Republican challenger Josh Mandel crushes incumbent Kevin Boyce in Ohio treasurer's race

josh mandel.JPGView full sizeRepublican Ohio Treasurer of State-elect Josh Mandel, right, celebrates his win with his wife, Ilana, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

Republican challenger Josh Mandel ran away from incumbent Democrat Treasurer Kevin Boyce on Tuesday, winning by almost 15 percentage points.

With 99.9 percent of votes counted statewide, Mandel, a state representative from Lyndhurst, has 54.8 percent of the vote to 40.2 percent for Boyce. Independent Matthew Cantrell has about 5 percent of the vote.

The race for the four-year term as the state's chief banking and investment officer was surprisingly rancorous.

Early in October, for example, Mandel claimed that Boyce -- who was appointed to treasurer in late 2008 by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland when Richard Cordray left the office to become attorney general -- had cultivated a pay-to-play atmosphere while treasurer. He said Boyce had passed over qualified job candidates in favor of his friends and the relatives of political allies.

Boyce objected to Mandel's characterization of the office. He said all the workers he has hired are qualified and denied participating in any inappropriate fundraising tactics.

Mandel has been viewed as a rising star in his party, according to reports from Plain Dealer reporter Joe Guillen

The crux of Mandel's candidacy has been his experience as a Marine, Guillen has said.

Mandel grew up in Northeast Ohio, graduating from Beachwood High School. He attended Ohio State University, where he first got into politics. He was twice elected president of the university's undergraduate student government.

kevin-boyce-campaign-tric.JPGOhio Treasurer Kevin Boyce

In 2000, before he graduated from Ohio State, Mandel enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves and completed boot camp and intelligence school. After his training, Mandel came home, graduated from law school at Case Western Reserve University and ran for Lyndhurst City Council. He was elected in November 2003 at age 26.

He was called to duty the following February. Mandel served as an intelligence specialist attached to a light armored reconnaissance battalion. He was stationed in Iraq's Anbar province, along the Syrian border.

He came home from his first tour in November 2004 and resumed his work on the council. He went on to win a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives in the fall of 2006, serving a cluster of East Side suburbs in Cuyahoga County.

A call to serve in Iraq interrupted his time in the House, too, and he left in September 2007.

Mandel again served as an intelligence specialist, working with a Marine infantry battalion.

Boyce, now 39, became a Columbus city councilman at 28.

After eight years on the council, Boyce was appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland, a fellow Democrat, to be Ohio treasurer when Richard Cordray left the office to become attorney general.

He took office in January 2009. The appointment made him the first black Democrat to hold a statewide executive office in Ohio.

He ran statewide for the first time and said he was counting on the work ethic, focus and resiliency he developed growing up to help him prevail, according to Guillen's stories.

The treasurer's office is charged with protecting and investing Ohioans' tax dollars.

In the 2009 fiscal year, the Treasury managed a combined investment portfolio of $15.5 billion.

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