As Ohio Democrats scramble to decide who will run for U.S. Senate, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley put down a $500,000 marker on the Ohio governor s race.
Cranley, 46, hasn t officially declared a gubernatorial bid, but the money he s raised since July is consistent with someone making a strong opening offer.
Cranley has apparently already picked his race. The Cincinnati Democrat created a fundraising committee for governor last February. Since then, he s raised over $500,000
and has $440,000 on hand. Money has been spent on research, travel, online processing costs and on Cincinnati-based Rivertown Strategies to run the political operation.
“If I run, my theme will be jobs, jobs and more jobs, Cranley said in a statement. For too long the one-party corrupt rule of Republicans has meant higher taxes and less jobs for the vast majority of Ohioans.
The 20th District consists of Greenup and Lewis counties.
Brian McCloud, of Worthington, Paul Craft, of Russell, and Matthew Warnock, of Ashland, are the three nominees.
McCloud is the District Court judge for Greenup and Lewis counties. He received his juris doctor from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, according to kentucky.gov.
Craft is a managing partner with McGinnis Leslie, a general practice law firm. He serves as the city attorney for both Worthington and South Shore in Greenup County. Craft received his juris doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
Warnock is with Warnock & Warnock and serves as an assistant county attorney for Greenup County. He received his juris doctor from the University of Dayton School of Law.
1:01 Retired Hamilton County Judge Ann Marie Tracey will serve as chair. She says they plan to do a 360-degree review of the city s current development process. We re going to look at the hard copy guidelines that we find contained in the city charter; state law; state legislation; ethics laws; codes of conduct; we re going to look at best practices throughout the country, Tracey said. And in so doing, we hope to be able to formulate some recommendations to City Council and to the administration.
Tracey is a former chair of the Ohio Ethics Commission. I can t imagine having a more qualified person to be the chairperson of this commission, Cranley said. I m very proud and honored that she s willing to serve and we re lucky that she is.