DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Republicans finally have a candidate for attorney general, and Mike Crites is confident he can come up with the more than $2 million he says it will take for his race against Democrat Richard Cordray.

"As an athlete, as a naval officer and a prosecutor, I have never, ever entered into any contest that I did not fully expect to win," Crites, 60, said on Wednesday, July 23. "I would not be here today ... if I thought I was the sacrificial lamb of the Republican Party. ... I'm in this race to win on Nov. 4."

Even before Crites, a former U.S. attorney for the southern district of Ohio, introduced himself at a Statehouse press conference, however, Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern was belittling him as a "third-tier candidate."

"The Republicans finally found their candidate. ... I think they'd have better luck finding the Loch Ness monster," Redfern said at his own press briefing.

Cordray, now state treasurer, had $518,933 in his campaign account at the end of last year and has been campaigning and raising money for attorney general since Democrats settled on him as their AG candidate in mid-June. Independent Robert Owens also is in the race.

Crites, now in private practice in Columbus, came out firing. He said his 21 years of experience as a prosecutor, including more than six years as a U.S. attorney, make him the right candidate to clean up the mess left in the Ohio attorney general's office by Democrat Marc Dann. Dann resigned in May in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal.

Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Nancy Rogers to serve as attorney general until voters make their choice.

"I've prosecuted Republicans. I've prosecuted Democrats. I've prosecuted independents," Crites, making his first statewide race, said. "The only thing they have in common ... they broke the law."

He promised the same aggressive impartiality he used when he successfully prosecuted baseball great Pete Rose — one of Crites' boyhood heroes – for tax evasion in 1993.

Attorney general candidates

Richard Cordray

Party: Democrat

Age: 49

Current job: State treasurer

Previous experience: Franklin County treasurer, state

solicitor

Education:

Undergraduate, Michigan State University; law degree, University of Chicago

Mike Crites

Party: Republican

Age: 60

Current job: Managing partner, Rich, Crites & Ditmer; law director-prosecutor for Granville, Thornville, Commercial Point and Orient

Previous experience: U.S. attorney for southern Ohio, U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve

Education: Undergraduate, U.S. Naval Academy; law degree, Ohio Northern University

Robert Owens

Party: Independent

Age: 34

Current job: Trial

attorney

Previous experience:

Prosecutor in Sunbury, Ohio; clerk for federal judge

Education: Undergraduate, Ohio Wesleyan University; law degree, Capital University