Josh Mandel Deserves Second Term as Treasurer

I remember that I was initially enamored of Mike Huckabee in 2008, but then he made a remark about Mitt Romney "getting rid of your job" or something. I immediately thought "But that's what I want a GOP President to do! Get elected, go to Washington and get rid of government jobs!" I guess I was a proto-Tea Party member.

So I'm all for re-electing Josh Mandel, and it should be a no-brainer for Ohioans. He's saved mucho dollars and reduced staff size in his department by 15%. That's a huge accomplishment in government where many officials are generally trying to spread the tax payers wealth around the office and then say they need more funding. He's just raked in endorsements from the Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio Society of CPA's and the Canton Repository. Here's the CantonRep Editorial in its entirety.

Our view: Office has managed money well with fewer employees

In four years as Ohio treasurer, Josh Mandel has done a commendable job of managing the state’s money. The Repository editorial board believes he has earned a second term.

Mandel, a Republican, helped to maintain an AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s for the state’s $4 billion STAR Ohio investment fund despite a still-wobbly economy. He also saved several million dollars by refinancing some of the state’s long-term debt.

Yet Mandel also was able to cut the treasurer’s staff from 140 employees in 2011, when he took office, to 117 and to reduce his office’s budget by nearly $5 million. He also eliminated the department’s fleet of vehicles and got rid of a host of smaller expenses epitomized by a contract with a company that watered the plants in the treasurer’s office. Mandel’s switch to electronic banking ended the need for an employee to drive from Columbus to Cleveland daily to deposit thousands of checks.

Early in his first term, Mandel’s office created searchable databases of salaries for public employees in Ohio and of state-owned properties and buildings. Mandel also has been advocating legislation he proposed that would create an online database of state spending over the past five years and require future treasurers to keep the database current. The House has passed the bill.

Mandel has always worn his political ambitions on his sleeve, moving from Lyndhurst City Council and the Ohio House to the treasurer’s office in less than a decade and making an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate a year after becoming treasurer. His backing by North Canton businessman Benjamin Suarez, who was prosecuted but acquitted this year on seven of eight federal campaign finance-related charges, has given Democrats an opening as Mandel runs for re-election.

But given the outstanding performance of the treasurer’s office, his opponent, state Rep. Connie Pillich, hasn’t made a convincing case even for her key proposal, installing an inspector general in the treasurer’s office.

The Ohio Society of CPAs, in endorsing Mandel’s re-election, cited his efforts to pass the “online checkbook” bill and his receiving a clean audit from the state auditor’s office each year. Earlier this year, Mandel received an Excellence in Financial Management Award from the 15,000-member Association of Government Accountants for making “significant improvements for Ohio taxpayers.”

Josh Mandel has done just that as state treasurer and deserves a second term.

Maybe Mandel was a proto-Tea Partier too?