Recordpub.com - OUR VIEW: Opportunity for GOP Strickland should select a competent reformer to succeed attorney general

Now that Marc Dann has stepped down as Ohio's attorney general, Gov. Ted Strickland has the authority to appoint an interim successor who will serve until the voters choose a permanent one in the November election.

He should choose carefully because Dann's behavior that led to his resignation has damaged the office of attorney general and created doubt about the Democratic Party's hold on all statewide non-judicial offices save that of the Ohio auditor's slot, which is ably filled by Republican Mary Taylor.

The Democrats were able to gain their hold on Ohio's statewide offices because of the ineptness of Ohio's Republicans that led to "Coingate," the Thomas Noe scandal, and, equally bad, the poor investment practices that watched over the Bureau of Workers Compensation funds.

The unpopularity of President Bush's war policy in Iraq helped Ohio's Democrats in 2006, but it was scandals occurring during the oversight of Republicans led by Gov. Bob Taft, who flubbed his campaign expense reporting, that chased the Republicans from office.

The Democrats promised to clean up the mess in Columbus and were entrusted by the voters to do so. Leading the charge in tarnishing Republicans was none other than Marc Dann, who tagged the popular and wholesome Betty Montgomery as neglectful and timid in addressing both Coingate and the Bureau of Workmen's Compensation investment difficulties.

Barely one year after becoming attorney general, however, Dann disgraced himself, weakened his highly visible office and by his poor judgment cast aspersions on the entire Ohio Democratic Party, creating an easy target for Republicans come November when the GOP has the opportunity to elect a permanent replacement for Dann.

Thus, whoever Strickland selects will have to be purer than Caesar's wife and also prove a competent attorney and manager.

Dann campaigned as a reformer and a figure dedicated to rooting out corruption. He turned out to be Ohio's version of former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, a kind of Jekyll and Hyde, who set a terrible moral example for his staff.

Ohioans thought they were voting in a reformer, someone clean, a person of mature judgment who would set a vigorous moral tone for the state. If Strickland wants to hold faith with his constituents, that is the kind of person he must select to succeed Marc Dann.

You can bet Ohio's Republicans will hold Strickland's feet to the fire on this decision, as well they should. In November, when the choice will be a Democrat or Republican to serve out the remaining two years of Dann's term, the voters will, too.