Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Josh Mandel Courts Anti-Middle Class Businesses that Supported SB 5???


 My post over at Stubbornliberal was about how Josh Mandel appeared to be visiting businesses that supported SB 5 (Issue 2).

The MorningJournal noted another campaign stop by Ohio roaming Treasurer, Josh Mandel:


...Mandel visited Beckett Corp. in North Ridgeville and praised the third generation family-owned company as a business that embodies “the backbone of Ohio’s economy.”
In case you might not know, the Beckett family apparently contributes to the Republican Party.  Also a Kevin Beckett was a contributor to the pro-SB 5 campaign in Ohio (see page 22 at the StateImpact contributors to pro-SB 5 Building a Better Ohio group).

Josh Mandel visited Exhibit Concepts last week where he campaigned.  Interesting thing is, the president of Exhibit Concepts, Kelli Glasser, is also listed as a contributor to the
pro-SB 5/Building a Better Ohio (anti-labor) group. (See StateImpact list of the 996 people that donated to Building A Better Ohio.)

(Note:  The list of contributors to the Building a Better Ohio campaign (the anti-labor, anti-police, anti-teacher, anti-firefighter, anti-workers' rights, pro-SB 5) is posted at State Impact is arranged by alphabetical order of the first name of the contributor. You can also see the list of contributors HERE.)

•••  Update tonight:
In a Twitpic that Republican Josh Mandel posted while he toured businesses in Ohio, Mandel mentioned that he had visited the Shelly Co. in Copley, Ohio.  Shelly Co. is part of Oldcastle Materials. It just so happens that in a press release at Oldcastle Materials,

 Donald Holt is listed as a representative of Shelly Co. under a picture for a conservation award.   A "Donald Holt" is also listed as a contributor to the pro-SB 5 (Issue 2), Building A Better Ohio campaign (see State Impact for list of contributors).

Josh Mandel also visited Delta Systems on his tour (instead of going to work in the Treasurer's office).  Delta Systems is listed as a contributor to the pro-SB 5 (Issue 2).

It is pretty brave of Josh Mandel to go visit anti-middle class business owners, don't you think?
--------------------------------

***  ***  This just in from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, has returned $105,000 in campaign donations to 21 employees at a North Canton direct-marketing firm following reports that federal investigators sought records about contributions he and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci received from the company.....
....Justin Barasky, spokesman for Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, said he suspected all along there was something wrong with the donations. 

"Josh Mandel is a politician who can't be trusted," Barasky said, "and the fact he has been shamed into returning $105,000 in illegal contributions only after an FBI investigation became public goes right along with hiring unqualified political cronies and missing every single board of deposit meeting his first year in office." 

The election is months away but Josh Mandel just seems to keep getting into trouble.