Josh Mandel Wants to be a Senator. If Only He Could Get His In-laws to Donate. (Brown's opponent)

Josh Mandel, the 34-year-old Ohio State Treasurer and Republican Senate candidate, is a nice Jewish boy from a nice Jewish family. His grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. His father, a lawyer, was active in the Jewish Federation, and Mandel grew up playing softball for the Cleveland JCC. His wife, Ilana, works for the Cleveland Hillel. On the campaign trail, he plays the part. “When he speaks to the Jewish community, he talks about his Bubbe,” one Ohio Jewish voter actively involved in the state’s Jewish politics, told me.

For Republicans, this is all very good news. Real Clear Politics recently placed Democratic incumbent, Sherrod Brown, ahead of Mandel by a measly three points. Though Ohio’s 150,000 Jewish voters make up just 1.3 percent of the state’s electorate, they are a crucial part of the Democratic base. (Brown won 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2006.) If Republicans shave off even just a small portion of those votes, it would be, in the words of Matt Brooks, director of the national Republican Jewish Coalition, “A big win.”

What should be even better news is that Mandel married into one of Ohio’s preeminent Jewish families, the Ratners—a Jewish clan so dynastic, the Cleveland Plain Dealer once published their family tree. But his extended family has been somewhat less than supportive; indeed the Ratners are longtime supporters and fundraisers for Democratic causes. Ronald Ratner, a cousin of Ilana’s father and an executive for Forest City, the Ratner family’s national real estate company, hosted a lunch for Obama in his home last year that was attended by the vice president. Dan Ratner, another cousin, works on the Obama campaign’s technology team. Michael Ratner, a human rights attorney in New York, is defending Julian Assange, and his brother, Bruce, the owner-developer of the Barclay Center arena—the new home to the Brooklyn Nets—has donated to his cousin in-law’s opponent’s campaign. In fact, according to FEC filings, as many as 19 members of the extended Ratner clan have poured close to $80,000 into Brown’s reelect.

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Ultimately, Mandel’s success or failure will have less to do with his family or his attendance at shul, and more to do with what comes out of his mouth. “He dresses nice. He makes a nice appearance,” the politically active Jewish voter told me. “So … I think, what a nice young boy he is! And then, of course, he talks about some issues, and then I think ‘oy yoi yoi.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/107282/josh-mandel-wants-be-senator-if-only-he-could-get-his-in-laws-donate#