The Cleveland Plain-Dealer: on Government Reform
Josh Mandel:
Does not accept gifts in public office
Josh Mandel does not take gifts. Or does he? The Ohio treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate asserted that he does not, and he said so in the most public of settings: a roomful of reporters from the Akron Press Club. The club wanted to give
Mandel a token of appreciation (a flash drive with the club's logo) after he addressed it on March 1. "I appreciate it. I don't take gifts," Mandel said.This raises a question: Why did Mandel recently declare in a public document that he got gifts
from 31 people in 2011? That number of gift-givers, and their names, showed up in the state financial disclosure statement that Mandel filed this week. This disclosure led incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown's campaign to declare that
Mandel lied when he told reporters that he doesn't take gifts.
Mandel's campaign spokesman says the gifts were primarily meals at "family gatherings, weddings, meetings and charity events."
Source: The Cleveland Plain Dealer on 2012 Ohio Senate debates
Apr 20, 2012
Josh Mandel:
Public officials should disclose more than is required
[Mandel listed] 31 people as gift-givers in 2011 in the state financial disclosure statement filed this week. [A campaign spokesperson] added that even though Ohio requires state officials to disclose all gifts above $75, many of the meals Mandel listed
cost less but were disclosed anyway, in an abundance of transparency. Mandel has said in his most recent and in past financial disclosure reports that he tries to provide more information than required.If there were gifts of significantly high value
or items that went beyond food or drink, the disclosure forms do not say, as the Ohio Ethics Commission only requires state officeholders to disclose the source of gifts valued at more than $75 but does not require specificity as to the gifts themselves.
The US Senate require only gifts worth more than $335 to be reported. Brown's most recent form said he had none. Mandel "goes above and beyond what is required on his disclosure forms," the spokesperson said. "More elected officials should do that."
Source: The Cleveland Plain Dealer on 2012 Ohio Senate debates
Apr 20, 2012
Marcia Fudge:
Filed complaint against colleagues sleeping in their offices
Along with several other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, she filed a House Ethics Committee complaint against an estimated 50 to 100 of her congressional colleagues who sleep in their offices, asking why they should sleep in
for free in a public building while they were "cutting benefits to the poor, the mentally ill, to education, to veterans housing."
Source: The Cleveland Plain-Dealer on Biden Cabinet
Dec 13, 2020
Ralph Nader:
Big problem in politics is excessive concentration of power
The candidates took aim at corporate greed on Wall Street and agreed that Bush and Cheney should face criminal charges for their handling of the economy. They accused the current administration of chronic financial irresponsibility. Nader said the "big
problem in politics always is excessive concentration of power and wealth in too few hands. The concentration of power strips the American people in their various roles of deciding anything in public law, unless they are part of the power structure."
Source: 2008 third-party presidential debate; Cleveland Plain Dealer
Oct 31, 2008
Page last updated: Jul 21, 2024