Tomorrow is Election Day

 

Tomorrow is Election Day.  Cleveland.com has a useful round-up of who/what’s on your ballot, with links to polling places, congressional districts and the like; click here. 

In what is probably the most contentious Ohio primary race, that of a Republican candidate to run for Rob Portman’s US Senate seat in the general, the various liberty groups in Ohio are all over the place.  Some prefer Josh Mandel, others prefer Mike Gibbons, and then Donald Trump endorsed JD Vance; this blog previously linked (click here) to Ohio Gun Owners’ “red alert” on Vance’s history of associations with globalists and Big Tech.  

Whatever your choices, just be sure to vote tomorrow!

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President Trump is considering endorsing . . . JD Vance ???

Mike Gibbons is running for Rob Portman’s US Senate seat.  So is J.D. Vance, who is running as a "conservative outsider."  "Outsider," ok.  But "conservative"?  Here’s what candidate Mike Gibbons has to say about Vance:

My bumbling opponent JD Vance has shown how incompetent he is. In a recent tweet, he called for America to abolish the electoral college!

In advocating for France’s national popular voting system, J.D. Vance not only called for automatic voter registration and proxy voting—which would gut the integrity of our elections—but for one-party rule by the same coastal elites that he worked side by side with his entire adult life.

Your representative should understand our election process so they can work to ensure their integrity. I do, but obviously, Vance doesn’t.

Vance’s comments showcase his disregard for our electoral system, his lack of understanding of how to secure our elections, and how he is clearly not ready to take on the many constitutional issues faced in the U.S. Senate.

The Electoral College shouldn’t be abolished. Our elections need protection!

This blog posted earlier on why President Trump’s controversial endorsement of Dr. Oz makes some sense; click here.  However, I do hope he does not endorse Vance.

Bad news.  According to the American Greatness blog, President Trump is considering doing just that.

BTW, click here for Mr. Gibbons’s recent column in the Washington Examiner on the subject of China.

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Update on US Senate primary: Mike Gibbons

 

Good news via cleveland.com:

While he didn’t enter the race with the highest profile, Cleveland-area businessman Mike Gibbons is showing signs of emerging as a top-tier candidate in Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.

Short report here. Earlier CTP post on RINO Josh Mandel is here.

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Mike Gibbons door-to-door event

 

Cleveland Tea Party does not generally endorse primary candidates, but thus far, Mandel, Vance, and Timken seem like more-of-the-same RINO candidates.  So I am posting this announcement from the Mike Gibbons campaign:

Super Saturday Event

DATE : Saturday March 5 - 10 am

10am - Door to Door in the Middleburg Heights area along the Grand Opening of the office

Meet at our Cleveland Office

7566 Pearl Rd

Middleburg Heights, OH 44130

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UPDATE: Mike Gibbons, candidate for U.S. Senate

 

Mike Gibbons 

Kate Scanlon at The Washington Examiner has an update on the upcoming Ohio primary for U.S. Senate: 

Businessman Mike Gibbons is rising in early polls of Ohio’s crowded Republican Senate primary, and he is seeking to introduce himself to voters as the pro-Trump candidate in the race, according to a new advertisement campaign he will launch Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman, but several Republican candidates are actively courting that endorsement in a race that has largely been driven by the candidates’ level of fealty to Trump. Author J.D. Vance recently promoted an endorsement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial freshman lawmaker from Georgia who is a close ally of Trump.

A pair of polls showed Gibbons making significant gains with voters in recent days. One internal campaign poll showed him in the lead with 23%, with Josh Mandel, the former Ohio treasurer and the party’s 2012 Senate nominee, trailing him at 10.8%. An independent poll from Co/Efficient also found Gibbons in the lead but with Mandel in closer proximity.

Read more here.  This primary race is important, and one of my concerns is that at least one Ohio liberty group is endorsing Josh Mandel.  I posted a few months ago on why I think Mandel is not a good choice for Ohio (“Josh Mandel Just Another Dishonest RINO” ~ click here).  I would expect him to be no different than Rob Portman in office.  

Check out Mike Gibbons's website here. 

Mr. Mandel with William Kristol.  Not a good look. 

Mr. Mandel’s early fund-raising letter attempted to brand him as a Trump-supporter.  After what I infer was some push-back, a subsequent fund-raiser instead piggy-backed on the “America First” slogan:

Anybody fooled?  

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Josh Mandel: just another dishonest RINO

 

Josh Mandel and William Kristol.  Photo credit: wksu.org

This latest report from BigLeaguePolitics --

"Ohio Senate Candidate Josh Mandel Pocketed Donations Intended for 2018 GOP Nominee, Paid Tens of Thousands to Mistress"

-- will come as no surprise to readers of this blog, although it is of concern that an Ohio liberty group has endorsed Mandel's candidacy for the US Senate seat presently held by RINO Rob Portman.  Richard Moorhead reports:

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel paid tens of thousands of dollars to a woman he was dating during his 2018 Senate campaign, while married to another woman.

FEC reports show that Rachel Wilson, Mandel’s finance director and mistress, was paid more than $100,000 between his 2018 campaign and a PAC supporting his candidacy.

. . .

Three dozen Republican women, including three women who left Mandel’s campaign citing a toxic work environment created by Wilson in her continuing duties with Mandel’s 2020 campaign, have urged Ohio Republicans to reject Mandel, warning he’ll “embarrass” the party if nominated as a candidate for the US Senate.  Mandel has run for statewide office five times in the past 12 years, with some Ohio Republicans criticizing Mandel, who has served in elected office since 2003, as a career politician who’ll put on the act he needs to in pursuit of the next political gig.

. . .

Questions of Mandel’s ethics go beyond his financial arrangements with his girlfriend while he was married to another woman. Mandel broke onto the scene of national politics as a protege of war criminal Bill Kristol, handpicked as an instrument to advance the nefarious neoconservative’s political views in the United States Senate in an ultimately failed 2012 campaign against Sherrod Brown. Kristol, an advocate of Middle East regime change wars Donald Trump partly ran against in 2016, had recruited Mandel as a candidate in Ohio’s 2012 US Senate election to challenge Sherrod Brown.

Read the full – ugly - report here.  Mr. Mandel says all the right things in front of the camera, but he is obviously just another self-serving hack.  Candidate Mike Gibbons looks better and better.

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Another GOP running for Portman’s Senate Seat in Ohio

 

Andrew J. Tobias at cleveland.com reports:

Republican Ohio Sen. Matt Dolan has changed his campaign materials from saying he’s exploring running for the U.S. Senate to actually doing it..

. . .

Dolan would enter a crowded field of five other well-funded, established contenders, including three from Cuyahoga County, plus several more lower-profile candidates. Dolan would be unique as the only candidate to have created daylight between himself and former President Donald Trump, who continues to hold a dominating presence over Republican politics despite losing the November election. Following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Dolan tweeted that the event was a “failure of leadership starting with @realdonaldtrump.”

He’s just lost me.

“Too many so called leaders perpetuated lies about the outcome of the November 2020 election. And the people who trust their leadership believes them. Real leaders lead not manipulate. Truth matters,” Dolan said in the January tweet.

. . .

Only one other Republican candidate, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, has previously held office. Three higher-profile candidates -- author and venture capitalist JD Vance, former Ohio Republican Party chairman Jane Timken and car dealer Bernie Moreno -- are first-time candidates. And Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons has never held office, but ran and lost in the 2018 U.S. Senate primary.

The field may be crowded, but the declared candidates are mostly wannabees who pretend to be Trump supporters.  So far, I am still looking at Mike Gibbons.  It is too bad he does not have better name recognition.

Full article by Tobias is here.

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Rand Paul endorses Mike Gibbons

Our household gets regular emails from Sen. Rand Paul (we are on lots of mailing lists).  Whether you like him or not, Sen. Paul has certainly been stepping up to the plate in challenging Anthony Fauci, especially on gain-of-function research on the Wuhan virus and the ties between Fauci and the Wuhan lab.  Here's Sen. Paul's message:

Only one thing is stopping Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer from implementing their radical agenda - our hold on the Senate. 

They are already plotting their 2022 election plans to expand their majority...

Fortunately, my friend Mike Gibbons could foil all of their plans. 

Mike Gibbons is running for Senate in an open seat in Ohio that Biden and Harris DESPERATELY need to win if they wish to keep the Senate in 2022. 

 

ANNOUNCEMENT: I am personally endorsing my friend, Mike Gibbons, for Senate in Ohio! Please rush a donation of $20.22, $50, $100, or even more to his campaign today!

I am personally endorsing Mike Gibbons because he is fighting for our shared values and he is a man of principle. 

• Putting an END to Critical Race Theory and cancel culture
• Fighting for an America-First agenda
• Securing our borders 
• Standing up for the Second Amendment and for the rights of the unborn

You know what I like most about Mike Gibbons? He is not a politician and has worked hard all of his life and achieved the American Dream. 

Growing up, he had a paper route. Later, he operated a bandsaw on a factory floor in Ohio. He poured concrete. He sacrificed and worked hard to create a livelihood and provide for his family. 

It wasn’t until age 37 he opened up his own business above a dentist’s office. Since then, Mike Gibbons has achieved success beyond his wildest dreams. 

Now, he’s decided to run for Senate to fight for the Bill of Rights, an America-First agenda, and for liberty.

What’s at stake? The left is attempting to rewrite American history, silence our voices, and control our schools. 

The reality is I need back up in the U.S. Senate against Biden and his cronies to stop this madness.

Sen. Paul then makes another fund-raising pitch for Mr. Gibbons, and should you be interested in looking into Mr. Gibbons's campaign, click here.

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Josh Mandel or Mike Gibbons for U.S. Senate ?

 

This blog previously reported on two candidates for the U.S. Senate, Jane Timken and Josh Mandel – to replace retiring RINO Rob Portman.  Both campaigns are attempting to run on President Trump’s coat-tails.  This was the envelope containing the first solicitation from Mandel's campaign a month or two ago:

Apparently the Mandel campaign has now backed off, as Mr. Trump’s name does not appear in his most recent solicitation, which our household received last week. But instead of having Trump’s name (and implied endorsement) on the envelope, look at what’s at the top of his letterhead:

"America First" appears prominently --  twice -- on President Trump’s office website here. 

Some Ohio liberty groups are endorsing Mandel. Cleveland Tea Party traditionally does not state a preference until after the primary, but prior to the primary, we would not support Mr. Mandel’s candidacy; see also here. We’re still looking at Mike Gibbons.

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Josh Mandel's Senate campaign: not a good look

 

American Greatness has the update:

More Trouble For Josh Mandel:
Fundraising Staff Quits Over “Toxic Environment”
Created By Staffer Mandel Is Dating 

As the Republican senate primary in Ohio heats up, there’s more trouble for candidate Josh Mandel. Several women working on his campaign fundraising team have quit citing a “toxic environment” created by the fundraising director Rachel Wilson. Campaign manager, Scott Guthrie, says that the Mandel and Wilson have been dating since August, 2020.

Mandel is still fielding awkward questions arising from a messy divorce last year. The divorce was settled some time in 2020 (Mandel had the record sealed by the court) so it’s unclear if Mandel was dating Wilson while he was still married to his former wife, Ilana Shafran Mandel. Either way, women on his finance staff say that working for his girlfriend was untenable.

. . .

The report concludes:

Mandel’s base of support has been with social conservatives especially in northeast Ohio around Cleveland. Many have already had enough and have aligned with other candidates. The combination of a rolling series of personal problems – many believe that the problems that led to his divorce were behind him dropping out of the senate race in 2018 – and fundraising staff leaving en masse only complicate matters for Mandel in a competitive race.

Full report is here.  This blog has previously posted on Mr. Mandel and candidates Jane Timken and Mike Gibbons, here, here, and here.

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Mike Gibbons will run for Portman's Senate seat

 

Earlier this week, Cleveland.com published Seth A. Richardson’s story about Mike Gibbons, who is running for Rob Portman’s Senate seat.  It begins:

Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland investment banker and real estate developer, announced Tuesday he would again run for Senate after unsuccessfully pursuing the office in 2018.

Gibbons becomes the fourth Republican to officially enter the 2022 race to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who announced in January he wouldn’t seek a third term. Gibbons has never held elected office, but ran for Senate in 2018 in an attempt to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, losing in the primary to Republican President Donald Trump’s hand-picked choice, then-Rep. Jim Renacci.

“I’m running for Senate because we need to get our economy back on track,” Gibbons said in a statement. “We need to rein in runaway federal spending. We need to secure our borders, stand for life, and defend our 2nd Amendment rights.”

Gibbons, a Cleveland native who grew up in Parma, is the senior managing director of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, a Cleveland investment firm. He’s been active serving on boards in the community as well as in Ohio Republican politics, including as Ohio finance co-chair for Trump’s 2016 campaign.

. . .

Read the rest here.  It would be nice if Ohio did not replace RINO Portman with another establishment GOP – such as Josh Mandel or Jane Timken. 

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Trump’s meeting with four Ohio GOP Senate candidates

 

John L. Dorman at Yahoo News reports:

• Trump had an "Apprentice"-like meeting with four Ohio GOP Senate candidates.
• The candidates all did their best to prove their loyalty to the former president.
• A potential endorsement from Trump could give a candidate an enormous edge among GOP voters.

Former President Donald Trump may be far from his old New York boardroom, but on Wednesday he gave four Ohio GOP Senate candidates the type of grilling famously depicted on his long-running reality television series "The Apprentice," according to Politico.

Before a fundraiser at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump had the candidates - former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, former state GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken, investment banker Mike Gibbons, and businessman Bernie Moreno - sit together for a backroom meeting.

The four Republicans are set to run for Ohio's open Senate seat in 2022, which will be vacated by two-term GOP Sen. Rob Portman at the end of his term.

The candidates were all in Florida to attend the event for Max Miller, a Trump-backed candidate who is seeking to unseat GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzalez in a primary and win the general election in Ohio's heavily-Republican 16th Congressional District.

RELATED:  Via Breitbart: Exclusive — China Outsourcing from the Timken Company Complicates Jane Timken’s Senate Bid in Ohio

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How about Mike Gibbons

Rob Portman is not running for re-election in the U.S. Senate. Cleveland Tea Party's Ralph King posts:

Let the swamp games will begin! 

We need a good guy like Mike Gibbons at the top of the list to run for this seat -- not an establishment swamp retread like Slickster Jim Renacci or Ohio's Happy Hypocrite Jon Husted running for this seat.

More about Mr. Gibbons here. 

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Catching up on last week’s news: Mike Gibbons running for U.S. Senate

map image credit: cleveland.com 

Last week, Jeremy Pelzer at cleveland.com reported (h/t Ralph King):

COLUMBUS, Ohio--U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons was endorsed by the Franklin County Republican Party on Wednesday by an overwhelming margin, giving the Cleveland-area businessman a high-profile win in his underdog bid to snatch the GOP nomination from Treasurer Josh Mandel.

The county party's central committee vote was 85-16, according to Gibbons. It's the first time Gibbons has been endorsed by a county party; the Cuyahoga County GOP previously endorsed Mandel.

Read the rest here. Mr. Gibbons's website is here.

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