As if Mandel needed any more ammo.

This story came out on Tuesday, but thanks to an enormous amount of content I'm just getting to it now.

It seems Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce may be trying to use his office to leverage banks to contribute more to his campaign.

State Rep. Josh Mandel is questioning whether Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce is waiting to sign a group of state banking contracts as a way to raise more money to win election in November.

The State Board of Deposit, which Boyce chairs, recently postponed a decision to choose banks the state will do business with because it needs more time to review the contract proposals, a spokeswoman for Boyce said.

But Mandel, a Lyndhurst Republican running to unseat Boyce, a Democrat, said the new April 29 deadline seems suspicious because it is one week after candidates must file campaign finance reports.

The implication is the extra time will allow Boyce to raise more campaign cash from banks looking to get state contracts.

[...]

"It is not a very difficult process to do your due diligence in a timely manner to match the requirements of the state to the services provided by the financial institutions," said Pat McDonald, who was deputy state treasurer under former Treasurer Jennette Bradley.

In 2006 under Bradley, the Board of Deposit made its choices in mid-March because it was understood to be the deadline, McDonald said.

It seems that while there is leeway for Boyce to make the decision he made, there is very little logical motivation for the delay, besides the accusation made by Mandel.

With Mandel such an overwhelming favorite in this statewide race, it's rare to see many headlines come from it. Yet still, it seems this becomes another in a long line of ethical issues that have come from Ohio Democrats since they took power in 2006.

Does it damage Boyce? Clearly. Did he need damaging? Not really. His chances of winning are slim to none anyway.

So that means something like this, a situation that encourages the perception of Party-wide ethical lapses, has to become a source of frustration to those at the ODP who see a massive mountain to climb back to respectability.

It's as if it's 3rd and 20, and your team gets called for holding. Things were bad before, but now they just seem impossible.

Might as well punt.