Six years after endorsing Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in his 2006 campaign against Sherrod Brown, The Akron Beacon Journal endorsed Sherrod this weekend, convincingly articulating the clear choice between Brown, who is fighting every day to grow Ohio’s middle class, and Josh Mandel, a politician who simply can’t be trusted.

The Beacon Journal calls Sherrod a “determined champion of the middle class” who is leading the fight in Washington on issues that matter most to Ohioans, issues like manufacturing and jobs.

“Six years ago, this editorial page recommended the re-election of Mike DeWine to the U.S. Senate. We noted that the Republican incumbent had built a record of working across the aisle, often in aiding the poor and vulnerable, even in taking up the problem of climate change. DeWine lost in a year that heavily favored Democrats.

 

Sherrod Brown won, soon moving to the other side of Capitol Hill, from the House to the Senate. How well has he performed? This editorial page long has shared many policy positions with Brown, and engaged in some vigorous arguments. Hard to miss about his first term as a senator has been his hard work and leadership, his attention to what matters for Ohioans, from manufacturing and jobs to health care and farming (the first Ohioan on the Senate Agriculture Committee in four decades).

 

At a time of widening income inequality and a struggling economy, Brown sees himself as a determined champion of the middle class. The portrayal has substance.

Secretly-funded special interest groups have spent more money attacking Sherrod than they’ve spent against any other senate candidate in the country. As the endorsement notes, there’s a reason they’ve now spent $18 million on false, negative ads that lie about Sherrod and distort his record – Sherrod’s a strong voice for Ohio, not the special interests bankrolling Mandel.

As it is, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other weighty players have set out to remove Brown from the Senate, pouring roughly $17 million into ads pounding the senator. (Know, too, the donors are not disclosed.) The distortions are vast. One accused Brown of being a “career politician.” And Mitch McConnell isn’t? Another insisted Brown is anti-business. Not if you consider the full record.

 

In targeting Brown, these interests prove revealing, all that money suggesting the senator truly does bring a valuable voice to the Senate, one that conveys the indispensable role government plays in improving our collective lives, that speaks to the frustration of stagnating incomes, that takes up the task of afflicting the comfortable.

Finally, as the Beacon Journal notes, Josh Mandel has refused to discuss issues in any detail, he’s blown off billion-dollar investment meetings and he’s a politician who can’t be trusted.

He isn’t ready for the job. It is apparent in his shallow positions, mostly the usual talking points of the far right, in his sparse record at the Statehouse, in the approach of a campaign that gets caught telling whoppers and then proceeds to say it will keep doing so. …

 

Mandel would have done well to focus on completing a term as treasurer and then see what the political future holds. He might have started by attending Board of Deposit meetings, the panel the treasurer chairs, where Mandel frequently has been absent.

Read the complete endorsement HERE.