Taking time on Dann slot

By David Skolnick

An attorney general candidate must be selected by Aug. 19.

YOUNGSTOWN — As governor, Ted Strickland makes hundreds of appointments.

Just last week, he made appointments to the Ohio Community Service Council, the State Medical Board, the Partnership for Continued Learning, and the State Board of Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics, among others.

But during his 16-plus months as governor, he faces perhaps his most important appointment decision — who will replace Marc Dann, a Liberty Democrat, as the state’s new attorney general.

Strickland, a Democrat formerly from Lisbon, started considering replacements shortly after Dann resigned Wednesday.

The governor doesn’t have a time line or a deadline for making the appointment, said Keith Dailey, his spokesman.

Those close to Strickland say the governor may take up to a month or possibly longer to select Dann’s replacement.

With Dann’s resignation, Tom Winters, first assistant attorney general, has the authority of the attorney general until Strickland selects a replacement.

The governor also must decide if he’ll pick a caretaker to run the office or select someone who would be the incumbent as the Democratic Party’s attorney general candidate in the Nov. 4 election to fill the remainder of Dann’s term. Dann’s unexpired term runs through January 2011.

The Democrats and Republicans will select a candidate to run for the rest of Dann’s term no later than 4 p.m. Aug. 19.

Also, those wanting to run as independents need nominating petitions with at least 750 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

Potential Democratic candidates for attorney general include Treasurer Richard Cordray; Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason; Eric Fingerhut, Strickland’s higher education chancellor; Kent Markus, the governor’s chief legal counsel; Subodh Chandra, who lost the 2006 attorney general primary to Dann; and Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr.

If Strickland selects Cordray, Fisher or a county prosecutor, that person would have to vacate his current position.

That would pose a problem, particularly in the case of Cordray, who has declined to comment on the attorney general position. If he took the appointment, Cordray would have to resign as treasurer.

That would trigger a race for that seat in the Nov. 4 election; something Democrats don’t want to happen, said Paul Sracic, chairman of Youngstown State University’s political science department.

“People tend to vote for the incumbent, so it’s important to have someone in the position running,” he said. “That wouldn’t work with Cordray.”

If the Democrats go with Cordray, it wouldn’t be wise to appoint him because it exposes the party to potentially losing the treasurer’s race, said William Binning, the former chairman of YSU’s political science department.

With Cordray being a sitting state officeholder, he probably wouldn’t be hurt by not being the incumbent in the November general election, Sracic added.

Harry Meshel, a former Ohio Democratic Party chairman and an ex-Senate Democratic leader, said he’d like to see Fisher, a former attorney general, get the appointment. Meshel is a longtime friend of Fisher and Strickland.

“If you appoint a caretaker, you lose out on incumbency,” Meshel said. “At this point, we’re best to go with Lee. There may be some others, but Lee has the best name recognition.”

For the Republicans, Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery, the last two attorneys general, have announced they’re not interested in running for the job.

Potential Republican candidates include ex-U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine; ex-U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, the former director of the U.S. Office of Budget and Management; outgoing U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce; Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien; state Sen. Timothy Grendell, who lost to Montgomery in the 2006 primary; and former U.S. Attorney Greg White, who’s now a federal magistrate.

One GOP insider said the party would love to have one of its Ohio Supreme Court justices run for the attorney general’s seat. But that has essentially been ruled out because a justice would have to resign, and Strickland would get to appoint a Democrat to the court.

“If you expect to win, you need a good quality candidate,” said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican vice chairman and a GOP state central committeeman who is on the party’s screening committee to select an AG candidate.

“You can’t put up anyone against the Democrats and run on a platform of ‘Dann screwed up the office,’” Munroe said.

Munroe said he’s “not too keen on DeWine running.”

“With the voters of Ohio, there’s an appreciation of new faces on the political scene,” he added.

Columbiana County GOP Chairman Dave Johnson, who’s also a Republican state central committeeman, also was selected to serve on the attorney general screening committee.

He declined to discuss the Republican candidates, but said, “I think it’s a very winnable seat.”

Which presidential candidate wins Ohio will be the key factor behind who emerges as the victor in the attorney general’s race as long as both parties have credible candidates, Binning said.

skolnick@vindy.com