For attorney general: Cordray

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Richard Cordray

For attorney general: Cordray

This wasn’t the year Ohioans were supposed to be electing an attorney general. They elected one only two years ago, Marc Dann of Liberty Township. His short-lived service ended with threats of impeachment and a resignation that left the office open and the Mahoning Valley to deal with the disgrace that Dann and a band of undisciplined and unscrupulous local cohorts brought to the office.

Nancy H. Rogers, who took a leave from her position of dean of the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, is a well-respected caretaker of the attorney general’s office, but had no interest in running for the unexpired term. There is a three-man race between Democratic Treasurer Richard Cordray, Republican Mike Crites, a former U.S. attorney, and Robert Owens, an independent, for the two-year job.

Cordray, 49, of Grove City, received his law degree from the University of Chicago and was Ohio’s first solicitor general, serving in 1993 and 1994. In addition to being an attorney with a private practice, Cordray has served in the state Legislature, been Franklin County treasurer and has been state treasurer since 2006.

Crites, 60, of East Powell, served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio from 1986 to 1993. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and after active duty was in the Naval Reserves, retiring as a captain in 1999. He is a managing partner in Rich, Crites & Dittmer, LLC, a firm with 34 employees, 17 of them lawyers.

Owen is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and earned his law degree from Capital University Law School. He has been in private practice for 10 years and served as prosecutor for Sunbury, a village of fewer than 3,000 in Delaware County.

Owens argues that a third-party candidate is the more attractive choice for an office that was scandalously mismanaged by a Democrat in a state that had been wracked previously by Republican scandals. That would be a more compelling argument coming from a candidate that was equipped to manage an office of 1,300 employees. It is by far the largest law firm in the state. Owens is sincere enough, but his resume ¥ is far too thin to merit consideration.

Experience counts

Both Cordray and Crites have managed offices and dealt with professional challenges that would prepare them for taking over as attorney general.

Crites points to his experience in reorganizing the Southern District when he was U.S. attorney. His office handled about 200 criminal cases a year.

Cordray points to his experience in running the Franklin County treasurer’s office, the largest in the state, which prepared him for taking over as state treasurer.

After interviewing the candidates, the Vindicator editorial board gives the edge to Cordray.

His experience in running a government bureaucracy is more recent than Crites’, he had a close-up view of the Dann implosion and was among the first to condemn Dann’s behavior, and he has the unique experience of having served as a large-county and state treasurer, working with investments that required him to protect Ohio’s assets. Some states, notably Florida, got into the packaged mortgage markets and suffered high losses. Ohio did not. But if Ohio’s public pension funds have lost money through illegal Wall Street mechanizations, Cordray says his attorney general’s office will pursue recovery. He makes the argument that his background better equips him to do so.

All three candidates are men of integrity, all pledge to follow an impartial and transparent policy for awarding lucrative contracts to outside counsel, and the state could not go wrong with Cordray or Crites, based on their experience. We give Cordray the edge and endorse him as the best choice in this race.