Crime fighter showdown

Perhaps that’s why, even as Crites asserts his toughness, he finds it necessary to uphold his own sense of propriety.

“I’m not coming in with guns blazing. I think people would say I’m a very aggressive—but professional—prosecutor,” he said.

Crites’s promises may echo those of a scandal-scarred Democrat, but Republicans are wise enough to embrace a candidate with the experience to back it up, said John McClelland, a spokesman for the state GOP.

“Marc Dann was rhetoric. Mike Crites has record,” McClelland said.  “Crites isn’t coming in as some kind of crusader saying he’s going to clean up corruption—although he’s going to do that–Crites is running for the job because he’s qualified to do it and he wants to do it well.”

Lately, Cordray has been talking up the year or two he spent in the ’90s working in the AG’s office as Ohio’s first state solicitor and all those years spent teaching constitutional law at OSU before he served in the Ohio House of Representatives. But Cordray might be less known for his lawyering than for his financial prowess.

Described by his opponent as “a man of character,” Cordray, the current state treasure and former Franklin county treasurer, suffered an unsuccessful run for the AG’s spot against the popular Betty Montgomery in 1998.

“I’ve had triumphs and defeats over my political career,” Cordray said. “It teaches you a little sober humility about whole thing.”

Between 1998 and now, Cordray said his time in local and state office “makes you a better public official.” Plus, he’s had a chance to fight credit card companies as a financial advocate for consumers, while encouraging financial literacy and working to prevent foreclosure.

His reputation as an honorable, mild-mannered politician is perhaps shored up by the famously repeated anecdote—Cordray is a five-time Jeopardy! champion.

The whole package is enough of a stark contrast to keep any semblance of Dann from sticking—not that Crites hasn’t tried to tie the two—but the GOP says Cordray’s lack of experience in the courtroom will be a detriment to the state.

 “We’re not questioning his character. There are enough people out there who know he’s a good person. We just don’t think he’s the right choice,” said McClelland.

Crites—a 60-year-old a managing partner for the Columbus law firm of Rich, Crites & Dittmer LLC —is billing himself as a lifelong prosecutor and a political outsider who has no plans to run for anything other than Ohio Attorney General.

The former U.S. attorney—whose only political run has been for Olentangy Local School Board—said he’s got more courtroom experience than the last seven AGs combined. And if the race boils down to a battle of the decades-old anecdotes, than Crites’s campaign is reminding voters that he prosecuted and put Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose behind bars.

But recent polls show the Jeopardy! champion maintaining a double-digit lead and a huge funding advantage over Charlie Hustle’s prosecutor. In August, Cordray raised $300,000 to Crites’s $75,000 in campaign contributions, leaving Cordray with about 30 times more money in his campaign coffers.

“I am straightforward and I treat people with respect,” Cordray said of his personality. “I create a good climate of professionalism–which can be seen in the office I’ve run now.”

The nice-guy persona is a gamble, though. “Tough” is the characteristic most Ohioans typically want from the state’s top crime fighter.

Even Dems seems a tad reluctant to embrace Cordray’s Clark Kent commonalities.

“I think he’s tough,” Redfern said before quickly adding the delicate id to the tough-man ego. “People need a little dose of truth about what the attorney general does,” Redfern said. “I chuckle when I hear words like ‘crime fighter’ and ‘Top Cop,’” especially considering the state’s chief legal counsel often times doesn’t prosecute criminals, but rather, investigates, collects information and sends the case back to county or city prosecutors to battle in court. The AG needs to be able to administer, Redfern said, and “Rich Cordray is the smartest, most qualified man for the job.”

The AG is the chief law enforcement authority and oversees assistant attorneys general who often prosecute on behalf of the state’s boards, counties and municipalities. The office has about 35,000 active cases on its plate at any given time, and the AG can choose how much time—if any—that he or she wants to spend in the courtroom, said Jim Gravelle, spokesman for Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, who was appointed by Strickland to finish the year in the office.

“If you think of the state’s Top Cop in terms of someone in uniform, out on the beat in a county or municipally, then the term might be misleading,” Gravelle said. “But you have to be very tough at defending the laws of the state of Ohio.”

Republicans argue that Crites just has a little catching up to do. He came into the race late after more prominent Republicans—former attorneys general Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery, county prosecutors Ron O’Brien and Dave Yost and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, to name a few—passed on the opportunity.

Plus, the AG’s race has a recent history of underdog upsets, Crites said, not the least of which was Dann’s win over Montgomery—a victory often credited to the same Republican backlash the GOP now hopes sticks to the Dems.

But despite the high hopes of the Ohio GOP, it might simply be too late for Crites to close the gap.

“No one knows who Mike Crites is, and that’s why he’ll lose,” Redfern said.

That, or those wispy bangs Cordray sports so endearingly.