(This story is intended for mature audiences. Viewer discretion advised.)
What we do know is that he will soon be appearing on a television near you. Approach with extreme caution.
FORMER LYNDHURST MAYOR JOE CICERO called him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and “inadequate The Making of an Action Figure as a human being.” Brent Larkin, the dean of Ohio There was a time Josh was political writers, described him as a “bottom feeder” considered the Boy Wonder of Ohio Republicans. He served in of “unsurpassed intellectual dishonesty,” for whom “no the Marines. Married into the gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap.” Ratner dynasty. Got elected to the Lyndhurst City Council, the Ohio Meet Josh Mandel, a man for our times. House, the state treasurer’s office. Ohio’s former state treasurer is among the early He was everything you wanted contenders to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. in a budding conservative star — a prettier Ted Cruz, a Lindsey He bills himself as a “Trump warrior” and “the most action figure. He spoke conservative candidate in the race.” Yet despite years as Graham constantly of “fighting.” There were a career politician, Mandel has always been an elusive TV commercials featuring Josh in Marine fatigues. Unlike other species, “known for his reluctance to voice clear and politicians, who presumably fought specific thoughts on current issues,” as the Plain Dealer for Belgium or Senegal, he was fighting for “America First.” once wrote. 10
| clevescene.com | March 10-23, 2021
Yet his battles were mostly those tests of competitive outrage of the Culture Wars. He fought bravely to keep cockfighting from becoming a felony. He spoke heroically of dying for the cause. As in: “Over our dead body will Cincinnati become a sanctuary city.” With few ideas of his own, he preferred to torpedo the ideas of others. And he did so with the tenor of a mean eight-year-old whose parents wondered where it all went wrong. Ohio grew suspicious. That was evident in 2012, when he challenged U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Josh posed as a working man’s hero. Brown was the genuine article. It didn’t go well. He challenged Brown again six years later, only to drop out due to his wife’s unspecified health troubles. By 2019, Josh left the treasurer’s office to do what politicians do best:
