DeWine, Husted cement new ticket
DAYTON — A Mike DeWine-Jon Husted team for the Republican gubernatorial nomination makes political and personal sense, the top of the new ticket said Thursday.
“It’s important they share the same values. … That person must not only be someone who can help the ticket, but what’s more important than that is finding the right person to help the governor,” Attorney General DeWine said of Secretary of State Husted.
DeWine and Husted completed the merger over a breakfast of Fran
DeWine-baked raspberry-lemon muffins on Wednesday at DeWine’s Columbus condo, agreeing to team up rather than battle each other to the wire — the Feb. 7 filing deadline — or beyond.
Husted said a primary battle with DeWine would have “left the winner bruised and broke with only a few months to build before the (November) election” while pitting their supporters against one another.
“There is nothing about my campaign for governor that will be lost,” Husted said. “We share common conservative values.”
The other two GOP contenders, the Donald Trump-friendly Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth vowed to stay the course.
“Ohio wants a governor who will challenge the status quo, not accede to it,” Taylor said. “We won’t get there, however, with old and typical answers offered by establishment politicians who are more comfortable being part of the system than challenging it.
“Mike DeWine is the past. I will fight for Ohio’s future.”
Taylor, 51, of Green, hopes to be Ohio’s first elected woman governor and has distanced herself from term-limited Gov. John Kasich, most notably opposing his expansion of the tax-funded Medicaid health-care program for low-income Ohioans. Kasich has endorsed Taylor.
“The election of Donald Trump sent a message to career politicians everywhere — if you continue to go along to get along, we will replace you,” Taylor said.
Renacci said the DeWine-Husted ticket combines for more than 60 years in politics. “If they think this is what Ohioans are looking for, they’re running in the wrong party’s primary,” said Renacci, who calls himself a conservative Columbus outsider who will “put Ohio first.”
Asked if the state party should endorse the new ticket, DeWine said he respects Taylor and Renacci, so “let’s just let this play out.”
The pair made their announcement at the University of Dayton, where Husted, now 50, was an All-American defensive back on the Flyers’ football team.
Husted said he and DeWine have not discussed his role in the administration if they win, but acknowledged a passion for economic and workforce development.
He complimented Kasich for his financial stewardship of Ohio and bringing back jobs, but noted, “We have to take it to the next level.”
DeWine and Husted each reported more than $4 million in campaign cash on hand at midyear, representing a potential windfall for the unified campaign. Husted can route his balance into DeWine’s account, but any donations from the same individuals or groups that exceed contribution limits when combined must be returned to donors, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Meanwhile, the Democratic campaign for governor is expected to feature the entrance next week of former Attorney General and Treasurer Richard Cordray, who resigned last week as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Multiple Democratic sources told The Dispatch that Cordray plans to enter the race against state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, former state Rep. Connie Pillich, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton and Ohio Supreme Court Justice William M. O’Neill.
If DeWine and Cordray won their party primaries, it would creae a rematch of their 2010 race for attorney general that DeWine won by about 1 percent of the vote.
DeWine, the 70-year-old former U.S. senator and lieutenant governor, said battling the opioid addiction crisis would be his first priority as governor, with economic development and schools also rating high on the to-do list.
“Come with us as we struggle and strive every day to create a new Ohio,” DeWine told the audience of about 200 supporters in Dayton.
Pillich was not impressed. “The DeWine-Husted ticket is nothing more than a coronation of the failed Republican status quo that has left our state broken. A vote for DeWine-Husted is a vote to continue a culture of handouts to the special interests while ignoring working people.”
On the edge of the crowd at DeWine and Husted’s announcement later at the Columbus Idea Foundry, a man stood in a “Make America Great Again” cap, a hooded Tyvek suit that hid his face and a gas mask dangling around his neck. “Drain the swamp. Don’t drink DeWine,” his sign said. The man, who refused to give his name, said he objected to DeWine because the attorney general paid no attention to “the forgotten people.”