Senate candidate and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel showed up on Monday for his job running the Buckeye State's Board of Deposit meeting for the first time in 15 months.
Mandel, who has not appeared at board meetings for unknown reasons since he was elected treasurer, announced at Monday's session that he was removing two banks -- which he accused of fraud during his 2010 campaign -- from the list of institutions holding state deposits. The board oversees billions in state holdings.
Democrats were not impressed by the Republican treasurer's appearance.
"Josh Mandel's attendance at today's Board of Deposit meeting ... is only made more offensive by his supposed excuse for choosing to attend," said Justin Barasky, a spokesman for Mandel's Democratic rival, Sen. Sherrod Brown. "Had Josh Mandel truly been concerned with protecting retirees and taxpayers from fraud, he would have taken the initiative to act more than a year ago -- not when it became politically expedient for him to do so."
Mandel has endured a slew of bad press lately because of his absense at board meetings and a recent visit to the Bahamas to raise money from the pay-day loan industry.
"While we're glad to see Josh made it back from his Bahamas fundraiser, the fact that he had to be shamed into attending his first Board of Deposit meeting in 15 tries does nothing to change the fact that Mandel has ignored his responsibilities to Ohio taxpayers and can't be trusted to do his job," Barasky added.
Mandel's campaign did not respond to two requests for comment.
One of the banks Mandel chose as a replacement on the state list, Citigroup, recently failed the federal government's large-bank stress test.