A pro-troop political action committee has endorsed a former Marine in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio.
Move America Forward Freedom PAC has endorsed State Treasurer Josh Mandel (R), who is trying to unseat one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, Democrat Sherrod Brown. In the latest compilation of polls by RealClearPolitics, Mandel trails the incumbent by almost an eight-percent margin, though one poll by Gravis Marketing only shows Brown up by one point.
Debbie Lee, whose son was the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq, is a spokeswoman for MAFPAC. She points out that Mandel served eight years in the Marines, including two tours in Iraq.
"Those are the kind of leaders that we need in Congress. When we looked back in the '70s, we had a huge portion of our Congress that was prior vets who had served," she recalls. "And now, the percentage is so low, and we find that when there are situations we get into foreign policy issues, they don't have that direct experience to be able to make those wise decisions ... And Josh Mandel does have that. He has experience. He's been a proven leader."
Meanwhile, Lee says she does not trust polls.
"The polls that are coming out seem to be so biased by the media," she observes. "I'm hearing tons of people who have said they voted for Obama the last election, and that's not who they're voting for this time … So, I'm not putting a lot of credibility into those polls."
If Mandel is elected, the MAFPAC spokeswoman asserts he will not back down from the tough fights in the Senate because he has faced and fought tougher challenges on the battlefield.