Stage set for hard-hitting fight for attorney general

In our endorsement editorial on the Democratic and Republican primary contests for Ohio attorney general, we argued that a November match-up between state Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty Township and state Auditor Betty Montgomery would be ideal because it would put the issue of pay-to-play in state government on the front political burner -- where it belongs.
Democrat Dann and Republican Montgomery both won their party nominations Tuesday night, which means Ohioans will be treated to a hard-hitting campaign that will center on coingate, the investment scandal involving the Bureau of Worker's Compensation money.
A key player in the scandal is Tom Noe, an influential Republican Party operative who contributed and raised gobs of cash for GOP officeholders and candidates and who secured a government contract that resulted in $50 million from the BWC being funneled to him for the purchase of rare coins as investment instruments.
A large portion of the $50 million has been lost. In February, a special audit named Noe and his associates in findings for recovery for $13.5 million.
Noe has also been charged with stealing at least $1 million from the BWC investment fund. He has pleaded innocent to the embezzlement charge, as well as 52 others, including racketeering, forgery, theft, money laundering and tampering with records.
Dann, who has led the charge in the Ohio General Assembly to get to the bottom of coingate, in particular, and the pay-to-play culture, in general, has accused Montgomery, a former attorney general, of turning a blind eye to the scandal because of her long friendship with Noe.
The state auditor has denied any wrongdoing and has blasted her Democratic opponent for painting all Republican officeholders with a broad brush.
Campaign contributions
Seeing as how Montgomery and Dann are vying to be the state's lawyer, a full airing of the Noe scandal is demanded. It is also necessary for the two to talk about the operation of the attorney general's office in the context of campaign contributions.
If there is any doubt about the public's distrust of government and its disgust with what has been going on in Columbus, consider the embarrassingly and disturbingly low voter turnout for Tuesday's primary. Only 23 percent of the registered Democrats and Republicans in Ohio cast ballots.
But Dann and Montgomery can take solace from the fact that they do have strong support from the faithful of their respective parties.
Dann, making his first bid for statewide office, garnered 478,042 votes (71.1 percent) to 194,270 votes (28.9 percent) for Subodh Chandra of Cleveland, a former federal prosecutor and former Cleveland law director.
Montgomery, a veteran statewide officeholder and one of the top Republican votegetters, received 571,430 votes (73.3 percent) compared with state Sen. Grendell of Chesterland, who received 208,011 votes (26.69 percent).
What can be gleaned from the results is that Democrats in Ohio want the issue of government corruption to remain in the spotlight and believe that Dann is best suited to keep it there, while Republicans aren't as exorcised about the Noe scandal.
The stage is set for a hard-hitting fall campaign.