COLUMBUS — It’s a rarity when a candidate for Ohio statewide office is happy that her incumbent opponent has unusually high name identification among voters.

“His name recognition is high because his negatives are off the chart,” said Connie Pillich, a three-term Democratic state representative from the Cincinnati suburbs who is running an aggressive campaign to become the state’s next banker and broker.

“People know that Josh Mandel is more focused on how this current office can promote his political career rather than what he can do for the people of Ohio,” she said.

The former U.S. Air Force captain and current attorney and lawmaker has repeatedly defied the numbers to win a Republican-leaning House district. She opted not to seek a fourth term to instead challenge the incumbent Republican treasurer.

RELATED ARTICLE: Incumbent Mandel says he’s run a clean office

For years, the treasurer’s office, with its access to the financial sector, has been a lightning rod for scandal, often linked to campaign fund-raising.

A deputy under the last treasurer, Democrat Kevin Boyce, absconded to Pakistan to avoid American prison for accepting bribes from a broker. Aides under former GOP Treasurer Joe Deters pleaded guilty to misuse of office charges a decade ago. In neither case was the treasurer himself charged.

North Canton businessman Benjamin Suarez was tried in federal court on charges he used employees to launder about $200,000 in contributions to Mr. Mandel’s unsuccessful 2012 campaign for U.S. Senate and to the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci (R., Wadsworth) in hopes they would intervene in a California investigation of his marketing business.

Suarez was acquitted in June on the campaign finance charges but was convicted of witness tampering.

Mr. Mandel, a Republican, sent a letter on Mr. Suarez’s behalf but has insisted he did nothing wrong. He was not charged and he returned the contributions.

“We know that Treasurer Mandel met with Benjamin Suarez privately at his home, that he used his official office letterhead to threaten another state and interfere in a legal dispute in California, and three days later $100,000 began flowing into this campaign,” Ms. Pillich said. “That’s alarming.”

She argues that these examples make her case that the office needs an independently appointed inspector general who would be on guard for criminal activity and ethical lapses.

“When the Boyce administration was involved in the largest bribery and kickback scheme in the history of the treasurer’s office, Rep. Pillich was in the legislature and was completely silent about it,” Mr. Mandel said. “I think that silence was deafening. The fact that now she’s bringing it up in the middle of an election year just reeks of political gamesmanship, and I think the voters see through that.”

Born in Buffalo, Ms. Pillich joined the ROTC at the age of 17 to pay for her education at the University of Oklahoma. After graduating, she served eight years in the Air Force, stationed in Mississippi, North Dakota where she received a master’s in business administration, and in then West Berlin near the end of the Cold War.

She went to work as an ROTC instructor and recruiter at the University of Cincinnati and earned her law degree three in 1998. She noted the legal practice that followed included some banking law.

As a state representative, she has championed veterans, health, and other issues, although none of her bills passed under her name.

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