Donations to Jewish senatorial candidate being investigated

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Federal authorities are investigating campaign contributions made by employees of an Ohio company to Republican US Senate candidate Josh Mandel.

Canton-based business owner Benjamin Suarez may have reimbursed his employees for giving campaign contributions to the campaigns of Mandel and US Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), according to reports in recent days in the New Republic and the Toledo Blade.

According to the Blade, Mandel’s campaign is cooperating with the probe.

“The campaign is aware of the investigation and is fully cooperating,” Travis Considine, spokesman for the Mandel campaign, told the newspaper. “Neither the campaign nor anyone associated with it is a target of the investigation.”

Employees from Suarez Corp. Industries, a marketing firm, gave a total of $100,000 to the Mandel campaign.

Mandel, the state treasurer of Ohio and a Jewish Iraq war veteran, is in a battle to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.