Husted, O’Shaughnessy battle it out for Ohio secretary of state

By MARC KOVAC

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS Àú Republican Sen. Jon Husted has been a state lawmaker for a decade, including a stint as the leader of the Ohio House.

“As Speaker of the House, I couldn’t hide from making decisions,” he said. “I’ve had to make a lot of them in my life. I’m not afraid to make them. But I also know that there’s a way to make them in which you can minimize the fallout for whatever it is you do.”

Democrat Maryellen O’Shaughnessy is the current clerk of common pleas court in Franklin County and a former Columbus city councilwoman.

“There’s no one else who sits before you as a candidate for secretary of state who understands as fully as I do the obstacles, the challenges and the successes of local government,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Both believe their backgrounds in public office help to make them a better choice to be Ohio’s nex tsecretary of state, the individual responsible for administering elections and the office where businesses make official their presence in the state.

Both also say they’ll push to ensure the coming reapportionment process — the secretary of state is involved in that task — is completed without partisan rancor.

Husted and ’Shaughnessy are the two major-party candidates on the November ballot. Libertarian Charles R. Earl also is seeking the office.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.