Republican candidate Josh Mandel vowed Tuesday to limit himself to two terms in office if he is elected U.S. senator this November, a move that comes as he tries to cast himself as a fresh face and his Democratic opponent as a career politician.
His remarks to reporters at a rare news conference in Columbus were part of what he called a package of proposals aimed to “clean up Washington.”
Mandel, the state treasurer, wants former members of Congress to give up their pensions if they become registered lobbyists. And if senators and representatives can’t make spending and budget decisions on time, they shouldn’t get paid on time either, he said. He’s also proposing 12-year term limits for members of the House and Senate.
“We have a crop of career politicians there who think they can live by one set of rules while all of us throughout the state and the country live by a different set of rules,” he said.
Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown is a part of the problem, he said, adding, “There’s a whole crop of career politicians on both sides of the aisle who’ve let us down.”
Mandel, 34, is looking to tap into the rising anger directed at longtime politicians in Washington in the Nov. 6 election. He’s challenging Brown, 59, who began his political career in 1974 as the youngest state representative in Ohio history.
A poll released Monday shows Brown with a slight edge over Mandel, 52 percent to 45 percent.
Mandel’s plan would limit House members to six two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms. Though, he said nothing would prevent politicians from moving from one chamber to the other after their 12 years end.
It’s unlikely the idea would get traction in Washington. Members of Congress have talked of self-imposed term limits, but proposals have gone nowhere.
Mandel said he would adhere to the term limits, even if they didn’t become law.
“I’ve never lived in Washington,” he told reporters. “I’ve never worked in Washington. I don’t plan to spend the rest of my life in Washington.”
Mandel criticized Brown for breaking a term-limit promise when he was re-elected to a seventh term in the U.S. House in 2004.
Brown said in 1992 that he supported a 12-year limit on congressional service. Ohio voters that year had approved limiting lawmakers to eight years.
“Frankly, I’ve watched the state Legislature and … I’ve changed my mind,” Brown said in 2004. He had argued term limits kept local lawmakers more focused on learning the ropes and being re-elected than dealing with problems such as school funding, health care and the budget.
Brown’s campaign spokesman Justin Barasky called Mandel’s term-limit pledge “a total joke.”
Mandel promised to serve a full four-year term as state treasurer when he was elected in 2010, but he’s campaigning for the Senate, Barasky noted.
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