strategy behind it: This is an effort to paint Mandel as an “empty suit” who is more ambitious than substantive and who is shirking his current job. Brown’s campaign launched this attack early and forcefully, hoping to craft a negative perception of Mandel before the GOP candidate could define himself.

Facts: Mandel has missed 14 of 21 meetings of the Board of Deposits, a three-member body that decides which banks should hold the state’s investments. He has also missed meetings of other boards that he serves on as treasurer.

Mandel has sent a top aide, his general counsel Seth Metcalf, to attend the sessions in his place. Mandel’s predecessor, Democrat Kevin Boyce, missed 13 of 24 meetings during his tenure, according to minutes posted on the Treasurer’s website. Richard Cordray, a Democrat who held the office before Boyce, attended all but one Board of Deposit meeting in 2008.

Mandel’s spokesman, Travis Considine, says the meetings are perfunctory sessions, lasting a few minutes and approving decisions that have already been made. Brown’s spokesman, Justin Barasky, says Mandel’s attendance record illustrates that “the guy doesn’t show up for work.”

Does it matter? There is no evidence that Mandel’s absence from these sessions has had any negative impact on the state’s finances. Earlier this year, for example, Moody’s upgraded Ohio’s credit rating for the first time in almost five years. But the attacks may have taken a toll on Mandel’s image, and the GOP Senate hopeful began attending the Board of Deposit meetings regularly after the press highlighted his absence. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown

Laura A. Bischoff reports

State Treasurer Josh Mandel is eager to take on Democrat Sherrod Brown in the race for U.S. Senate but first Mandel must beat four other Republicans to formally grab the GOP nomination.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel was endorsed by the Tea Party Express the same morning, Feb. 20, 2012, he spoke at Voice of America Park’s Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester. Photo provided.

The five candidates in the Republican primary are an eclectic group: a state treasurer, a retired auto worker, an orthopedic surgeon, a medical researcher and a retiree who gives tours and manages a taxi business on Put-in-Bay in the summer.

None of the five are fans of the federal Affordable Care Act and all of them recognize the need to find ways to bring jobs to Ohioans in the wobbly economy. And each one of them say voters should give them a chance because of their particular experience.

It would take a major upset for any of the four lesser known candidates to knock off Mandel in the primary. Mandel and Brown have been raising the equivalent of $1 million a month for their expected showdown in the general election, which is expected to be one of the most expensive and most watched Senate campaigns in the country.

A poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that Brown leads Mandel 48 percent to 35 percent and 47 percent of voters approve of Brown’s job performance. Seventy-one percent of registered voters report that they don’t know enough about Mandel to have an opinion of him.

‘History tells us there will be a race to define Josh Mandel. The question is who has the most money and is most effective doing it,’said Peter Brown, the poll’s assistant director. ‘Brown’s numbers are good; they’re not great.’ (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Cincinnati Tea Party, David Dodt, Donna Glisman, Eric LaMont Gregory, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Josh Mandel Tea Party, Liberty Township Tea Party, Michael Pryce, Tea Party, Tea Party Express, West Chester Tea Party

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – spoke to local Tea Party activists at Voice of America Park’s Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester Monday. That same morning Mandel received an endorsement from the Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest tea party political action committee.

“It is the focus of the Tea Party Express to take conservative control of the U.S. Senate, and we are proud to announce our endorsement of Treasurer Josh Mandel in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race,” stated Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea Party Express. “Josh is the perfect candidate to replace Sherrod Brown, Washington’s most liberal senator according to National Journal.”

Mandel is the organization’s fourth Senate endorsement this election cycle, according to a release from the Tea Party Express. Other endorsements include Attorney General Jon Bruning in Nebraska, Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana, and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz in Texas.

In a recent story published in The Cincinnati Enquirer, political reporter Howard Wilkinson showed that the Tea Party in Ohio could focus more on electing Mandel and not on which Republican presidential candidate it backs in the primary.

“I think our people are all over the map,’’ said Mike Wilson of Springdale, who, three years ago, founded the Cincinnati Tea Party and is running this year for the Ohio House.

“We haven’t been tremendously impactful in the primaries so far, and it is hard to imagine that we will be in Ohio,’’ said Wilson. “Tea party people aren’t getting around one candidate.”

It could be that the tea party activists who wielded such influence two years ago could turn their attention this year to Ohio’s U.S. Senate race instead of the presidential contest.

Wilson and other tea party activists in the area say that if the Republicans nominate a candidate who doesn’t excite them – Mitt Romney, for example, who is seen as a moderate by many of them – they could end up spending more energy trying to elect Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel – the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination – over Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“I think you will see tea party folks gravitate toward Mandel,’’ said Chris Littleton, a co-founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council, an umbrella group for tea party organizations. “That is a race that could get people excited. And then they vote for Romney or whoever along the way.”

A Mandel vs. Brown race, Wilson said, “might get people excited. Josh has a lot of support among tea party people. He’s got them more excited than any of the presidential candidates at this point.”

Posted in: Election, Government, News, Tea Party |

Tags: Tags: Amy Kremer, Amy Kremer Tea Party, Cincinnati Tea Party, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Josh Mandel Tea Party, Liberty Township Tea Party, Tea Party, Tea Party Express, West Chester Tea Party