O’Neill worried about Kucinich, not Cordray
ELECTION
With his five years on the Ohio Supreme Court at an end, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill O’Neill says the time has come to talk of many things:
Of his friend and fellow Democrat Rich Cordray being destined to lose in the primary, while Dennis Kucinich concerns him.
Of his marijuana-legalization plank paving his way to victory.
Of the state’s long-illegal school-funding system, solar panels and his tenure as the only Democrat amid six Republicans on the Ohio Supreme Court.
“I woke up this morning as a private citizen,” O’Neill said Friday as he began to arrange to hire a staff and raise campaign cash to pursue the Democratic nomination.
“People have been trying to give me money for 20 years. I’m finally going to give them that opportunity,” said O’Neill, who defeated Republican incumbent Robert Cupp in 2012 for his seat on the court while not accepting a cent in campaign donations.
After three months of controversy prompted by his refusal to surrender his black robe after announcing that he would run for governor and naming Lorain educator Chantelle Lewis as his running mate, O’Neill’s resignation — on his own terms — took effect Friday.
His attention now turns to the five-way race in the May 8 primary, a contest he says he can win with his signature platform plank and his “exceptionally good” name identification among voters as the only statewide elected Democrat besides U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“Legalizing marijuana in my mind is a no-brainer, and the voters will be on my side. That alone can elect me,” O’Neill said.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on legal marijuana sales and savings from not prosecuting and jailing nonviolent marijuana users would be plowed into building a “world-class mental-health network” in Ohio to treat opioid addicts “as victims rather than criminals,” he said.
O’Neill said he will unveil his school-funding proposal on Tuesday in remarks at the City Club of Cleveland. “It’s time that someone stood up and says how we replace the illegal funding of schools Ohio has suffered for the past 20 years. The Constitution says everybody gets an equal education, and that certainly is not true in Ohio.”
Another item on his to-do list in running for governor is calling for the installation of environmentally friendly solar panels on all state buildings to provide electricity while paying for their cost in seven years.
O’Neill initially said he would not run if Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general and federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, entered the race. “He’s a dear friend, but I’m in the race because he refused to adopt my progressive platform. Corday does not give me pause … he’s going to lose.”
”Dennis (Kucinich) could be a problem. Dennis and I both were (Bernie) Sanders supporters in ’16. We’re going to have to fight over the progressive voters,” O’Neill said.
In addition to the former Cleveland mayor and congressman, the primary has attracted state Sen. Joe Schivaoni of Boardman and former state Rep. Connie Pillich of Montgomery.
The winner will take on the survivor of the Republican primary: either Attorney General Mike DeWine or Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.
Mike Gwin, campaign spokesman for Cordray, declined to directly address O’Neill’s remarks, saying, “”Rich is going to remain focused on the issues that actually matter to voters, like improving schools, raising wages and ensuring that local governments have the resources they need.”
O’Neill, who never voted to uphold a death-penalty case, said he leaves a legacy on the Ohio Supreme Court of calling them as he saw them based on the merits, with politics never a consideration — even among the six Republicans with whom he served.
“We all worked very well together. Politics did not matter at the Supreme Court of Ohio,” he said, adding that an analysis of 4-3 decisions found him most often aligned with former Justice Paul E. Pfeifer and Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor.
O’Neill said he will push the Ohio Democratic Party to devote time and money to this year’s two high-court races. Republican appellate judge Mary DeGenaro, of Youngstown, is running after being appointed by Gov. John Kasich on Thursday to complete O’Neill’s term. Republicans again hold all seven seats.
O’Neill was the first Democrat to win a high-court election since Alice Robie Resnick in 2000.
“I will be actively steering the Ohio Democratic Party to finally pay some attention to the third branch of government. It’s outrageous they have done nothing for court candidates for at least 20 years.”
The 70-year-old former judge, registered nurse and Army veteran of Vietnam begins his campaign in earnest, he said, after a flap caused by his sexually charged Facebook post in which he boasted of having sex with 50 “very attractive women” and decried media “hysteria” over reports of sexual misbehavior by former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. O’Neill soon deleted the post and apologized.