Dem candidate is unfazed

Despite the growing list of setbacks facing the Democratic nominee for governor, and her own struggles to raise money for her campaign, state Sen. Nina Turner, the party’s secretary of state candidate, said she’s going to win her race.

The Democratic statewide campaign has “never been about one person,” Turner, a Democrat from Cleveland, said about Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, her party’s gubernatorial nominee.

FitzGerald drove for about a decade without a regular driver’s license, has lost key members of his campaign staff, the state troopers association endorsement, and has significantly lost the battle to raise and spend more campaign contributions to incumbent Gov. John Kasich, a Republican.

“None of us wanted this to happen, but it’s the reality,” Turner said of Fitz-Gerald’s various issues in an interview with me between campaign stops in Mahoning County.

The statewide campaign, Turner said, is “about the citizens of the state of Ohio having the choice of people running for office.”

She added: “It’s not about one individual. If so, [FitzGerald would] run for all five seats and conversely Gov. Kasich.”

However, history has shown that if the person at the top does bad, that drags down the rest of the party’s ticket.

FitzGerald’s finances were so bad last month that three of the four down-ticket Democrats on the Nov. 4 ballot raised more than the gubernatorial nominee. The only one to raise less than FitzGerald was Turner.

Turner raised about $82,000 last month to $105,00 for Jon Husted, the Republican incumbent. However, there’s a huge difference in cash-on-hand. Husted has about $3.2 million while Turner has about $823,000.

Turner expressed frustration with campaign finances, but said: “I’m certainly proud of what I’ve been able to raise and I’ll continue to keep trying to raise, but it shouldn’t be about money,” Turner said. “It should be about who touches the voters.”

Turner said about 90 percent of what she raises comes from donors who contribute $250 or less.

While in Mahoning County, Turner touted plans to increase accessibility to the secretary of state’s business services division if she’s elected.

“I want businesses to consider the secretary of state’s office to be a resource,” she said.

Turner wants to make more state forms needed by businesses on the secretary’s website, have staff available for questions during nonbusiness hours, and make the office a resource center.

“I really want people to see the secretary of state office as a place where [they] can have opportunities at the ballot box, opportunities in business and opportunities in life,” she said.

business endeavor

Turner said she started a business in the late 1990s — Turner’s World, a consulting and motivational speaking company — that still exists though it never took off.

“I started working in the public sector,” she said. “I never focused all of my energy on it.”

Despite a professional life in the public sector, Turner said she understands the struggles of business owners.

I’ve done “a lot as a [Cleveland] city councilwoman and a state senator,” she said. “Businesses come all the time. Lobbyists come all the time to lobby on behalf of those businesses. I’m there to be helpful.”