Strickland: Fisher is great leader

The Ohio GOP chair said the move shows 'Democrats are stuck in the past.'
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, described his lieutenant governor running mate as "remarkable" and "one of Ohio's great leaders."
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett described Lee Fisher, Strickland's running mate, in less flattering terms.
"He has a record extreme enough to earn him the nickname 'Liberal Lee,'" Bennett said.
Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, officially announced Fisher of Cleveland, a former state attorney general, as his running mate Thursday.
"He's a man of deep integrity and keen judgment," Strickland said of Fisher.
Fisher spent 10 years in the Ohio Legislature before being elected in 1990 as attorney general.
He lost his re-election bid in 1994 to Republican Betty Montgomery. He also lost the 1998 gubernatorial race by 5 percentage points to Republican Bob Taft.
What he's been doing
For the past seven years, Fisher has served as president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland-based Center for Families and Children, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the state. Fisher won't leave the organization for several weeks to help with the administrative transition.
Bennett said Fisher running as Strickland's lieutenant governor "only proves again that the Democrats are stuck in the past with no new ideas about how to lead Ohio into the future."
Fisher had considered gubernatorial bids this year and in 1998. Fisher said he decided to be the running mate of Strickland, a longtime friend, because he is convinced this year's election is the state's defining moment.
"We can either continue down the road of one-party rule and empty vision," he said, "or we can strike a new course toward a future where the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of Ohioans once again sets the pace for the rest of the nation."
Political observers say Fisher's strong name recognition -- particularly in his home county of Cuyahoga, the county with the biggest concentration of Democratic votes in the state -- will help Strickland's chances.
Cuyahoga is also the county of the two other declared Democratic governor candidates: state Sen. Eric Fingerhut and former state Rep. Bryan Flannery.
Fingerhut said Fisher is a good friend, but this campaign is about the future of the state and not its past.