COLUMBUS — Dennis White emerged the winner on Thursday of a tough battle for chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, taking the helm moments after his opponent stepped out of the race.

        “The stakes are incredibly high,” Mr. White, the Franklin County Democratic Party chairman, told the crowd of Central Committee members at the Columbus Airport Hotel. “State government is misspending millions of dollars each year. It's time for Democrats to take Ohio back.”

        Mr. White, 46, chief executive officer of Transport Consolidation, a truck freight company, said he will focus on raising money for statewide candidates and on creating an apprentice program that will help groom future candidates.

        Democrats have been out of power in Ohio for nearly a decade — failing in the last election to win even one statewide nonjudicial office. Just before Mr. White's speech, an emotional Dennis Lieberman declined the nomination for chairman, saying he didn't want to be an instrument for fragmenting the party.

        “It is not time for the Democrats to be divided. It is time to stand together,” said Mr. Lieberman, who is chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party.

        He warned that if Democrats don't succeed in putting more people in office, they will fail to help the people who need it most.

        “If we don't start winning elections, our discussions of social issues will fall on deaf ears,” he said. He said the party owes Democratic voters “a dignified, thoughtful plan to win elections.”

        Mr. Lieberman, 49, a Dayton defense attorney, had been pursing the chairmanship for months, courting Central Committee members across Ohio. But in the end, he didn't muster a majority of the 66 votes he needed to win, in part because six previously undecided committee members from Cincinnati threw their support to Mr. White.

        State Sen. Mark Mallory, leader of the Cincinnati delegation, said both candidates had excellent plans for the party but he voted for Mr. White because, “I factored in the breadth and depth of his support and it ran deep.”

        Mr. White said the race was close until he won over the Cincinnati members and with their support estimated he would have had 42 of the 66 committee members in his corner had a vote been taken. The new chairman replaces David Leland, who stepped down in May amid criticism he failed to recruit and groom winning candidates.

        Mr. Leland gave a lengthy farewell speech Thursday, telling the crowd he was particularly proud of the work he did to help former president Bill Clinton carry Ohio in 1996.

        He encouraged the party members to keep working hard to win elections. “You are the personnel department of the constitution,” he said. “You are the ones who keep the Democratic dream alive.”

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