Blackwell

        Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell wants to take back the state treasurer's job he handed over to fellow Cincinnati Republican Joe Deters a little over two years ago.

        Mr. Deters, who was elected treasurer in 1998, is running for Ohio attorney general in 2002. Mr. Blackwell, elected the state's chief elections officer in 1998, said he will run next year for treasurer, the job he had from 1993 through 1998.

        “I'm running for re-election as treasurer,” Mr. Blackwell said Monday.

        “I'm ready to pick up where I left off.”

        At this point, the lineup of Republican statewide candidates for the 2002 election is as complicated as the scorecard for a spring training baseball game.

        The only certainty is that the incumbent Republican governor, Bob Taft, will be a candidate for re-election.

        After that, the exact lineup for the GOP is a bit murky. The Republicans hold all the statewide offices.

        Mr. Deters, the former Hamilton County prosecutor, announced last week he would not run for re-election as treasurer and run instead for attorney general, in hopes of replacing incumbent Republican Betty Montgomery, who cannot run for a third term.

        Many Ohio GOP leaders had hoped state Auditor Jim Petro and Ms. Montgomery would simply switch jobs in 2002, but Mr. Deters' announcement sets up a primary battle with Mr. Petro for the attorney general nomination that the Ohio GOP had hoped to avoid.

        Mr. Blackwell, who turned down a high-level job in the Bush administration this year, will try to retake the treasurer's job that launched him as a statewide political figure.

        “My past performance as treasurer gives me a record I can stand on,” Mr. Blackwell said. “It's the job I want.”

        The former Cincinnati mayor said one of the principal reasons he ran for secretary of state in 1998 was that the Ohio GOP leadership asked him to do it, at a time when Mr. Blackwell was considering challenging Mr. Taft in the gubernatorial primary.

        Mr. Blackwell's decision to run for secretary of state enabled the party to avoid a divisive primary battle that year.

        When Mr. Blackwell turned down an offer from Secretary of State Colin Powell to join the Bush administration, he said he was doing so in part because he hoped to run for Ohio governor in 2006, when Mr. Taft, if he is re-elected next year, will be forced out by term limits.

        The state treasurer's job has historically attracted more campaign dollars from the GOP's supporters in the business community — particularly from Ohio bankers. The treasurer has the job of investing Ohio's public funds.

        If Mr. Blackwell follows through on his plan to run for state treasurer, the Ohio GOP will be looking for a candidate for secretary of state.

        Among the possible candidates mentioned in Ohio GOP circles are Ann Womer Benjamin, a state representative from suburban Cleveland, and Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen.

        Mr. Allen said Monday he wouldn't close the door on a run for statewide office next year, but said it is not a decision he is likely to make anytime soon.

        “I am kind of inundated with what I am doing right now,” Mr. Allen said.

        “It's something I might be interested in, but I like what I'm doing now.”

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