WASHINGTON -- Sen. Sherrod Brown didn't sneak a favor for private jet owners into the Senate tax bill.

But Josh Mandel keeps saying otherwise. The claim has been debunked, but Mandel, Ohio's state treasurer -- who has ambitions to oust Brown from his job next November -- won't relent.

Mandel, a Republican, has tweeted the claim about Brown, a Democrat, several times, starting in November and keeping it up over the last week.

Turns out liberal base not a fan of @SherrodBrown private jet tax break. Or his endorsement of Hillary over Bernie.https://t.co/5pR7tWurkd — Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) December 8, 2017

Mandel's campaign spokeswoman repeated it Monday after cleveland.com asked why Mandel persists claiming something demonstrably false. So here we will repeat what Mandel spokeswoman Erica Nurnberg said, with the caveat that it is not true:

"It's the height of hypocrisy for career politician Sherrod Brown to publicly whine about the wealthy and corporations while sneaking his tax break for private jets into a bill he railed against. Hypocrisy is what people hate about career politicians and Josh isn't afraid to call Brown out for being a hypocrite. Josh is committed to reducing the tax burden for Ohio middle-class families and is running for Senate to drain the swamp that Sherrod Brown has been slinking in for 24 years."

Mandel, who still must win a GOP primary to challenge Brown in 2018 but is considered the frontrunner, gained a reputation for playing fast and loose with facts when he unsuccessfully challenged Brown in 2012. Mandel's scorecard from PolitiFact Ohio, which then was a partnership with The Plain Dealer and the Tampa Bay Times, was aflame with Pants on Fire ratings. This was when Donald Trump was still a real estate developer, but like the future president, Mandel sought to use his claims to meld a larger narrative.

If the facts were false, they serviced a we-all-know-what-he-means theme. As for what Mandel might accomplish, University of Akron political scientist David Cohen proffered that Mandel could be trying to cut into Brown's record as a champion for the little guy.

"If he can link Sherrod Brown to corporate America, that's something Mandel's base and now Donald Trump's base will be all over," Cohen said. He called Mandel "a political animal through and through."

So about the claim:

SHOT: 2011 @SherrodBrown rails against corporate jets



CHASER: 2017 @SherrodBrown gets caught sneaking tax break for corporate jets



BRUTAL: pic.twitter.com/PbPQdU4qUS — Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) November 22, 2017

Mandel says Brown "got caught sneaking" a tax break for corporate jets into the pending Senate tax bill. This claim about Brown, a two-term Democratic incumbent, ignores several facts:

The tax in question is a 7.5 percent ticket tax, the same kind airlines add when you book a flight. Charter jet companies and owners charge it when someone charters a flight or pays for a seat on a private jet. They do not pay it, and never have, when the jet's owner or company executives take a trip, because there is no ticket or fee to tax. Private jets, however, pay a much higher federal tax on jet fuel than commercial jets do.

The IRS several years ago tried to charge the ticket tax to aviation management companies -- companies that maintain and operate private jets for their owners -- for all revenue, from jet repairs to providing hangars to running weather forecasts. These companies and related firms that offer fractional jet ownership, such as Ohio-based NetJets, objected. Several sued the IRS, saying it was unfair to charge a ticket tax on their broad operations. The IRS lost.

The IRS said it would stop trying to collect this tax on non-ticketed items. But it never established the policy in writing. So Congress members introduced bills to put it in writing.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Columbus-area Republican, successfully got the House Ways and Means Committee to

Here is where the details matter, not just about the tax but about the actor.

As the Senate started debating changes to individual and corporate income taxes last month, senators got the chance to offer amendments. Portman -- not Brown -- offered one to clarify the "amounts paid for aircraft management services" are exempt from the ticket excise tax.

Portman was joined in offering the amendment by Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas. Roberts is a Republican, too. (If you want to look at the list of proposed amendments, this amendment was number 107.)

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, accepted the amendment without requiring a vote. Hatch attached it to the broader tax package.

Brown did not "sneak" in anything. He previously authored a bill to clarify the language on aircraft management services, in concert with other Ohioans in Congress. As for Portman, the amendment was in the public docket from the start. Anyone, even someone aspiring to become a U.S. senator, could have seen it.

"The IRS ignored the law, and this bipartisan proposal clarifies what the law already says and stops a specific IRS abuse," said Portman spokeswoman Emily Banavides.

So why does Mandel persist with his clam?

Nurnberg, his campaign spokeswoman, sent several news stories and columns to say Mandel is right. But those news stories either made the intention of the amendment clear -- that the tax is not charged, that the provision simply clarifies the status quo and that there would be no new break -- or they carried partisan viewpoints that tried to cast Brown as the amendment's creator.

Cleveland.com reviewed the full record recently and laid out the facts on Nov. 22 -- and Mandel tweeted away anyway, saying Brown sneaked in a favor for private jets.

Mandel similarly tweeted about it after a Washington, D.C., television station recently showed an old clip of Brown and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow decrying tax breaks for corporate jets. Since Brown now backs a tax provision for private jets, this shows he is a hypocrite, Mandel suggested.

But that TV report and Mandel both missed something significant: The Brown-Maddow conversation, in 2011, was about tax proposals related to favorable depreciation rules for corporate aircraft. Accelerated depreciation treatment helped aircraft makers after 9/11 and was extended in the Obama-era stimulus plan. Obama wanted to end it in 2011, and Brown and other Democrats agreed. Brown's conversation with Maddow was a classic corporate jets-vs.-Pell-grants political discussion.

It had nothing to do with the ticket tax.

Hey @kamalaharris - NYT, HuffPost & Ohio TV are reporting that @SherrodBrown AUTHORED this tax break for private jets. Has DC/$ changed him? https://t.co/qnwIk2aJCw — Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) November 22, 2017

Mandel is not the only politician to misunderstand the current tax provision. Several liberals -- even Democratic politicians such as U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and national Democratic Chairman Tom Perez -- have mentioned it as a Republican-backed giveaway to the rich or a tax break. The Washington Post Fact Checker column addressed these claims on Dec. 6 and concluded they were wrong.

"The provision provides regulatory clarity on a tax that has never successfully been imposed on private jet management companies," The Post said. "In short, the companies can't receive a break on taxes that were never collected."

Mandel was not dissuaded.

His campaign did not answer questions about why he persists, beyond providing links to the aforementioned stories.

It is therefore unknown whether Mandel disagrees not only with Brown but also with Portman (who supports Mandel in the Senate primary), Tiberi and other Republicans. Maybe he wants this tax.

"Josh Mandel is distorting the truth in a weak attempt to attack Senator Brown, but he's too reckless to realize he's also going after fellow Ohio Republicans like Senator Portman and Rep. Tiberi and, worst of all, businesses that employ Ohioans in places like Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland," said Jake Strassberger, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.