Friday, August 06, 1999
Cordray gets ready to run
Facing Springer in primary doesn't scare him, he says
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Columbus lawyer Richard Cordray said he plans to be the Democrats' U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio next fall, Jerry Springer or no Jerry Springer.
The 40-year-old Democrat filed papers with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday to form an exploratory committee as the first step in his plan to take on Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, in the 2000 election.
The move by Mr. Cordray, who ran for Ohio attorney general last year and lost to Republican incumbent Betty Montgomery, comes in the middle of a national buzz over reports that Mr. Springer, the former Cincinnati mayor who is host of a raucous TV talk show, is considering a run for the DeWine seat.
Mr. Cordray said he had been thinking about making the race long before the Springer story emerged.
“I am one of many in the Democratic Party who have a lot of concern about what it would be like to have Jerry Springer in this race,” said Mr. Cordray, a former state solicitor and state representative.
Mr. Springer — who left politics in 1982 after running third in a three-candidate Democratic primary field for Ohio governor — has said he will decide by Labor Day.
The possibility of a Springer candidacy — which is being touted by one of Mr. Springer's old Cincinnati friends, Hamilton County Democratic Party Co-chairman Tim Burke — has provoked mostly a negative reaction, both at the state and national level.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, both have said that the talk show host would not be welcome among the Democrats in the Senate.
Mr. Cordray said that if the better-known Mr. Springer enters the race, it would not scare him.
“That wouldn't be a significant facTor in my decision,” said Mr. Cordray, who took 38 percent of the vote in his first run as a statewide candidate last year.
“If there has to be a primary, I will take on Jerry Springer or anyone else,” he said. “If Jerry does get in, there are going to be a lot of Democrats who want an alternative.”
Mr. Burke said that Mr. Cordray is “a friend” who would be “a great candidate and a good United States senator. But so would Jerry.”
“Obviously, he'd have some hurdles to overcome,” Mr. Burke said of Mr. Springer. “But I know Jerry to be the finest stump speaker I have ever seen. No one has his ability to connect with an audience.”
If Mr. Springer does not run, the field could be open for Mr. Cordray. Most of the other Ohio Democrats who have been approached by party leaders about taking on Mr. DeWine have declined.
The Cordray exploratory committee includes former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan and William Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.
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