43
Cordray criticizes DeWine’s political record during Youngstown stop
YOUNGSTOWN
Rich Cordray, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, sharply criticized his Republican opponent, Attorney General Mike DeWine, during a stop in Youngstown.
Cordray spoke Friday at a Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber event at the Youngstown Business Incubator’s Tech Block Building No. 5, a former Vindicator building.
“Mike DeWine’s been in politics for 42 years, and his record is very long and clear,” Cordray said. “He was for every tax cut for the rich that blew up the deficit. He was for every bad trade deal that hollowed out the middle class in Ohio, and he was for loosening the reins on Wall Street that ultimately blew up the economy and destroyed our businesses on Main Street. That’s his economic record.”
In comparison, Cordray said: “My economic record is helping small businesses grow and create jobs when I was state treasurer, defending our pension system to get money back from Wall Street – $2 billion I got back when I was attorney general and helping consumers have a voice and get problems fixed in the financial marketplace as the consumer watchdog.
“My background is fighting special interests to protect people. His background has been serving special interests in the Congress and in every job he’s ever had,” he added.
Josh Eck, a DeWine campaign spokesman, said, “The fact is that when [former Gov.] Ted Strickland and Richard Cordray were in charge, Ohio lost 400,000 jobs and left an $8 billion budget hole. Just when we’ve recovered, Richard Cordray has come back to do more damage.
“Mike DeWine has a plan to focus on vocational training and spur investment into the most in-need areas of our state so we can take our economy to the next level. The dark economic days of Ted Strickland and Richard Cordray are gone, and Mike DeWine has his eye on the future,” Eck said.
Cordray said that to blame him for the Great Recession because he served two years as attorney general is ludicrous. The problem was caused by “failed” national policies, he said.
When asked about the differences on health care between him and DeWine, Cordray said they are profound.
“His [DeWine] first day in office, he wanted to overturn the law that protects people with pre-existing conditions. That’s almost half of Ohio. By the way, the rest of us who don’t know we have a pre-existing condition may find out tomorrow we’re diagnosed with something we didn’t know we had. His priority was to take away their health care,” the Democratic candidate said.
Cordray said: “My priority is to reduce costs, put money back in people’s pockets and improve health in Ohio, saving the Medicaid expansion, fighting to keep and improve the administration of health care across the board, including the health insurance exchange, including negotiating harder to bring down prescription drug prices including cutting out the greedy middlemen who are taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of our system and should be put back in patients’ pockets and improve our health care.”
Eck said, “Mike DeWine has always been in favor of covering pre-existing conditions, but unlike Richard Cordray, he was, and is, opposed to the mandates and taxes of Obamacare. Mike DeWine is the only candidate in the race who has a plan to improve health outcomes for Ohioans and bring down costs.”
DeWine and Cordray face each other in the Nov. 6 election.