Josh Mandel: Not Ready for Prime-Time

Josh Mandel

Josh and Ilana Mandel

Ohio's Treasurer, Josh Mandel, has set a record. He is the first Ohio Treasurer to never attend a meeting of the Board of Deposits; he has missed 14 in a row. “Josh Mandel's complete and total neglect of his job as Treasurer is a constant reminder of how unfit he is for public office and his obsession with a promotion is evidence of just how little he cares about his obligation to Ohio's taxpayers,” said Justin Barasky, Ohio Democratic Party press secretary, in a statement. “There's not a Treasurer in America more willfully neglecting his responsibilities as a public servant and it's far past time for Josh Mandel to check his out of control political ambition at the door and start putting Ohioans first."

When campaigning for Ohio Treasurer, Mandel promised to serve out the full term as Treasurer, but within 83 days he was running for the U.S Seante against Senator Sherrod Brown.  [AP, 8/30/11]

His travels after the election have been a source of concern:

• Immediately after Josh Mandel took office, he started using leftover campaign funds from his Treasurer’s race to fly around the country to line up donors for his upcoming Senate race.  Federal law clearly states that state campaign funds can’t be used for federal campaign activity.

• Just days after registering with the FEC, donations started pouring in from cities Mandel had visited on the state campaign account’s dime.

• Mandel claimed that the out of state travel was for state business, but the trips never showed up on his official state schedule, a point that proves these early out of state trips were purely political.    ( Toledo Blade, June, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer, August, 2011, dscc, March1,2012)

Another matter of concern: Mandel submitted his personal financial disclosure form nearly eight months after it was due.  On November 4, 2011, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that  “Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2012, on Friday released a copy of his delinquent personal financial disclosure report, a 47-page document showing his wife to be a millionaire with extensive investments held in a family trust.. Mandel's personal financial report was due to the Senate clerk on May 15, little more than a month after he signed candidacy papers on April 5. But he said the complexity and structure of his wife's finances presented questions he needed to resolve in order to file the form correctly."


Mandel married Ilana Shafran in Jerusalem in 2008. She is a self-employed fashion consultant and related to the Ratner family who control Forest City Enterprises. (Forest City owns the building in which the casino, Rock Ohio Ceasars, is located) She is worth from $1.9 to $7 million based on investments held in a family trust.


Prior to their marriage, Mandel, served in the U.S. Marine Reserves with a tours in Iraq in 2004 and 2007. He  began running for public office at age 25 winning a seat on Lyndhurst City Council, and he has been running for public office ever since. He received a B.A degree from Ohio State and a law degree from Case Western. He was elected to the Ohio House in 2006, but did not finish his second term in order to become Ohio Treasurer.

Mandel's conservative ideology has been questioned  because of his family's ties and financial contributions to liberal democtrats. Also, as an OSU student Mandel helped organize an Al Gore rally and is seen in a photo cheering for Al Gore. On another occasion he advocated domestic partnerships for gays. (Conservative Outlooks, Carol Greenberg, July 14,2011)


Described as a "cocky frat boy," Josh seems ill-prepared for the U.S. Senate. In an Atlantic interview with Molly Boll (3/5/2012) Mr. Mandel had no opinion on the following issues:
--contraception policy.
--Rush Limbaugh's labeling Sandra Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute." 
--a senate vote to allow employer to drop health insurance coverage for religious reasons.
--the President's rescue of the auto industry.
Perhaps, his contributors and handlers had not yet told him what his positions were going to be.


On the other hand, Josh was very clear about his support of Kasich's SB5 which would have stripped teachers, police, and firefighters of their rights to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.  Josh informed us, "Well, I am supportive of Senate Bill 5..." Fortunately, Ohio voters soundly defeated it in the November, 2011, election. (ThinkProgressive, 11/4/2012)


And of course, following Mitt Romney and the other Republicans, Mandel opposed the President's efforts to bring back the American auto industry. He would have preferred to watch the industry go down the tubes.


Since his election to the Treasurer's office, Mandel has been accumulating a large war chest in his attempt to unseat Sherrod Brown, and he easily won the GOP primary on March 6, 2012. It has become quite clear that Josh ran for state office only as a stepping stone to the U.S. Senate, and with conservative Republicans across the country hoping to replace Sherrod Brown, Mandel is the recipent of large amounts out-of-state money.


Since Josh Mandel has shown he is incapable of handling his present job and is not able to take a stand on the issues of the day, why would the voters of Ohio choose to send him to the U.S. Senate? It appears Mr. Mandel is more interested in his own welfare and that of his financial backers rather than the "general welfare" as required by the U.S. Constitution.