But some veterans backing Mandel are fighting back.

The Republican candidate and current state treasurer recently told editors and reporters for the Columbus Dispatch he doesn’t toss the word un-American around often, but “stripping Delphi employees of their pensions with that vote: that is un-American.”

Mandel made the comment while talking about his opponent, Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s vote to bail out the auto industry, a move that Brown and others credit for saving 850,000 jobs in Ohio.

“Un–American?I don’t think so,” says retired Army Major General Dennis Laich. He says he’s deeply offended by Mandel’s comment.

I think it reflects badly on him, and frankly as a soldier and a fellow veteran, I’m embarrassed by his choice of words. I think it reflects immaturity and poor judgment on his part to use that term. It’s inflammatory.

Retired Army Brigadier General Sam Kindred is also upset about Mandel’s use of the word “un-American.”

Kindred says when it comes to serving the military and veterans, Sherrod Brown has a perfect service record.

“You can’t fight a war just at the tactical level. You’ve got to have someone to get the resources and that’s what he does and he does it very well. Perfectly.”

Mandel’s campaign ads stress his military background. But Laich says Brown, who is not a veteran, has the right kind of experience for the job.

“The manning that we are trying to do today is not in Iraq or Afghanistan at the tactical level. It’s at the national strategic level- the national security level where Senator Sherrod Brown is the veteran.”

Retired Marine Colonel Harry Prestanski disagrees. He say Mandel understands the number one need of veterans right now…..the need for jobs.

“Because an enlisted man does not necessarily have all of the experience in Washington D.C., sometimes I think that experience in Washington D.C. blinds what is really needed and sometimes I think our generals are too close to those situations,” says Pretanski, a Mandel supporter.

That’s what veterans today are facing today. And Josh Mandel understands that. He was discharged from the service and we also have a number of military people who are going to be discharged. Sequestration right now is going to be a major problem.

Bruce Gump, another Mandel supporter, leads a group of 5000 former non-union Delphi employees who he says found themselves on the losing end of the auto bailout.

“The UAW has their full pensions and almost all of their health care and some life insurance, the IOE and the steelworkers had their full pensions restored plus they had some health care and life insurance.”

But the salaried group was completely left out and kicked to the curb by the Obama administration.

Gump wants the non-union employees pensions to be restored and he’s hoping, if Mandel is elected, he will support legislation to do that.

But backers of Brown say if Mandel is elected, he will strip money away from Medicare and many of the programs veterans rely on. Brown has also pushed for a federal inquiry into the possible loss of Delphi pensions.

The race between Mandel and Brown remains close: the last Quinnipiac University poll has Brown leading 46 percent to 41 percent.

Sandy Beesler leaned against the trunk of her car – sunglasses hiding eyes that earlier had teared up. She waited for demolition crews to get back from lunch, and back to work at tearing down the old Delphi Automotive plant.

Beesler started working at the plant in 1977 and retired just shy of 30 years. The Delphi plant, formerly owned by General Motors, has a long history in Beesler’s family.

“My father-in-law, when he came home from World War II, he was hired here. He worked here for 30 years. My husband, his son, worked here for 30 years. I met my husband here 33 years ago,” she said.

The plant began production in 1946. At its peak it employed about 55-hundred people.

Beesler’s story was a common one. Former Delphi employees, many with 30 years or more service, stood along the roadway or sat in their cars, as large equipment ripped steal from steal and shattered glass.

Penn National Gaming is tearing down the building with hopes voters will approve a statewide measure to relocate a Columbus casino to the West Side location.

Beesler, who lives in the neighborhood, recognizes a need for what she called a “revitalization” of the area. While she said a casino will help, she’s not sure if it’s the best answer.

“I know a casino will create a few jobs around here. I don’t think they’re going to be good paying jobs. Yeah, I’d rather see more manufacturing here,” Beesler said.

Penn National Gaming estimates some 5,500 jobs will be created between the casino’s construction and its opening. And all work on the demolition was local hires.

John Spohn worked at the plant from 1977 until it closed in 2006. Spohn, who lives on the South Side, sees a parallel between the two communities and thinks a casino could be the answer.

“I think that it could really help Columbus,” Spohn said.

Lou Spangler stood with Spohn at a fence separating the road from the construction site. Spangler was hired on at the plant in 1951 and retired after 35 years. He called the demolition sad.

“That’s not the saddest part. The saddest part to me is the 3,000 to 4,000 jobs that are gone. People made a lot of good money here; raised families,” Spangler said.

Spangler remembers when the area had opportunities for families, but not anymore. When asked about a casino he said, “It couldn’t hurt. I think it can help a little bit.”

Although voters have yet to approve the change in location for the Columbus casino, Penn National has moved forward with the alternative site. Penn Spokesperson Bob Tenenbaum said the company is confident voters will approve the change in May.

“I think this is a very visible demonstration to people, particularly in Columbus, that Penn National is very serious about this project and very serious about making sure that Issue Two is passed,” Tenenbaum said.

The plant’s demolition is expected to be finished by August.

“We don’t want to waste any time and want to begin today starting on some of the environmental remediation so that we can get those shovels in the ground should we be successful in May,” Schippers says.

Statewide voter approval is required to relocate the proposed casino from the Arena District downtown to the 123-acre property on Georgesville Road and West Broad Street.

Last week in downtown Columbus, Penn National Gaming became a landowner in the Arena District. Now says company President Tim Wilmott, Penn National also wants to buy a 123-acre site on the west side of Columbus.

“Honestly about 45 minutes ago we just signed an option for the Delphi site behind us,” Wilmott says.

Wilmott’s announcement on West Broad Street ends, for now, the fight over an Arena District casino. Voters in November changed the constitution allowing for a casino near Nationwide Arena. But business and political leaders vowed to stop it. Penn National, saying it wanted to be a good corporate citizen, agreed to look elsewhere. Wilmott says the Delphi site has the necessary elements the company is looking for.

“It has great highway access which was important to us to have a successful operation,” Wilmott says. “It’s also a brown field project which fits well with the intention of Issue Three to support urban renewal. It had strong local community support. And finally with 123 acres it gives us a great opportunity in terms of developing a very comprehensive master plan.”

Penn National had said that a casino in the Arena District – a 24 acre site – would not include a hotel or restaurants so as not to compete with surrounding businesses. Wilmott says that the much larger Delphi site would be much better suited for an all-in-one entertainment establishment. “Obviously we expect to have a large casino facility here with 3,000 slot machines and over a hundred table games,” Wilmott says. “We’ll look at the potential of a hotel; we’ll look at the potential of other mixed use development so entertainment is going to be a component of the development as well. So we want to provide a facility here that offers customers a breadth of experience – they can stay overnight potentially but also enjoy a night out for three or four hours and gamble and eat and be entertained.”

Penn National’s acquisition of property on the west side of Columbus is supported by a group of business owners in the area. They see the casino as a key to renewing their side of town which is faltering economically. Take for example Westland Mall which is virtually empty of businesses. One shoe shop still operating at Westland is owned by Jim Milner. While he opposes gambling he welcomes any economic renewal the casino might bring.

“We are glad the casino’s coming in as far as revitalizing the area, but I am not for casinos and gambling,” Milner says. “I am kind of unhappy that people will be spending their money on gambling rather than feeding their children and grandchildren.”

The west side casino is not a done deal. State lawmakers have to okay putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot and then voters would have to approve it – probably this spring. That’s why Penn National bought and is holding onto its Arena District real estate.

“The downtown site we had to close on because we don’t know the outcome of what’s going to happen over the next couple of weeks on the state level and in May with the vote,” says Wilmott. “If the voters say, ‘Let’s move the site out here to the west side,’ then we’re going to have to work with the city and the county to try to dispose of the site. We have no use for the site if this thing passes. Obviously we have to protect our interests to make sure we have the outcome in May to move.”

The ratification comes after two years of sometimes contentious negotiations and averts a threatened strike that would have crippled Delphi’s former parent, General Motors.

The U-A-W says 68 percent of the workers were in favor of the new four-year pact, while 32 percent were against it.

The deal includes workers in Dayton, Columbus and Sandusky in Ohio. Ohio has about six-thousand Delphi employees, including salaried workers and workers represented by other unions.

In Columbus, the ratification likely means closure of the 60-year-old Delphi plant on Georgesville Road. About 450 workers are currently employed at the facility.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

At one time, the Delphi plant on Georgesville Road employed more than 5-thousand people. Now the workforce at west Columbus facility is below 500. All but 23 employees took buy-outs or early retirement last year. The company hired a so-called supplementary workforce with a starting salary around $14 dollars an hour. A significant decrease from the $28-dollars-an-hour the company paid before it went bankrupt. On his way into the union hall to cast what could be his final vote, supplemental worker Brian Brown wore a special t-shirt.

“It says ‘First Annual Kick to the Curb.’ It has to do with last year’s buyout,” Brown says. “And now I need a second t-shirt: ‘UAW: Unwanted Auto Worker.’”

Jim Harman is the United Auto Workers Local 969 shop chairman at Delphi. A worker passing by told Harman it was hard to cast a vote that would put him out of a job. But Harman says this latest Delphi offer was hard fought and he expects it to pass.

“The reason we feel like we have all that we can get in this contract negotiation is that we could have crippled GM,” Harman says. We supply 80% of their parts. And they’ve stepped up to avoid this strike and made this reasonable offer. And we’re going to accept it, I do believe.”

If the labor proposal does pass, workers could take a $25,000 offer to relocate to another Delphi plant that’s not being closed. Or they could take a cash settlement or what’s known as sub-pay. Even though he called it a win-win agreement, Harman lamented the impact passage would have.

“The United States’ economy has been built basically on manufacturing. And when this plant was built in the 40s this land was nothing but country. Now look at it. There was a mall built; now it’s vacant. This whole community was built based on this plant. At one point we employed 5500 people and put a lot of money in the West Side economy,” Harman says.

Just east of the plant, the head of a GM dealership also says he wonders what globalization means for the U.S. economy’s future. Chris Haydocy is president of Haydocy Automotive.

“Globalization may be great for a lot of the world but the fact of the matter is this is the first time ever that our kids won’t have the same potential that we do. Ohio being number one in bankruptcies, number one in foreclosures, number one in job loss is feeling the pain in this new world order. And for the community on the West Side, I don’t necessarily think it’s a good thing.

The membership at all Delphi facilities is voting this week on the proposal.

While union lawyers yesterday argued against Delphi’s proposed wage and benefit reductions in a US bankruptcy court in New York, union members in Columbus were voting at local UAW headquarters to approve a strike authorization. Mark Sweazy, president of local 969 says Delphi – not the union – is solely to blame.

“This provocation that we have today was not brought on by any member or any part of the organization,” Sweazy says. “It was brought on by the bankruptcy filing of Delphi Corporation. So we’ve been put in a precarious situation. The corporation wants to nullify the agreement we have with them. So the international union wants us to be prepared if necessary should a strike be necessary.”

Delphi employs 13,000 workers at its ten plants in Ohio. The company wants to cut workers’ wages from $27 an hour to $16.50 if General Motors agrees to pay a portion of the amount. If not, wages would be reduced to $12.50 an hour. Evelyn Martin, who says she’s worked at the Columbus plant for 29 years, flatly rejects the proposal and says she voted in favor of the strike authorization.

“I voted “yes” because of what they’re trying to do to us,” Martin says. “You know the ‘man at the top,’ they’re making all the money and they want to cut our wages. And it’s not right. If they want to cut down to $10 or $12 an hour, they need to ask themselves if they can make it at $10 or $12 an hour. I don’t think so,” she says.

Delphi’s ‘man at the top,’ Steve Miller says difficult but necessary decisions have to be made if the company is to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He says labor agreements must be modified if the company is to remain competitive.

But Tom Meyers, who says he works for Delphi and the UAW, says a contract is a contract.

“I’m almost to retirement,” Meyers says. “And obviously to me, I want to keep my pension, I want to keep my benefits in tact. It was negotiated. It was all negotiated; nothing was ever given to us. Everything was always negotiated – it was give and take.”

But if negotiations between the union and Delphi fail, local UAW president Mark Sweazy says he thinks a strike might turn things around.

“With the pressure of a bankruptcy pending – which would mean disaster to General Motors – if we would shut down at Delphi for say, 60 days, it would cost that corporation $7 billion to $8 billion. That’s not our goal. But we want them to live up to their obligations,” Sweazy says.

All UAW members working at Delphi plants will complete voting on the strike authorization this week.

The company says it wants to close or sell 21 of its 29 plants in the US. Six Ohio plants, including the Columbus facility, would most likely be shut down.

Anderson says, an estimated 10-billion dollars in losses to the U-S and Canada and a serious blow to the entire Midwest economy are the best possible outcomes of Delphi’s bankruptcy. Delphi operates a parts assembly plant on the Columbus west side.

About 200 Ohio workers would be affected by a plan Delphi Corporation reportedly is considering to overhaul its electronics and safety unit.

According to a document obtained by the Detroit News, Delphi’s tentative plan calls for getting rid of seven plants and seven technical centers. A Delphi spokeswoman says the document obtained by the newspaper is just a draft and may not reflect current planning.