COLUMBUS — — Gov.-elect Ted Strickland talked softly Wednesday but made clear he'll try to use a big stick if necessary to advance his campaign goal to turn around Ohio.

Strickland, a Democrat U.S. House member from Lisbon, defeated Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio secretary of state, 60-37 percent Tuesday, winning 73 of the Buckeye state's 88 counties.

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Strickland said his immediate priorities will be to assemble "stakeholders" to push ahead with his proposal to encourage investment in alternative energy sources such as ethanol and clean coal technology to create jobs, and to come up with a plan to make Ohio's school funding system constitutional.

He said he also wants to hold off on making any changes in the overhaul of the tax system passed last year to see how it is working. That includes opposing legislation, already approved by the House Ways and Means Committee, to accelerate a 21 percent income tax rate reduction over four years rather than five.

His plan to revisit the school funding issue could put him at odds with the Republican-controlled legislature. The Ohio Supreme Court four times has ruled against the funding system. But in the last decision, the court left it up to the legislature to fix the problem.

Strickland said he made a campaign commitment to tackle school funding, although he was criticized for not having a specific plan. He said he would try to bring all interested parties into a discussion to come up with a solution.

"I said that if this issue were not dealt with, regardless of whatever other positive things I may achieve as governor, that I will consider myself a failure" if no solution is reached, he said.

The "preferred choice is to have this problem dealt with legislatively through the regular legislative process and that would be my attempt and my goal.... If that is not possible, then as governor I will get behind a constitutional approach to fixing the problem."

That could require mounting a petition drive to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

As for the legislation accelerating the income tax rate reduction, Karen Tabor, spokeswoman for House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said Husted has pledged to look at it after the election but did not say for sure that it would be voted on during the lame- duck session that starts this month.

Strickland said, "I think ...we've got a lot of responsibilities in this state, a lot of unmet needs in this state... and it just does not make sense to me that we should leave so many needs unmet...."

He met with reporters at his campaign headquarters after thanking his campaign volunteers for their help.