Cordray, DeWine outline top priorities in governor's race


story tease

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Republicans have controlled the governor’s office for 24 of the past 28 years.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Republican nominee, wants to keep that office in GOP control while Democrat Rich Cordray is looking to end that control.

The two last faced each other in 2010 in the attorney general’s race when Cordray, the incumbent, lost by 1.2 percent to DeWine.

“I want for everyone in our state what I want for my own family, and that is to leave a stronger Ohio to our kids and our grandkids,” said DeWine, 71, of Cedarville. “We want our next generation to have better opportunities and better lives than the generations before them. Eight years ago, we didn’t have enough jobs for the people who needed them. Today, our challenge is different: we have to find workers with the skills to fill all the jobs that have been created. We need to focus on vocational training to help people find good careers and we have to ensure that every student graduates from high school [is] either college-ready or on a pathway to a rewarding career and a good-paying job.”

Video of Mike Dewine

Video of Richard Cordray

Cordray, 59, of Grove City, said: “When I see people treated badly, I want to make it right. I want to stand up and fight for them. When I was attorney general and saw people across Ohio losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis, we fought the predatory mortgage lenders to save people’s homes. When I saw Wall Street abusing our pensions, our retired teachers and police officers and firefighters worried about their retirement, we went after some of the most powerful financial companies and got people’s money back for them.”

DeWine, attorney general for the past eight years, first got into elected office in 1976 as Greene County prosecutor. He is also a former state senator, U.S. House member, lieutenant governor and U.S. senator. Cordray is a former state representative, Franklin County treasurer, state treasurer, attorney general and director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He resigned from the CFPB in December 2017 to run for governor.

Polls have the two candidates in a statistical dead-heat.

As for his top priorities, DeWine listed fighting the opioid epidemic, and filling the skills gap that holds people back from getting good-paying jobs.

“As governor, I will immediately begin implementing our 12-point comprehensive action plan [on the opioid crisis], including working to get more people into treatment, adding more drug courts in Ohio, establishing K-12 prevention education and giving people hope for the future,” he said.

Cordray said his top priorities are “putting money back into the pockets of middle-class Ohioans by increasing access to affordable healthcare, getting the education and training we and our children need to be effective in the workplace, and spreading out economic opportunity through all parts of Ohio so we can secure our future and the quality of life in our communities. We must build an inclusive economy that works for us all.”

He added: “We can focus on workforce development to ensure the skills and talent we need, strengthen our small businesses that are half our workforce, get money back from Columbus to our local communities, fire up our infrastructure including public transit, and step forward into the future with clean energy and the jobs it is creating.”