Brian Rothenberg recently spoke to AlterNet about Sen. Sherrod Brown, whose progressive, populist stances have made the number-one congressional target for Super PACs:
After hearing all this, it's easy to agree with Sherrod Brown when he says that his race wouldn't be a race at all without the millions in outside spending. In addition to his solid support within the state, there's the matter of his evasive opponent, Josh Mandel, who seems to have spent his time as Treasurer doing little besides campaigning for the Senate. Called a "Cartoon Candidate [13]" by the Akron Beacon Journal, Mandel's recent greatest hits include calling the auto bailout "un-American," skipping work to fly to the Bahamas for a fundraiser with the payday lending industry, and joining Mitt Romney for an event purportedly in support of the coal industry--where coal miners were forced to attend, unpaid, to provide a photo-op for the Republicans.
Mandel's campaign, like Romney's, seems perfectly comfortable with flat-out lies, earning a "Pants on Fire Crown" from fact-checker Politifact Ohio. "In Ohio we have a candidate whose lack of maturity and lack of respect for the process is appalling," Rothenberg said. "A lot of people are complaining that it's the nameless faceless money that is saying and doing these things. You see these Senate candidates that actually are distancing themselves from those rough commercials, but in the case of Josh Mandel he's leading the charge."
Brown has already faced an estimated $15 million in outside spending in his race.
