“I’m receiving a lot of encouragement to do that,” the 33-year-old Andrew Ross Sorkin-lookalike Josh Mandel told me this morning. When I asked him if he was running for Senate, he said:“This is the first time in my life where I've heard from baby boomers, senior citizens and folks across the state who have told me never in their life have they been so concerned.”
Kris Connor | Getty Images
Josh Mandel
The current Ohio State Treasurer, plays the part well so far, giving me a very diplomatic answer when I asked him about former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who was recently appointed by Obama to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“I think we'll let the U.S. senate decide whether or not he should be approved,” Mandel said. “We don't see eye-to-eye philosophically on issues, but he's someone I like personally.”
Mandel recently proposed a new budget for the Ohio State Treasury that would reduce general operating expenses by 6.5 percent. He’s all about modernizing the system – electronic banking (hello, PayPal and Square!), updates to financial software, and greater access to online learning programs for the masses. He also proposed linked deposit programs to make more cash available to small businesses looking to create jobs in Ohio.
For his own part, Mandel has allegedly started a fundraising committee for a Senate run, which makes us wonder how much longer the answer will be so politically wishy-washy.
Certainly, Wall Street is watching and (and Conservatives hoping) for a potential defeat of Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, with every new player able to sway the delicate balance of the Washington game.
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