I’m learning from my mistakes, Dann says

The GOP views Dann as the Democrats’ Achilles heel.

COLUMBUS (AP) — In 11 months, Ohio’s tough-minded new attorney general has taken on the nation’s largest insurance brokerage, the mortgage lending industry, student loan providers, the big three credit rating agencies and MySpace — to name a few.

And this aggressive approach by Marc Dann, a 45-year-old Democrat from Liberty who burst onto the state political scene only four years ago, has not stopped at the courtroom door.

Brash hiring decisions — including a driver who once pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter — a sharp tongue and jarring political shifts have also become staples of Dann’s tenure.

A surprise winner over a seasoned officeholder, Dann was among Democrats whose election to statewide office last year ended Republican domination in the state that gave President Bush a second term. Now Republicans view him as his party’s Achilles heel.

“Marc has done some good things and some dumb things and some things that I think went beyond the constitutional and statutory authority of the office,” said state Sen. Tim Grendell, a Republican who also ran for the office. “But the one thing you can say is he’s not shy about trying to use his authority.”

Dann, whose unpretentious enthusiasm has often been the source of his woes, made his political name attacking corruption. Emerging as an appointed state senator with a small private law office, he became the face of the Democrats’ charge against the “Coingate” investment scandal that contributed to the GOP election losses.

But Dann’s short climb to statewide power quickly became apparent.

He got caught in a traffic jam and arrived late to his first big news conference. He used state money to purchase an expensive Chevrolet Suburban SUV for traversing the state from a campaign donor. A TV camera caught him cursing a reporter over a negative story outside a fundraiser for presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

“Marc Dann is a mistake factory,” said political scientist and consultant Mark Weaver, a longtime ally of Dann’s 2006 opponent, Betty Montgomery. Weaver said several Republicans are mulling taking Dann on in 2010.

In an Associated Press interview, Dann said he is committed to reducing his missteps as his term enters its second year. He characterizes himself as a novice at managing a big state agency who is learning from his mistakes.

“We’re litigating against some of the most financially sophisticated and best represented entities in the world, when you start talking about suing Wall Street and taking on people that have a huge financial stake in what we’re doing,” Dann said. “We need to be able to go toe to toe with them and that requires a level of professionalism that I’m determined to provide.”

But even as Democrats are hoping aloud to retake the Ohio House next year and deliver the state for their presidential candidate, the GOP views Dann’s frequent missteps as a political opportunity.

“When someone promises to be Mr. Clean and he winds up covered in scandal, voters take notice,” Weaver said.

Whether average Ohioans think the attorney general has made significant lapses in judgment or shows endearing human flaws remains to be seen. No official complaints have been made.

“Having a temper as a minority member of the Senate was amusing,” Dann said in his defense. “Having a temper as the head of a 1,400-person agency is potentially a problem. So I’ve worked very hard to keep my temper in check and set a good example.”

His legal assaults on titans of industry, in the mold of New York’s Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo, are probably satisfying voters’ expectations, said University of Toledo political science professor David Davis.

Dann is among leading attorneys general to be threatening a faceoff with Wall Street dynamos Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s over roles they may have played in the nation’s foreclosure crisis. He also has intervened in more down-to-earth consumer battles — over the safety of colored contact lenses, property rights along Lake Erie and publicly funded charter schools.

“It’s pretty hard to call people on small- and medium-sized events that happen three years earlier,” Davis said. “The question is will there be more and more of these incidents over the next 36 months, or will he start to avoid them.”

Dann is starry-eyed over the immense power of the agency he oversees. He said he has perhaps picked too many battles in his first year, but he can’t help himself — particularly when state attorneys general find themselves fighting for consumers in the face of weakening federal regulations.

“When you see injustice, and you hold an incredible office like this and you have the chance to do something about it, I feel compelled to try,” he said.

Grendell said Dann may lose more credibility with his political shifts. The list includes Dann’s defending a first-day power grab by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland after railing against similar acts as a senator; taking campaign help from gambling interests he later opposed in court; and awarding state legal work to a firm that formed the basis of his pay-to-play allegations against Republican predecessor Jim Petro.

“It can’t be healthy or good to be inconsistent,” Grendell said.

Dann views his operation as more transparent than those of his predecessors and attributes some of the scrutiny he has faced to that.

“In an enterprise this size, in the course of a year for three or four things to go wrong is not exceptional,” he said.

Alexander Lamis, a professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University, said voters may simply find Dann’s verbal diatribes and hiring goofs entertaining — in the tradition of the populist governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, or folksy President Harry Truman.

“There have been many colorful politicians over the years, and voters don’t seem to mind that as long as you’re doing something for them,” Lamis said. “The old adage, ‘It doesn’t matter what type of publicity you’re getting as long as they’re spelling your name right’ may apply.”