First Ad Launched In Ohio Governor's Race

COLUMBUS, OH — In the race to be Ohio’s next governor, Republican candidate Mike DeWine is the first to attack, with an ad depicting Democrat rival Richard Cordray as soft on crime.

This is very likely the first salvo in what will be a highly contentious gubernatorial race. Both men are keen to replace the term-limited John Kasich, and both Cordray and DeWine have done this duel before.

In 2010, Cordray was Ohio's Attorney General. He was challenged that year by Mike DeWine for the position. After a tense election, DeWine eked out a win, riding a nationwide red wave, and beating Cordray by a 1.3 percent margin.

Now, with both men competing to be the state's executive officer, DeWine is eager to compare records as the state's top lawyer. In his ad, he claims that when he took office, replacing Cordray, he immediately set about testing nearly 14,000 rape kits, kits which had been untested during Cordray's tenure.

To that end, the ad is true. The controversy over Ohio's backlog of untested rape kits emerged when the Plain Dealer's Rachel Dissell and Leila Atassi began publishing stories asking why the state did not have a standardized policy for handling rape kits.

With public pressure hot, Cordray began implementing robotics and other tools into testing labs to speed up the testing process, cleveland.com reported. Before he could take further action, he was ousted from office by DeWine. Eight years later, in February 2018, DeWine announced that his office had overseen the testing of some 14,000 rape kits.

But the ad is more than just a calculated attack on Cordray's tenure as Attorney General, it's also an attempt by DeWine to win public support from residents that value "law-and-order." The Attorney General took public flak after it was revealed that 53 of 99 Bureau of Criminal Investigation officers (overseen by DeWine's office) received expired Kevlar vests. The Fraternal Order of Police then endorsed Cordray, cleveland.com noted.

DeWine also suffered a grueling primary battle against Kasich's Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor. Prior to the attack ad's release on Wednesday, the Republican candidate to lead Ohio was relatively quiet.

Cordray, on the other hand, has been releasing a series of light-hearted YouTube videos showing him reading "Mean Tweets" and taking part in Ohio "Jeopardy!" The videos are clearly an attempt to humanize a candidate that may be unfamiliar to young Ohioans, who largely vote Democrat, when motivated.

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Photo from YouTube Screen Capture