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Mandel’s failure to file doesn’t add up
On the side
Care for veterans: The U.S. House recently approved legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bill Johnson by a vote of 412-3, ensuring funding for military veterans’ hospital construction projects and medical facility leases in this fiscal year.
It also extends special at-need programs for homeless veterans, which was to expire next Friday.
The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate.
Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, is a 26-year Air Force veteran and chairs the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ subcommittee on oversight & investigations.
Endorsements: The Youngstown Warren Black Caucus, a local political organization, is endorsing incumbents Richard Atkinson and June Drennen as well as Marcia Haire-Ellis and Brenda Kimble for the four seats on the Youngstown Board of Education in the November general election.
The two other candidates are Jackie Adair and incumbent Michael J. Murphy.
You would think as the state treasurer, Josh Mandel would have a good grasp of finances.
But Mandel, a Republican, is apparently having trouble figuring out his own personal finances.
Mandel, treasurer for less than nine months, is planning to run next year for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is seeking re-election to a second six-year term.
A basic requirement for those planning to run for the Senate is filling out a personal financial disclosure statement. That was to be done by May 15.
As of today, more than four months after the deadline, Mandel hasn’t filed the document.
Seizing the opportunity, Ohio Democratic Party officials have repeatedly taken shots at Mandel for his failure to comply with the Senate rule during the past few months.
Joe Aquilino, Mandel’s campaign spokesman, said the reason for the delay is the result of questions regarding the financial assets of the candidate’s wife.
This was first reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
“As soon as the Senate compliance staff has answered all of these questions and the information is compiled, we will file a full and accurate report,” Aquilino wrote in an email to The Vindicator.
“Sherrod Brown’s attacks are pathetic, ridiculous and completely false,” Aquilino wrote. “He is in a desperate position.”
There’s a problem with Aquilino’s statement. Brown hasn’t criticized Mandel about the delay with the report. Mandel’s campaign contends Brown is using the Ohio Democratic Party as a proxy.
ODP says that’s not the case, and couldn’t resist another swipe at Mandel for the excuse of his wife’s finances delaying the report.
“The lack of transparency Ohioans are seeing from our absentee treasurer is unacceptable,” said Justin Barasky, the state party’s spokesman.
Wife’s assets
This shouldn’t be an issue, but Mandel’s failure during the past four-plus months to figure out which of his wife’s financial assets, which are plentiful, should be reported isn’t helping his cause.
It raises questions about Mandel’s lack of political experience.
Interestingly, Brown’s wife made national news this week with her resignation as a columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
Connie Schultz wrote in a resignation letter, posted on the newspaper’s website, that “it has become painfully clear that my independence, professionally and personally, is possible only if I’m no longer writing for the newspaper that covers my husband’s Senate race.”
Schultz was criticized earlier this month for a column she wrote, her first for the Metro section, about a tea-party event that included Mandel.
AN APOLOGY
Schultz apologized for “my error in judgment” for failing to disclose that Mandel spoke at the event and that she videotaped only one speech, the one given by her husband’s likely Republican opponent.