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GOP Senate candidate blasted over negative auto-bailout remarks
YOUNGSTOWN
State legislators from the Mahoning Valley and United Auto Workers union members at the General Motors Lordstown complex criticized Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, for saying he “respectfully disagreed” that the federal bailout saved the auto industry.
The legislators and UAW members said that without U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a fellow Democrat being challenged in the November general election by Mandel, leading the charge, the American auto industry would have collapsed.
The comments were made at a Thursday press conference at the Mahoning County Democratic Party headquarters on Mahoning Avenue. The event was coordinated by the Ohio Democratic Party.
“If it wasn’t for Sen. Brown, we wouldn’t have our jobs,” said Elizabeth Warren of North Jackson, an 18-year employee at the GM Lords-town plant and Brown’s invited guest to the president’s State of the Union address in January.
Brown was a vocal proponent of the $82 billion government bailout of GM and Chrysler in 2009. GM earned $7.6 billion, its largest profit ever, in 2011, two years after the bailout. The Chevrolet Cruze is made at the Lordstown complex.
In a March 2 article in The Vindicator, Mandel said he is developing a plan to “rescue the auto industry.”
When asked about the bailout, Mandel said, “I’m not saying the bailout didn’t work” but added that he “respectfully disagreed” that it saved the auto industry.
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, said without Brown’s vocal support of the auto bailout, the plant would be closed.
The politicians and UAW workers also criticized the three top Republican presidential candidates — Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — who have said taxpayer assistance to the auto industry was unnecessary, and it would have been better to let GM and Chrysler go through normal bankruptcy proceedings.