Montgomery: I'm staying in race, despite struggles

Her opponents' views are considered to be more conservative.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery says she's the most-electable Republican candidate in next year's gubernatorial general election even though her internal poll shows her not making it out of her party's primary.
Montgomery told The Vindicator on Monday that if Attorney General Jim Petro weren't in the 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary, she would be in a considerably stronger position to win that race.
Petro told the newspaper last month that he would win the Republican primary if Montgomery were out of the race. Petro trails Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in his internal poll.
Montgomery acknowledged there are Republicans urging her to get out of the race.
"There is nothing that will get me out of the race at this point," she said. "I'm in. I've thought a lot about this."
Montgomery said that if she were to lose next year, she wouldn't regret her decision to run for governor.
Petro is portraying himself as a conservative to compete with Blackwell, whom the attorney general calls "an extreme right-winger." Montgomery isn't budging from her positions, considered more moderate than Petro's and Blackwell's.
Her assessment
Montgomery said the differences between her and the two other Republican officeholders running for governor could help her win the May 2006 primary.
"In a three-way race, you've got Jim fighting with Ken for the conservative far-right base," she said. "It is conceivable that Ken and Jim divide that vote and that leaves the moderate Republicans who will vote for me. There's a large bloc of voters in the Republican Party who are looking for leadership."
Montgomery said raising money for the gubernatorial race is a struggle. Petro is raising money from attorneys, and Blackwell from out-of-state conservatives and evangelicals, she said.
"I raise money from the typical business Republicans," she said. "They've been extraordinarily reluctant to get into a family fight [among the three Republican candidates.] It's been extraordinarily difficult to raise money."
Montgomery said Petro wasted about $1.5 million in recent weeks on commercials portraying the attorney general as conservative on abortion and gay marriages.
"If I'm spending money, it's when people are watching, and they aren't now," she said.
The commercials improved Petro's polling numbers, but he still trails Blackwell.
Blackwell and Petro want constitutional amendments on the November 2006 ballot to limit state spending. Montgomery said her plan is simple: Require state agencies to justify their budgets.
skolnick@vindy.com