Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown touts auto bailout in new ad

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is touting the bailouts given to the U.S. auto industry in a new campaign ad.

Brown, who is in a tough race for reelection against Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel, appears in the 30 second commercial next to a Chevrolet Cruze.

"I'm Sherrod Brown and this is a Chevy Cruize," he says in the clip. "We're both from Ohio." 

Brown goes on in the commercial to detail the origin of various parts of the car. 

"The engine block's made in Defiance," he says. "The aluminum wheels, Cleveland. The transmission, from Toledo. And it's all assembled in Lordstown."

Brown concludes the commercial by saying he is "proud to have led the fight to have passed the auto rescue package, helping to protect more than 800,000 Ohio jobs."

Mandel's campaign responded to the ad by saying Brown had spent "three months and $1.5 million in negative ads attacking Josh Mandel, on top of additional millions in negative attack ads from his special interest friends.

"We’re glad that 38-year politician Sherrod Brown finally decided to say something about himself," Mandel campaign spokeswoman Nicole Sizemore said in a statement provided to The Hill.

But Sizemore quickly added: "We were disappointed that Brown’s ad failed to answer the lingering questions about why he hasn’t passed a budget in more than three years, why multiple trillion-dollar budget deficits happened under his watch, and why he believes raising taxes on Ohio families and small businesses to pay for Washington's reckless addiction to spending is the answer to a challenging economy."

Democrats have accused Mandel of opposing the $80 billion in loans that were given to General Motors and Chrysler in late 2008 and early 2009 because Mandel has said he opposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for large banks. Former President George W. Bush redirected money from the TARP program to the auto companies during the final month of his presidency.

The auto bailouts have also been a central feature of President Obama's reelection campaign. Obama frequently references a 2008 op-ed written by presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Romney has said he was arguing for the auto companies to be placed into a "managed bankruptcy," which he said was similar to the conditions imposed on the loans by Obama in 2009.

Polls show Brown leading Mandel in the Ohio Senate race. The website RealClearPolitics.com's average of surveys about the race shows Brown holding a 47-38 percent lead.

-This story was updated with new information at 3:29 p.m.

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