Josh Mandel on Government Reform

No government bailout that I would ever support

But Mandel seemed to indicate he opposed all bailouts. "I'm not a bailout senator," he said. "There's no government bailout that I can think of that I would ever support."

Tougher penalties for politicians breaking ethics laws

One of Josh's first legislative efforts was to help reform the oversight of the investment fund for the scandal-ridden Bureau of Workers Compensation.

Josh helped pass tougher penalties for politicians convicted of breaking ethics laws, including theft in office and obstruction of justice.

Josh supported legislation to create a deputy inspector general's office for the Bureau of Workers Compensation to help investigate fraud and wrongdoing.

Does not accept gifts in public office

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."

Public officials should disclose more than is 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."

Signed term limit pledge: 6 years House; 12 years Senate.

Organizational Self-Description: U.S. Term Limits, the nation's oldest and largest term limits advocacy group, announced that 14 new signers of its congressional term limits amendment pledge have been elected to the 114th Congress. The group includes five new senators, eight new House members and one House incumbent who signed the pledge for the first time this cycle. The pledge calls for members to co-sponsor and vote for a constitutional amendment limiting House members to three terms (six years) and Senators to two terms (12 years). The USTL President said, "The American people are fed up with career politicians in Washington and strongly embracing term limits as a remedy. Gallup polling shows that 75% of Americans support term limits."

Opposing legal argument: [ACLU, Nov. 7, 2014]: In U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (May 22, 1995), the Court ended the movement to enact term limits for Congress on a state-by-state basis. The Court held that the qualifications for Congress established in the Constitution itself could not be amended by the states without a constitutional amendment, and that the notion of congressional term limits violates the "fundamental principle of our representative democracy 'that the people should chose whom they please to govern them.'"

Opposing political argument: [Cato Institute Briefing Paper No. 14, Feb. 18, 1992]: Several considerations may explain political scientists' open hostility to term limitation:

• Political scientists were instrumental in promoting the professionalization of legislators.
• They are cynical about the attentiveness, general knowledge, and judgmental capacity of the average voter.
• They are committed to the conservation of leadership.
• They perceive attacks on professional politicians as a threat to their own self-proclaimed professionalism.
• And political partisanship may encourage them to oppose term limits.