Women on nearly all tickets for governor
Three more Ohio gubernatorial running mates emerged on Tuesday, and they’re all becoming part of mixed-gender tickets.
Richard Cordray will formally choose former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton as his running mate Wednesday at an Akron restaurant, a source close to the Democrat’s campaign confirmed.
Across the state at a city mission in Cincinnati, Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor will pick Nathan Estruth, president and chief executive officer of Hamilton-based iMFLUX, an injection-molding company.
And Supreme Court Justice William M. O’Neill took to Facebook on Tuesday to reveal his selection: Chantelle Lewis, principal of Larkmoor Elementary School in Lorain.
In what many political pundits are labeling the Year of the Woman, the announcements guarantee a female on every majorparty gubernatorial ticket except that of GOP Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted. Dennis Kucinich, a former congressman and Cleveland mayor who reportedly will announce his candidacy next week, has not chosen a running mate.
Cordray is naming a fellow alumni of President Obama’s administration in Sutton, a suburban Akron resident who had been running for governor herself. Cordray was tabbed by Barack Obama as the first head of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a post he left in November to run for governor. Sutton was chosen by the president as administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.
Cordray also is former Ohio attorney general and treasurer, and Sutton is a former member of Congress and state representative.
During her stint on the campaign trail stretching back to last summer, Sutton touted her involvement in passing Obama’s “cash-forclunkers” program during the Great Recession and slammed DeWine for not doing more to go after the makers of opioid drugs.
Taylor’s selection of Estruth was confirmed by sources close to her campaign. The formal announcement will come Wednesday at City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati.
Estruth, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA, formerly was vice president of Procter & Gamble’s FutureWorks division.
He served as a sevenyear board member of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit that seeks to protect Christian values, mainly through the legal system.
Estruth, a GOP ally of former Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, was president of a former issues advocacy group known as Common Sense Ohio, which ran advertising in 2006 critical of Democrat Ted Strickland, who defeated Blackwell for governor.
Taylor is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in a threeway contest with DeWine and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth, who has named Cincinnati City Council Member Amy Murray to his ticket. Renacci, however, also is considering a U.S. Senate bid, after state Treasurer Josh Mandel withdrew Friday from the race for the seat now held by Democrat Sherrod Brown.
In his announcement on Wednesday, Democrat O’Neill said Lewis, a 42-year-old AfricanAmerican woman, would help bring balance to his ticket.
“I gave myself a shopping list about a month ago,” O’Neill said, describing his process for selecting a running mate. He said he hadn’t met Lewis before that.
In addition to bringing racial and gender balance to the ticket, Lewis’ background in education also complements O’Neill’s legal training and his background as a nurse, he said.
Lewis was at work Tuesday and unavailable for comment. But in a video on O’Neill’s Facebook page, she said she has earned two master’s degrees and is working on her doctorate, adding that she is a lifelong educator who brings “common sense focus” to improving and better funding schools.
Also in the video, O’Neill blistered the state’s “illegal funding system” for producing a “failing education system.”
Citing Lewis’ experience as an East Cleveland City Council member, O’Neill said, “I have no reservations about sending her out there to rural counties. She will warm their hearts.”
O’Neill, who has said he will step down from the Supreme Court on Jan. 26, had earlier asked another candidate in the race — former state Rep. Connie Pillich of suburban Cincinnati — to join his ticket, but Pillich turned him down.
Also in the Democratic field are Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, who last week announced Ohio Board of Education member Stephanie Dodd as his running mate.