Mandel Memories: Josh Mandel Never Quits Campaigning…Even When He’s Supposed To Be Working For Ohioans

AP Report Revealed Mandel “Hasn’t Been Doing The Public Service He’s Being Paid To Do” For Ohioans, With Extensive Travel “Infused With Politics”

While failed candidate and corrupt politician Josh Mandel attempts his third run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, we’re here to take you on another trip down memory lane as we review his biggest scandals. 

We’ve already covered his long history of shady campaign cash schemes and pay-to-play scandals, investigated a case of a missing Mandel, took a look at his political cronyism, and reviewed his record of granting special awards to his big money donors. This week, we’re reminiscing about his habit of campaigning on the taxpayers’ dime.

An Associated Press investigation of then-Treasurer Josh Mandel’s financial disclosures in 2016 found that “every work trip he took last year was at least in some part related to politics, including his campaign bid for U.S. Senate.” Some of the additional highlights from this report include:

• Mandel’s financial filing was “so voluminous and convoluted” that it was impossible for the AP to “separate his campaign activity from whatever portion of the spending went to official travel.” 

• By submitting nothing but federal campaign reports as evidence of his travels as state treasurer, “Mandel effectively acknowledged that he interwove politics into every trip he took last year.”

• One nonpartisan ethics expert called Mandel’s actions “one of the most ‘anomalous’ examples of public reporting,” begging the question of “where is the evidence that he is performing his job if all of his travel is political.” By infusing all his official travel with his personal political ambitions, Mandel avoided oversight to “obfuscate the fact that he hasn’t been doing the public service he’s being paid to do.”

“Josh Mandel has a long record of abusing his taxpayer-funded public office for his own personal political ambitions,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “Ohio voters don’t trust Mandel because it’s clear he’s nothing but an opportunistic politician who has never passed up an opportunity to put himself ahead of Ohio workers.”

Associated Press: State Treasurer’s travels in 2016 infused with politics

• Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel submitted a financial disclosure statement that reveals that every work trip he took last year was at least in some part related to politics, including his campaign bid for U.S. Senate.

• Mandel, a Republican politician often criticized for being in perennial campaign mode, reported his travel expenses on his personal financial disclosure to the Ohio Ethics Commission last month.

• The filing itself is so voluminous and convoluted that it’s virtually impossible to separate his campaign activity from whatever portion of the spending went to official travel.

• Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, calls the disclosure one of the most “anomalous” examples of public reporting she’s seen.

• “My first question is where is the evidence that he is performing his job if all of his travel is political,” she said. “Where is he drawing the line?”

• Krumholz…said it’s one of the most unusual campaign finance arrangements she’s seen…“it obfuscates the fact that he hasn’t been doing the public service he’s being paid to do, that his travel is heavily weighted toward his campaign activities.”

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