Ohioans to make choices for governor

In just over a week, Ohio voters can start casting ballots in this year’s primary elections. We say the primary election day is May 8, but that’s actually the last day to vote; county boards of election will start accepting absentee ballots by mail and welcoming early in-person voting April 10.

That means time is drawing short for deciding which candidates you’d like to see face off in November for the state’s most powerful office. With Gov. John Kasich prohibited by term limits from running again, the governor’s office will get a new resident in the fall elections, and both the Democratic and Republican primaries are being fiercely fought for the right to be on the November ballot.

Democrats will choose from an especially crowded field:

• Richard Cordray of Columbus, former state treasurer attorney general and most recently the inaugural director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in

Washington, D.C.;

• Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland, a former state senator, congressman and Cleveland mayor;

• State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, a lawyer;

• Former male stripper and 2014 candidate Larry Ealy of Trotwood, and;

• Bill O’Neill of Chagrin Falls, a lawyer and registered nurse and former Ohio Supreme Court justice.

Republicans’ choices are whittled down to two: Attorney General and former U.S. Senator Mike DeWine of Cedarville and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor of Uniontown. The field was initially more robust, but Secretary of State Jon Husted opted to run with DeWine as his lieutenantgovernor candidate and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci switched races to oppose the re-election bid of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Primary battles in both major parties for the governor’s office don’t happen very often, and it’s been nearly four decades since the office attracted this much interest.

Four years ago, Kasich had no primary opposition for a second term and the Democratic primary had just two contenders, with Ed FitzGerald easily emerging against Ealy with 83 percent of the vote. In 2010, Democrat Ted Strickland had no primary opposition to seeking a second term. And on the Republican side, Kasich was unopposed in the primary to challenge Strickland (and ultimately take the office from him).

In 2006, Strickland had an opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary but ended up with nearly 80 percent of the primary vote and then prevailing in November. The right to run for governor was a closer fight for Republicans that year, with Ken Blackwell besting Jim Petro in a 55.744.3 split in the primary.

The last time there were so many candidates running for governor in Ohio was 1982, when voters had three choices in the Democratic primary and four in the Republican primary. Clarence “Bud” Brown Jr., then a U.S. congressman, won the Republican