WASHINGTON — Leading Democratic officials said it is too early to assume that former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray will run for governor in 2014 after a leading Senate Republican suggested the GOP might once again block his nomination to head the government’s consumer watchdog agency.

In an interview Thursday with Fox Business Network, Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho – the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee — said “this issue isn’t about Richard Cordray. It is about the agency itself and how it was structured,’’ adding that “there is ground there for us to move forward.’’

In a story posted on its web site Thursday, WBNS-TV of Columbus quoted an unnamed Democratic operative close to Cordray saying that the former state attorney general will return to Ohio “sooner than later’’ to mount his bid for next year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

But Greg Haas, chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Party said “the Republicans who are bought and paid for by Wall Street will likely not (confirm) Rich, but I think it it’s still a jump to say he will turn around and run for governor,’’ adding that Cordray could either take another federal post or return to Ohio.

Melissa Barnhart, a former fund-raiser for Cordray, said that “everything I’m aware of is that he’s 100 percent going for confirmation.’’

President Barack Obama in January re-nominated Cordray for a full term as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But Senate Republicans are vowing to block Cordray’s nomination – as they did last year – until the White House agrees to major revisions in the agency’s powers.

In particular, Republicans have demanded that the agency be operated by a commission of at least five members as opposed to a single director. When Congress created the agency in 2010, it chose to have a single director.

Cordray, reached by phone, declined to comment, pointing out that he has been nominated for the agency which writes consumer protection rules for such financial transactions as credit cards and home mortgages.

A federal appeals court in January ruled that Obama violated the Constitution when he used a recess appointment to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. Because Cordray was nominated the same day, legal analysts believe the court’s ruling would cover Cordray.

(Jessica Wehrman of the Washington Bureau and Dispatch senior writer Joe Hallett contributed to this report.)