Jim Petro
James M. “Jim” Petro (born October 25, 1948) is an American politician from the Republican Party, and a former Ohio Attorney General. Previously, Petro also served as Ohio State Auditor. Petro was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio during the 2006 Ohio Primaries, but lost to Ken Blackwell.
Early life and early career
Petro was born October 25, 1948 in Brooklyn, Ohio. A Brooklyn High School graduate, he attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, as well as initiated as a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He later earned his law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. Petro served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County as a trial lawyer responsible for felony prosecutions, and then as Assistant Director of Law for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. After starting his private practice, Petro became prosecuting attorney for the city of Rocky River, Ohio.
Political career
Petro began his political career in 1977 when he was elected to the Rocky River city council, and later served as the director of the city. In 1980, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. He served four years as a state representative. In 1991, Petro became County Commissioner for Cuyahoga County; during his four year term he was President of the board for a year.
Petro was elected Ohio Auditor in 1994. As Auditor he served as the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices in the state; the office is the largest state auditing agency in the United States, second in size only to the United States Government Accountability Office.
In November 2002, Petro was elected the Ohio attorney general. In 2005, Petro became the first Ohio attorney general to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court in over thirty years; he won the case by a vote of nine to zero. As Ohio’s Attorney General he successfully defended the law banning late term abortions in the state.
Campaign contributions by lawyers
Before Ohio enacted limits on campaign contributions in 1995, outside lawyers working for the attorney general's office directly gave more than $410,000 to the campaigns of Democrat Lee Fisher, who served as Attorney General from 1991 through 1994.
In 1998, the state Republican party created a "candidate fund" to which lawyers and others could contribute; the fund in turn gives funds to candidates. In March 2006, the Toledo Blade reported that the GOP had directed contributions totaling $1.49 million to Petro, the current attorney general, and $1.27 million to State Auditor Betty Montgomery, a former two-term attorney general running to become attorney general once again. If the Blade reporting is accurate, then the Ohio GOP is clearly favoring Petro over Blackwell in the primary campaign. Of note, this is the first open contested Republican primary for Governor in many years. The Ohio GOP has previously managed to broker their primaries; i.e., talking all candidates but the favored one into dropping out.
The Blade's analysis found that firms that contributed the largest amounts of money to the candidate fund received among the most in fees from the state for being "special counsel" - private-sector lawyers hired to do legal work for the state. For example, through its lawyers, lawyers' families, and political-action committees, Calfee, Halter & Griswold, a Cleveland-based law firm, has contributed at least $186,000 to the Ohio GOP's state candidate fund since 1998. In that same period, the firm has collected more than $17 million in fees from the attorney general's office, all in no-bid contracts.[1] Jim Petro allowed his special counsel to interfere in a private estate and there were lawsuits filed in the Butler County Probate Court by one of Jim Petro's "Special Counsels".
Candidate for Governor
On January 30th, 2006, Petro announced that Joy Padgett would be his running mate for the Governor’s position. Padgett, a Republican state senator from Coshocton, Ohio, was selected after Petro’s first running mate, Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich, dropped out of the campaign to run for re-election as Commissioner of Hamilton County.
Petro positioned himself as a conservative in the primary election. He is pro-life, against gay marriage, and supports Ohio’s concealed carry weapons law.
At one point in the campaign, Petro had raised the most money for his campaign, having $2 million on hand. The Blackwell campaign had $1.5 million on hand. Several polls conducted showed Blackwell as the frontrunner; one of these was an April 2006 poll that showed Blackwell leading Petro 39-32 in the primary, with 29 percent undecided.[2]
Petro, along with 14 other candidates, (including Blackwell and eventual Democratic Party nominee Ted Strickland) were accused by the Ohio Citizen Action group to have failed to meet Ohio's campaign contribution law which requires best efforts to disclose the names, addresses, employment status, employer, and place of employment of individuals who donate $100 or more to a political campaign. Blackwell, Petro, and Strickland all received a "B letter grade" from the group for their levels of disclosure. [3]
Petro was defeated in the May 2, 2006 primary by Ken Blackwell, Ohio's then-Secretary of State.