Brown Admits Failing to Pay Property Taxes on Time after Mandel Ad

Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown has been called a lot of things by his opponent, incumbent candidate Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel.“Hyper-partisan,” “Obamanomist,” and “anti-coal” are just some of the lines thrown at Brown from Mandel’s campaign staff.Most of these have proven to be false or vastly exaggerated except for one claim: that Sherrod Brown has evaded paying his property taxes three separate times.Arguably one of the tightest Senate races in the country, the race between Sherrod Brown and Josh Mandel has seen its fair share of controversy and lies. The two campaigns have been engrossed in a bitter fundraising and advertising war for the past year; Mandel’s sources largely private and Brown’s largely from public fundraising.In the heat of this vicious race, Mandel has largely stayed in Ohio instead of going to one of his homes in Washington, D.C. As a member of the U.S. Senate, Brown must maintain a residence in Washington until he is officially out of office. This requires Brown to pay his taxes on his home, even while he is still campaigning in Ohio, where his official residence remains.Brown was accused by Mandel’s campaign of missing payment on his property taxes up to three times. PolitiFact Ohio, the regional PolitiFact bureau, has claimed that this statement is completely true. Brown’s campaign has concurred that he has missed payments, as well.“Sherrod was late on a bill. He paid it in full the moment he realized he was late,” said Justin Barasky, a Sherrod Brown spokesman. “The difference between the two is that Josh Mandel has paid zero payroll taxes during his Treasury campaign. [There is] no comparison here; Sherrod Brown was late and paid with penalty while Mandel has still not paid his taxes from his last campaign.”Mandel’s office was not willing to comment on either their accusation or Barasky’s. Salon magazine has supported this claim, stating that during his campaign for the Treasurer’s office Mandel wrote off some of his staff as “freelancers” in order to dodge payroll and other taxes.“I think they’re trying to [blow this out of proportion], but they’re doing it unsuccessfully. They need to look for any little thing to bring them this race. One candidate works to strengthen Medicare, defends manufacturing jobs by standing up to China and their currency manipulation, and supports the auto industry, while one candidate works against that—I think they desperately need to find something wrong,” said Barasky.The ad may be too late for Mandel, however as he still trails Brown by an average of five points with only just over a week until Election Tuesday, according to Real Clear Politics. *Correction: TNP previously misidentified Justin Barasky's title and the location of Brown's official residence. We apologize for the error.