Jewish candidates fail to unseat Democrats in New Jersey and Ohio

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish congressional candidates Shmuley Boteach and Josh Mandel suffered losses in their elections bids in New Jersey and Ohio, on Wednesday, while Democrats Lois Frankel and Alan Grayson won congressional seats in Florida

Orthodox rabbi, author and media personality Boteach was handily defeated in his effort to unseat Dem. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). Boteach mounted a longshot run as a Republican in the heavily Democratic northeastern New Jersey district.

Pascrell previously had defeated fellow Democratic incumbent Rep. Steve Rothman in a redistricting-induced party primary.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, is shown during his service as a Marine in Iraq. (photo credit: Citizens for Josh Mandel/JTA)

Ohio State Treasurer Mandel was also defeated in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Republicans hoping to win control of the US Senate had placed great hoped in Mandel, a former Marine who is Jewish. Brown is a strong ally of organized labor and a pillar of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

In Florida, Frankel, 64, a former member of the state congress and an ex-mayor of West Palm Beach, defeated Adam Hasner, a former majority leader in the Florida state Senate who also is Jewish, on Tuesday.

Grayson, 54, the fiery liberal who had been unseated in the Republican electoral surge in 2010, returned to the House by defeating Todd Long in a newly created Orlando-area district.