Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland tells supporters his running mate is Yvette McGee Brown

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer

clipped from blog.cleveland.com COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. Ted Strickland today told supporters that he has selected the director of a Columbus nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing child abuse as his running mate for this year's gubernatorial election. Yvette McGee Brown, director of the Center for Child & Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital since 2002, is also a former juvenile court judge in Franklin County. Brown has been considered the likely pick for about a week and early this afternoon Strickland, a Democrat, confirmed his choice in an e-mail to campaign supporters. He also posted a video introducing Brown.

"I know that Yvette will make a wonderful lieutenant governor because she's spent her entire life fighting for Ohio families," Strickland said in the e-mail. "She is the daughter of a single mother who worked two jobs to support her family.

"Yvette found remarkable opportunities here in Ohio," he said. "She's taken those remarkable opportunities and used them, not to further her own goals, but to make life better for average Ohioans, especially our children."

Brown, 48, is black and figures to help Strickland bolster support among African-Americans, which political observers say is not as strong as one might think for a Democratic leader.

Strickland's opponent, former Republican Congressman John Kasich, last week announced that state Auditor Mary Taylor, who is white, will be his running mate. Kasich hopes that Taylor, who lives in Summit County, can help pull votes from Northeast Ohio where Democratic support is stronger.

Strickland will kick off his re-election bid today with a press conference at 2:30 at the Ohio Democratic Party headquarters.

And like Taylor last week, even before she is officially introduced, Brown is already being slammed by political opponents and cheered by supporters.

State Republican leaders have blasted Brown for having no experience in state government and no record in state budgeting issues, which Taylor has.

"I couldn't think of a more uninspiring pick, and I wonder how she feels knowing she's the governor's eighth choice because everyone else said no," state Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine, said in a statement. "Clearly, no one else wanted to run with Ted Strickland because they know he's a one-term governor."

Brown hardly would be the first lieutenant governor candidate without previous state fiscal experience.

Most recently, former Republican Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor, who served under Bob Taft, was a Summit County prosecutor before being tapped by as Taft's running mate. O'Connor is now an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and candidate for Chief Justice.

Democrats have championed Brown's work on family and children's issues, which Strickland has tried to make a centerpiece of his first term in office.

But this race still figures to hinge on who Ohio voters will hold accountable for the state's dismal economic condition and struggling rate of job creation since Strickland has been in office.

Strickland has blamed the national recession -- started on Wall Street in 2008 -- for affecting nearly every state in the country, especially Ohio. He has said that he is positioning the state to emerge from the troubles in better shape than when the economic problems hit.

Kasich, however, who has federal budgeting experience, has blamed Strickland for not doing enough to steer Ohio out of this fiscal mess. He has said other states are in better economic condition than Ohio because of actions their governors took.

Current Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher is running for the U.S. Senate.