COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Gov. Ted Strickland quickly named maturity as the top quality he's looking for in a successor to disgraced Attorney General Marc Dann.
Not a surprise, given the steady stream of tales emerging from the office involving alcohol-soaked pizza parties, alleged drunken driving in state vehicles and parties with young employees.
It's clear the 66-year-old Strickland, who hasn't ruled out running for a second term in 2010, wasn't referring to age. So what did he mean, and how do the possible replacements measure up to the "m'' word?
"It's important that people of experience and strong qualifications seek public office and that's certainly the kind of individual that I will be looking for," Strickland said early in Wednesday's news conference, minutes after Dann announced his resignation.
OK. That was probably a nod to Dann's acknowledgment May 2 that he was not prepared for the office or to run such a large agency. So what about the maturity part?
"Experience," Strickland elaborated. "Management ability."
"Those certainly are criteria that I think are essential," he said. "Especially now, we need someone who can provide confidence to the many, many employees of the attorney general's office. Someone who is recognized as a person of great integrity."
So how mature's mature? It's a question some of the Democrats whose names are surfacing as possible replacements weren't quite ready to address Thursday.
"That's a riot," said Kimber Perfect, spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. "That's the best question I've gotten all week."
But not good enough to answer, since she referred all questions about the attorney general's job to Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey.
"Take it at face value," Dailey said, asked what the governor meant by maturity. "Maturity means maturity, in judgment and experience."
So in the absence of any other direction, here's an unscientific list of some candidates and their maturity quotient:
—State Treasurer Richard Cordray. Elected to his first statewide office two years ago, Cordray has a squeaky clean reputation (bordering on boring, in a good sense) and appears to have kept politics out of the office.
Maturity quotient: lost some "m'' points when he tried to leapfrog from a lowly state lawmaker to statewide officeholder, only to be trounced in runs for attorney general and U.S. Senate. Gained those points back when he salvaged his political career by running and winning the seat of Franklin County treasurer before winning the statewide job.
—Higher Education Chancellor Eric Fingerhut. Appointed to the state's top higher education job by Strickland as part of a move giving the governor more control over the Board of Regents. As a state senator, sometimes called the "brain" (in a friendly way!) because of his grasp of a variety of complex issues.
Maturity quotient: has been around the political block a few times, including one term in Congress in 1992 before the 1994 Republican revolution sent him packing. Distinguished himself in a statewide run for U.S. Senate. Some felt he hung around too long as a possible Democratic nominee for governor before bowing to the inevitable Strickland juggernaut.
—Ben Espy. The executive attorney general who at Dann's instructions led the office's internal investigation of the harassment probe.
Maturity quotient: puts the "esp" in respect, starting with "recruited to play football at Ohio State by Woody Hayes." Also a former Air Force lawyer, lawyer in the attorney general's office in the 1970s, Columbus city councilman and state senator. Ran an unsuccessful campaign for Ohio Supreme Court two years ago and could be eligible for guilt by association for his brief stint as a member of Dann's senior cabinet.
—Fisher. Hard to question your maturity credentials when you're a former attorney general, as Fisher was from 1990 to 1994. He's also a former state lawmaker, unsuccessful candidate for governor and nonprofit CEO.
Maturity quotient: he's a party stalwart who's served his time with distinction and independence: he fought seven of the eight 11th-hour death row commutations granted by Democratic Gov. Dick Celeste in 1991. The biggest question mark is whether he really wants the job. A run for the U.S. Senate or another shot at the governor's post seems more likely.
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