COLUMBUS — Josh Mandel lists what he considers to be his accomplishments as Ohio treasurer, citing awards, improved credit ratings, and savings within his office.

“By every objective measure, we’ve improved the finances and operations of the treasurer’s office as well as the finances of the state,” the Republican former state representative and Iraq war veteran said as he makes the case for his re-election on Nov. 4.

“When I came in, we were taking over for an administration that unfortunately had the largest bribery and kickback scheme in the history of the state treasurer’s office, and we cleaned it up,” Mr. Mandel said. “Our office has been scandal-free, not a penny out of place. We’ve gotten three clean audits in a row.”

But while he has generally received good marks for his office’s operations, including getting the endorsement of the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, he’s received plenty of less-favorable publicity stemming from his political side.

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He was subpoenaed but did not testify in last summer’s federal trial of North Canton businessman Benjamin Suarez, who was accused of laundering about $100,000 in contributions to Mr. Mandel’s unsuccessful 2012 campaign for U.S. Senate in hopes he would intervene in a California investigation of his marketing business.

Suarez was acquitted of the campaign finance charges but convicted of witness tampering. Mr. Mandel sent a letter on Suarez’s behalf. He was not charged with wrongdoing.

“There were many offices involved, and none of these offices did anything wrong,” he said. “The governor’s office wrote a letter and made a phone call. The secretary of state’s office made a phone call. A congressman’s office wrote a letter. Our office wrote a letter.

“There were multiple offices involved under the umbrella of protecting jobs and the tax base of the state,” Mr. Mandel said. “In the state treasurer’s office, we do not make decisions based on campaign contributions.”

His Democratic opponent, state Rep. Connie Pillich of suburban Cincinnati, called his actions in the Suarez case as “very unethical.”

To trade the letterhead of your office for $100,000 in campaign contributions crosses the line,“ she said. ”That’s the sort of thing an (independently appointed) inspector general would help to prevent. Pretending we don’t need one is a red flag in itself.”

Mr. Mandel pointed to his efforts to improve cyber-security of the treasury’s computer systems, the creation of a new STAR Plus program for investing pooled local government funds with better returns, and his championing of posting government salary and budget information online.

He was the only state treasurer this year to receive the Emerging Leader Award of Excellence from the Association of Government Accountants.

Mr. Mandel, a former U.S. Marine who served two terms in Iraq, succeeded in winning election as a Republican to a Democratic-leaning Ohio House seat in the Cleveland suburbs. He handily won election as treasurer in 2010, but then launched an unsuccessful challenge in 2012 to Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“It was the closest U.S. Senate race in Ohio in 36 years since Howard Metzenbaum beat Robert Taft, Jr., in 1976,” he said. “Even though I came up a little short, I think I definitely emerged stronger from it for re-election.”

First Published October 26, 2014, 4:00 a.m.