Attorney General Cordray is working every day to keep these promises, and will continue his record of fighting for Ohioans if he is re-elected to another term.

COLUMBUS - Hundreds of supporters of Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray braved snowy weather conditions to hear him announce his candidacy for re-election in the Atrium of The Statehouse today.

"I am proud to be announcing today my candidacy for re-election," said Cordray. "In my time as Ohio's Attorney General, we have restored integrity to the office, kept criminals behind bars, and fought public corruption. We have also worked hard to protect Ohio citizens from greed in its many forms - we have recovered billions so far in major cases against nefarious Wall Street banks, increased our consumer protection efforts, and set new records for taxpayers by cleaning up fraud and abuse in Ohio's Medicaid program. I look forward to presenting my record to the voters of Ohio and continuing to fight for the hardworking people of Ohio."

Richard Cordray was elected Ohio Attorney General in November 2008. He previously served as Ohio Treasurer of State, Franklin County Treasurer, State Representative, and as Ohio's first Solicitor General.

Cordray's career has been guided by the spirit of community service and the belief that government should strive to make a positive difference in the daily lives of its citizens. As state representative, he sponsored the Ohio Community Service Education Act. An accomplished lawyer, Cordray has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and taught constitutional law for 13 years at The Ohio State University's law school. In 2003, he earned the Presidential Service Award from the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation for his work supporting legal services for the poor, and in 2000 the Human Rights Campaign named him "Humanitarian of the Year" for his efforts to promote tolerance and understanding in Ohio communities.

As Ohio Treasurer, Richard Cordray managed the state's investment portfolio of about $18 billion. His commitment to cutting costs, enhancing economic development, and promoting financial security among Ohioans earned national recognition in 2008, including the Excellence in Government Leadership Award from the Association of Government Accountants and NeighborWorks America's Government Service Award as the foremost national leader in state government for his work on foreclosure prevention.
Cordray earned a master's degree with first-class honors from Oxford University in England and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was the editor of the Law Review. He lives near Grove City with his wife, Peggy, and their young twins. His earliest claim to fame was as an undefeated five-time champion on the Jeopardy TV show.

AG touts successes during partial term, attacks DeWine

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray kicked off his campaign yesterday for his first full term with a forceful argument for his accomplishments during the past 13 months and a couple of digs at his likely Republican challenger, former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine.

Cordray, who was elected in 2008 to serve the last two years of fellow Democrat Marc Dann's term, referred to both the sexual-harassment scandal that forced Dann from office and the coin-investment scandal that tainted the Republican ticket in 2006.

Cordray was elected state treasurer that year, while DeWine lost his bid for re-election to the Senate.

"Other candidates talk about cleaning up corruption and restoring the integrity of the office," Cordray said. "We have done it in two offices over the last three years."
Cordray also downplayed a poll by the DeWine campaign showing that the former senator has higher name recognition than Cordray and a significant advantage going into the campaign.

"People knew him well enough that they voted him out of office in 2006," Cordray said. "It was a 12-point loss, a significant loss."

DeWine's campaign fired back in a statement.

"Richard Cordray hasn't earned the trust of Ohioans," DeWine's statement said. "As attorney general, he has continued many of the policies and practices of disgraced former Attorney General Marc Dann. Whether it's raising campaign money from people who do business with the state or suing small businesses in an attempt to gain publicity, Richard Cordray has far too much in common with Marc Dann. I will campaign aggressively for this position and tell Ohioans how I will fight for their interests as their next attorney general."

Cordray said he has restored the integrity of the attorney general's office and the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, a branch of the office that also was touched by scandal during Dann's term. The attorney general said he has held Wall Street companies accountable for misdeeds -- also a hallmark of Dann's tenure -- and collected $2 billion for Ohio workers, pensioners and investors.

Cordray also said his office has stepped up enforcement of consumer-protection laws, taken on the "scourge" of human trafficking, successfully argued two death-penalty cases and made the state's law-enforcement database accessible to users of smartphones and other handheld devices.

Columbus, Ohio - Campaign finance reports for the previous six-month period were due to be filed with the Secretary of State's office this past Friday. No incumbent candidate for Ohio Attorney General has ever been able to raise much more than $1.5 million at this early point of a campaign (January of an election year).

"Democratic incumbent Richard Cordray raised $516,792 to close 2009 with $2.6 million in the bank, another record, according to the Ohio Democratic Party. That eclipsed the $1 million that Republican challenger Mike DeWine had on hand, half of which was a loan to his own campaign."

The Cordray campaign has more than two-and-a-half times the funds on-hand of our likely opponent (a former U.S. senator who was thrown out of office by Ohio voters in 2006). What's more, if you take away the half-million dollars that said opponent loaned himself on the day the reports were due (a clear effort to artificially inflate his campaign balance after failing to gain significant financial support for his fledgling candidacy), the Cordray campaign would have five times the funds-on hand.

Of course, it's no wonder so many Ohioans support the re-election campaign of Attorney General Richard Cordray. Rich's qualifications are simply unmatched, he has an impeccable record of protecting Ohioans and fighting Wall Street greed, and he has restored integrity to the Ohio Attorney General's office.

Thank you for all that you have done to help elect Richard Cordray our Attorney General. Please continue to support our efforts to keep Richard Cordray fighting for Ohioans.

Heading into his third statewide campaign in four years, Attorney General Richard Cordray said his record will speak for itself as he announced his candidacy for re-election Tuesday.

Mr. Cordray highlighted three other promises he made in his 2008 campaign and illustrated how his office has kept those promises, saying, "I always believed in results, not rhetoric."

Mike DeWine, the likely Republican candidate for AG, said Mr. Cordray hasn't won Ohioans' trust during his time in office.

Mr. Cordray said he sought to restore order and integrity to the AG's office, as he did to the Treasurer's office before.  "Other candidates talk about cleaning up corruption and reforming government; we have done it in two distinct offices over three years," he said. "My job was to clean up the taint left by the Dann administration scandals, and we have done that over this past year."  Additionally, the AG said both he and his employees took a pay cut, making the office more effective and efficient for taxpayers.

Mr. Cordray also said he has succeeded in supporting local law enforcement in fighting crime and defending Ohio communities. He said he expanded the Special Prosecutions Unit by 50%, which has assisted county prosecutors with major felony cases.  "We've been rooting out waste and fraud and abuse - the kind that everybody talks about in the Medicaid system but few do anything about," he said, illuminating his office's recovery of $91 million in Medicaid fraud.  New tools and technology have been presented to law enforcement, such as the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway search engine, which has been made accessible through smart phones and handheld devices, he said.

Mr. DeWine also looked to tie the incumbent to former Attorney General Marc Dann.
"As Attorney General, he has continued many of the policies and practices of disgraced former Attorney General Marc Dann," Mr. DeWine said. "Whether it's raising campaign money from people who do business with the state or suing small businesses in an attempt to gain publicity, Richard Cordray has far too much in common with Marc Dann. I will campaign aggressively for this position and tell Ohioans how I will fight for their interests as their next Attorney General."

Mr. Cordray told reporters he does not try to position himself on the political spectrum.  "How people perceive me grows out of work we do," he said.

Mr. Cordray also said he does not fear Mr. DeWine's advantage of statewide name recognition.

"I do think that something Mike DeWine brings is his name is known," he said. "On the other hand, people knew him well enough that they voted him out of office in 2006. It was a 12-point loss, a significant loss, and a rejection of his record in the US Senate."

Richard Cordray may not look the part, but the Ohio attorney general has assumed the pit bull role once played by Eliot Spitzer and Rudy Giuliani

Richard Cordray lives in a 130-year-old brick farmhouse near Grove City, Ohio, just four miles from the modest home where he polished his jump shot growing up. He played varsity basketball for the local high school and was valedictorian. In 1987, Cordray won $45,303 on the game show Jeopardy!, retiring as a rare five-time champion. Now, Cordray, 50, is his home state's attorney general. His ethics appear above reproach. When the Dayton Daily News endorsed him for attorney general in 2008 it called him a "choir boy"--a comparison that almost understates the perfection of his résumé. Choir boys sometimes sing off-key.

On Wall Street, Cordray is seen less as too-good-to-be-true than as the heir of pit bull prosecutors-turned-politicians such as Eliot Spitzer and Rudy Giuliani. In the past year, Cordray, a Democrat, has sued Merrill Lynch for allegedly misleading investors and former American International Group (AIG) executives for alleged accounting fraud--winning settlements of $475 million and $115 million, respectively. He's the lead plaintiff in a multistate suit against Bank of America (BAC) alleging that the firm withheld bad news from investors just before its 2009 acquisition of Merrill Lynch. More recently, Cordray has taken on bond-rating agencies Standard & Poor's (MHP), Moody's Investors Service (MCO), and Fitch Ratings, which he says deliberately gave triple-A ratings to junky debt to win fees and retain business. "Some Wall Street corporations seem to act with complete and total disregard for the work of regular Ohioans," says Cordray. "My central goal, and the goal of this office, is to protect those hard-working Ohioans."

Cordray, who was elected attorney general in 2008 following the resignation of fellow Democrat Marc Dann amid a sex scandal, says he's not planning to run for governor in 2014. Others predict he will. "I think it's quite likely," says John C. Green, professor of political science at the University of Akron. "Building a record while in office is good politics in any event--it can help him this year and in future elections." John Fortney, a local television news anchor who has covered Ohio politics for two decades and was a panelist at the 2008 attorney general debate, is certain Cordray will enter the race. "I think you will find him making a run for governor just because the party needs him."

As attorney general, Cordray has chosen his cases with the care of someone intent on burnishing a political résumé. "He files these suits more for politics than for good policy," says Mark R. Weaver, who from 1995 to 1999 served as deputy attorney general under Republican Betty Montgomery and now works as a political consultant. Cordray says his case selection is apolitical. Shortly after taking office, he says, he threw out a suit against lead-paint manufacturers--an easy political target if ever there were one--because the state's legal arguments were too flimsy.

In suing the rating agencies, Cordray is taking on his biggest challenge yet. The firms may be vilified by people angry about the credit crisis, but they're also tough legal competitors. Over the years the ratings firms have succeeded many times in persuading courts that bond ratings are nothing more than editorial opinions, and thus are subject to free speech protection under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In 1997, Orange County, Calif., lost a suit against Standard & Poor's on these grounds.

After the financial crisis, though, the First Amendment defense looks less solid. In September 2009, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court in New York denied a motion from Moody's and S&P to dismiss a suit brought by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and King County, Wash., on First Amendment grounds. "The crux of the cases will be whether there was a known misrepresentation," says Spitzer, the former New York governor and, before that, attorney general, who is a Cordray admirer. "Being wrong is not a crime." Kevin M. LaCroix, an attorney and partner at OakBridge Insurance Services, says of the suit's chances: "I think it's an uphill but not insurmountable battle." Moody's and S&P say the suit is without merit. Fitch didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
Cordray, a corporate lawyer for two decades who has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, is bringing in top-flight private litigators for the fight. Whereas Spitzer famously assigned the bulk of his office's legal work to in-house attorneys, Cordray is recruiting from big outside firms such as Entwistle & Cappucci, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, and Schottenstein Zox & Dunn. Critics say the practice wastes taxpayer money, since the outside attorneys will reap big contingency fees from any settlement. "Even if the cases are successful and Ohio recoups some money, a large portion is lost to paying well-connected plaintiffs' firms," says Weaver. In February members of the state's Controlling Board, a group charged with overseeing fiscal issues, demanded that Cordray's office justify the additional cost to the state. The board asked why the attorney general's office would pay attorneys from Hogan & Hartson $670 an hour in a case involving the University of Cincinnati's University Hospital when in-house lawyers command far less. Cordray says the cases are assigned on merit, and that the university is paying Hogan & Hartson's high-priced bill. Before pursuing the Bank of America suit, for example, he convened a group of lawyers in his Columbus office to debate whether to litigate and make a pitch for why their firms should win the state's business. "He peppered us all with very detailed questions," says Max W. Berger, whose firm, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, has contracted with Cordray's office on the case. Bank of America declined to comment on the case.

While Cordray says he's eager to take on BofA and the ratings agencies, he doesn't want a protracted court fight. He isn't unique among attorneys general, who have historically fought corporate foes in public forums and settled before going to trial. Class-action attorneys say attorneys general revel in the publicity of big settlements--and hope to avoid alienating the public with costly court battles. "They believe in trial by press conference," says Boris Feldman, a partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a securities-litigation specialist in Palo Alto, Calif. "It's very rare that they actually litigate a case." Perhaps that's because the few who have ventured into court haven't always fared well. In 2004, then Attorney General Spitzer sued Richard A. Grasso, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange (NYX), for allegedly misleading investors about his pay package. While Spitzer won in New York State Supreme Court, the decision was largely overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals.

If Cordray beats the odds and wins a splashy settlement with the ratings agencies, it would certainly bolster his chances of winning the governor's race in 2014. That's if he decides to run, of course. For now, Cordray says he intends to focus on his job as Ohio's top prosecutor. "The key is to do a good job now." A good job for Ohioans might not win him many friends on Wall Street.

Silver-Greenberg is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

Holding Wall Street Accountable

Ohioans know that the continuing economic crisis we are enduring was created on Wall Street. Richard Cordray has been unyielding in his fight to hold Wall Street accountable for its wrongs.

Cordray has taken on responsible parties by handling major cases against the big Wall Street banks and financial institutions - from AIG to Bank of America to the national credit rating agencies - who have caused widespread financial damage to Ohioans. To date, his office has already recovered over $2 billion from Wall Street for the workers, retirees, and investors who were harmed.

Protecting Consumers & Small Businesses

Richard Cordray has fought predatory practices by making it far easier for consumers to file complaints about scams and deceptive business practices, increasing the number of complaints processed in 2009 by 20%, and yielding $7 million in judgments and settlements for Ohio consumers who had been wronged.

Cordray's office has also continued to focus on the pervasive foreclosure crisis, and is aggressively pursuing those who have ravaged so many of our communities. He was the first Attorney General in the nation to sue mortgage service companies, and has utilized a mortgage fraud task force to go after people and companies who engaged in fraudulent loans totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Finally, Cordray opened the doors of the Attorney General's office for the first time to small businesses being preyed upon by scammers and deceptive vendors. More than 500 complaints have already been filed by small businesses about unfair practices, and the office is recovering or saving money on their behalf.

Combating Crime on All Fronts

Cordray has taken on murderers, child sex offenders, white-collar criminals, and corrupt public officials by expanding the special prosecutions unit by 50%, an increase that helps county prosecutors put major felons behind bars.

He has set new records for taxpayers by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in Ohio's Medicaid program, recovering a record $91 million in 2009 alone. Cordray's office also tackled the growing scourge of human trafficking, won two death penalty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (one of which he argued personally), and helped compensate nearly 5,000 victims of crime.

Providing Vital Assistance to Safety Forces

Richard Cordray made new tools and technology available to the men and women who serve on the front lines of law enforcement, putting a powerful new search engine tool literally in the palms of their hands on smart phones and mobile devices, allowing them to prevent and solve crimes in real-time.

Under Cordray's watch in 2009, the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation conducted more than 400 investigations for law enforcement agencies in 87 of Ohio's 88 counties. They also performed roughly 815,000 background checks, nearly double the total from a decade prior, and eliminated a six-month backlog that existed when Cordray took office. What's more, Attorney General Cordray's investigative experts examined over 109,000 items of evidence for local law enforcement agencies, sharply reducing the number of cases awaiting DNA and forensic analysis.

First, Richard Cordray was elected Ohio Treasurer in 2006 to clean up after the Coingate and Bureau of Workers' Compensation scandals. That was exactly what he did - putting the state's financial investments back on a sound footing, restoring checks and balances, and requiring background checks and annual ethics training of his employees.

Then, after the scandals and resignation of his predecessor, Ohio voters again elected Cordray, this time to restore their faith and trust in the office of our top law enforcement official. Attorney General Cordray rose to the occasion, expanding the internal audit section and scouring the office for additional cost savings worth millions of dollars. He has worked effectively and efficiently for taxpayers, taking a pay cut along with the rest of his employees. As a result, Ohioans are able to enjoy renewed confidence in this office, which is so important in standing up for their interests.

The bedrock of his beliefs is the intersection of public service and education: he enjoys talking about his job to schoolchildren as much as they enjoy asking about his experience as a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion. Rich remains in touch with many of his schoolteachers, who were powerful and positive influences in his life and critical to the college scholarships he later earned.

Cordray's mother, a teacher and social worker, and his father, who worked with the developmentally disabled population his entire career, taught him to respect and be grateful for others who work in the public sector to improve the quality of life for others. His parents instilled in him a strong sense of determination and honesty, and he brings these values to every aspect of his work as Attorney General.

The values and principles that he learned as a child soon translated into a desire to help those in need, as well as the community at large; a career of advocating for just causes and serving the public was a natural fit. The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation selected Cordray for its highest recognition, the Presidential Award, in 2003, after he worked pro bono for years on Supreme Court litigation that ultimately saved legal aid funding nationwide. The Human Rights Campaign named him as Humanitarian of the Year in 2000 for his work promoting tolerance and understanding in our communities.

His unmatched credibility in the courtroom, record as an award-winning manager, proven civic leadership, and advocacy at the highest levels for those with the least are hallmarks of Richard Cordray's service as Attorney General for the people of Ohio.

Attorney General Cordray takes his duty of representing the best interest of all Ohioans with the utmost seriousness. Together with his staff of highly trained professionals, he works every day to protect the people of Ohio from greed and crime in its many forms.

Richard Cordray began his role as a protector of Ohioans many years before he took office as Attorney General; indeed, his entire legal and public service career was built on the principle of using the law as a means to improve the lives of his fellow citizens.

As a State Representative, Cordray enacted legislation to toughen Ohio's criminal laws, including the creation of new statutes to protect people from stalking, reform death penalty jury selection, and facilitate undercover sting operations, as well as measures to improve apprehension, fingerprinting, and photographing of juvenile suspects.

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Cordray successfully defended law enforcement and national security officers in precedent-setting cases that protect officers who perform their duties in good faith from the risk of bankruptcy or personal hardship to defend themselves if they are sued for doing their jobs.

Richard Cordray's longstanding background of protecting the public by improving our laws and enforcing them with vigor and compassion have helped to prepare him for the work he is now doing to protect Ohioans on a daily basis.

Cordray's unique legal background makes him an ideal fit for the complicated and wide-ranging duties of this office. He received his Master's degree in Economics from Oxford University with first-class honors before graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. He served as the first Solicitor General in the Ohio Attorney General's office from 1993 to 1994, taught for thirteen years at The Ohio State University College of Law, and practiced law for two decades in government, private firms, and sole proprietorship. He also had the rare distinction of serving as law clerk for two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and in the years since he has personally argued seven cases before our nation's highest court of law.

When Cordray was elected Attorney General in 2008, earning more votes than any Democrat had ever received for statewide office in Ohio, he brought with him the administrative and financial experience of having served as the Treasurer of Ohio, a job in which he managed all state banking and oversaw an $18 billion investment portfolio. Others took note of his professionalism: the U.S. Small Business Administration named him as a Financial Services Champion for his work supporting small businesses, and NeighborWorks America selected him for its Government Service Award for state officials for his work on foreclosure prevention. Cordray had previously served as the Treasurer of Franklin County, Ohio's second-largest county, where he was named as the "County Leader of the Year" nationally by American City & County Magazine in 2005.

Cordray has not only defended, enforced, studied, and taught the law - he also made laws as a State Representative from 1991 to 1993, granting him valuable legislative experience and insight.

From all these experiences, Attorney General Cordray understands very well how the thoughtful and effective enforcement of Ohio law affects our state's residents, and how the law can be used as a tool to help protect them and improve their lives.

Thank you for supporting my candidacy for Attorney General. Please check back here often for updates from my political team, as well as to use our resources such as scheduling, email, and event tools. You can also use these tools to download information about Rich and to request campaign materials. With such a short campaign and with so much ground to cover, your help is invaluable.

Thank you,
Rich