Dems likely to lose only woman left
Only one of the original Democrats running for governor will still be in the race after Wednesday.
Connie Pillich will announce that she is ending her bid to seek the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor, a person familiar with Pillich’s campaign said Tuesday.
Pillich, a former state representative from Cincinnati, has scheduled a public appearance Wednesday with Richard Cordray, who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, and former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, who left her own campaign for governor to become Cordray’s running mate.
Pillich and her running mate, Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer, will be at Cordray’s headquarters on Columbus’ South Side at 11 a.m. Pillich’s campaign couldn’t be reached Tuesday.
If the past is any guide, Pillich will endorse Cordray at Wednesday’s announcement.
In January, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley called a news conference with Cordray in Dayton and announced that she was stepping down and endorsing Cordray, a Grove City resident. Two days earlier, Sutton and Cordray held a news conference in Akron to announce that Sutton was leaving her own race to run with Cordray.
But news that Pillich will leave the race comes as a surprise.
Just last week, she filed her petition of candidacy with the Ohio secretary of state. Also, with Sutton and Whaley already having dropped out, Pillich was the only woman seeking the Democratic nomination in a year that is shaping up to be an exceptionally strong one for women.
And it was just two weeks ago that Pillich made a campaign stop at a Columbus diner with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in which she said Cordray is a Democratic version of the Republican frontrunner for governor, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Pillich, a lawyer and Air Force veteran, served in the Ohio House from 2008 to 2015. She had $911,656 on hand when she filed her campaign-finance report at the end of January.
Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, was director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until he stepped down to run for governor late last year.
Among the others seeking the Democratic nomination are Ohio Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill of Chagrin Falls, former U.S. Rep. and Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich and Cleveland physician Jon Heavey.
In a statement Tuesday, Schiavoni said that he won’t be pressured to leave the race in favor of Cordray, who can boast of ties to former President Barack Obama and other national Democrats. Schiavoni said his party loses when political insiders control the process.
“This is the first day of a whole new primary,” Schiavoni said. “Every single one of my original opponents is gone. Everybody else has just joined the race. More than ever, we need a candidate who has been here, working on issues that matter to Ohio voters. I won’t be pressured into allowing history to repeat itself.”
In addition to DeWine, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor is seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
Taylor now becomes the only female majorparty candidate seeking the Ohio governor’s post.