Rivalry heats up between Mandel and Vance

SANDUSKY — The Democratic race for Senate isn't very exciting so far, but Republicans are engaged in a lively contest. For example, despite Ronald Reagan's "11th commandment" not to speak ill of fellow Republicans, it looks like at least one GOP candidate is trimming the 11 commandments to the original 10. The candidate who leads in the polls, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, launched a strident personal attack on Twitter against J.D. Vance, one his challengers. Describing Vance's career, Mandel wrote on Twitter on Aug. 30, "Step 1: Abandon hometown. "Step 2: Profit off of crapping on hometown and calling people from there racists. "Step 3: Return from silicon valley to start nonprofit to 'save' hometown from opioids. "Step 4: Take the money from the nonprofit and use it for political campaign." Mandel then linked to a tweet from Toledo Blade political reporter Liz Skalka criticizing Vance's Our Ohio Renewal nonprofit. While Vance's nonprofit apparently isn't above criticism, Mandel's tweet appears to be mocking Vance for successfully emerging from a broken home and an underprivileged background then writing a bestselling memoir about it, "Hillbilly Elegy." Vance's spokesman, Taylor Van Kirk, had no comment on Mandel's tweet and said Vance's campaign is focusing on issues. "While others may have different priorities, JD is focused on the issues Ohioans care about, like solving the southern border crisis and stopping the Democrat plan for mass amnesty in Congress, breaking up woke Big Tech monopolies that censor conservative ideas, ending the record inflation we're seeing and bringing back manufacturing jobs from overseas," Van Kirk said. "That's why so many America First conservatives are uniting around his outsider campaign to shake up Washington," Van Kirk added. Vance has concentrated in recent weeks on announcing endorsements, particularly from officials associated with Donald Trump. On Wednesday, for example, he announced the endorsement of Robert Lighthizer, U.S. trade representative in the Trump administration. "JD will advocate for our working class and work to rebuild our country's industrial base by continuing President Trump's America First foreign policy that renegotiated trade deals and held big corporations accountable," Lighthizer said. The press release announcing the endorsement mentions Trump's name five times. Ronald Reagan, the main Republican icon before Trump, popularized the "11th Commandment," "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican" during his 1966 campaign for governor, although the Gipper was not always able to live up to that ideal. Mandel may be targeting Vance because he appears to be the biggest threat to Mandel's frontrunner status. An early August poll by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates of 800 likely Republican voters showed Mandel slipping from 25% in April to 21% in July and Vance going from 6% to 12% during the same time period. Other candidates such as Jane Timken and Bernie Moreno are in single digits so far. Mandel has publicized his campaign with a series of lively and sometimes controversial Tweets. On July 31, he wrote, "The last letters in Democrat: RAT "The last letters in Republican: I CAN "That should tell you everything you need to know." Mandel's tweet was mocked by many on Twitter. On Twitter, conservative pundit Richard Hanania pointed to Mandel's "RAT" Tweet and wrote, "My advice to Republicans: an IQ above room temperature should be a prerequisite for your politicians. You may disagree with JD Vance, but he may come around to your view, while a dumb person isn't going to get smarter." Mandel states in his Twitter biography he is "Censored by Twitter & Facebook." He also claims to be the first statewide official in Ohio to back Trump. Meanwhile, Democrats have two main candidates so far, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and Morgan Harper, who ran for the U.S. House in Columbus in 2020. Both have stuck so far to emphasizing their issues rather than attacking rivals. Ryan campaigned in Perkins Township in July, pledging to "rebuild the middle class." Harper says in her Twitter biography, "I fight corporate power," and says she is running to represent working people in Ohio.