Final score: Dann 67, Chandra 22

Some Ohio Democrats may be uneasy about having State Sen. Marc Dann of Youngstown as their candidate for Ohio attorney general this fall, but you couldn't tell it from the endorsement vote Dann got from the Ohio Democratic Party's executive committee Wednesday night.

In a vote by 80 executive committee members, Dann took 67 votes to 22 for Subodh Chandra, who was law director for the city of Cleveland under former mayor Jane Campbell.

Dann made a name for himself last year by dogging the administration of Gov. Bob Taft for its ethical lapses, but the Youngstown Democrat, it seems, has had a few problems of his own along those lines - principly, a reprimand from the Ohio Supreme Court for misconduct as an attorney.

Last summer, Ohio Republican Party chairman Bob Bennett gleefully pointed out that Dann, who had been all over Taft about failing to report gifts on financial disclosure forms, had to go back and amend his own financial disclosure report to show the gift of a $168 jacket and a $14 free meal.

Bennett and company, who have had little to crow about on the ethics front for the past year or so, have been licking their chops over the process of the Democrats choosing Dann as their attorney general candidate.

Tim Burke, the Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman, was among the 80 executive committee members who met Wednesday at the Fawcett Center on the OSU campus in Columbus. He has also been one of those Ohio Democrats disturbed by the idea of having to campaign for Dann this fall.

So, Wednesday, Burke joined in an effort to convince the committtee to give an endorsement to both Dann and Chandra, since it was clear that Dann was going to make the 60 percent threshold for an endorsement.

Each Democrat running for statewide office was given three minutes to address the committee, followed by an endorsement vote on each candidate. Those who won 60 percent or more of the committee vote got an endorsement. That process, said Ohio Democratic Party communications director Brian Rothenberg, created the possibility of there being more than one party-endorsed candidate in a race.

But Chandra, new to elective politics, could muster only 22 votes among the 80 committee members.

So, no endorsement for Chandra, making his uphill battle suddenly an even more steep climb. The only good news for Chandra was that he won the endorsement of former Gov. Dick Celeste - and that came about mostly because one of Celeste's sons was Chandra's college buddy.

"It's too bad Subodh couldn't be endorsed, too,'' Burke said. "He is an electrifying speaker. He is highly intelligent, extremely competent.''

Maybe if he had spent more time selling raffle tickets at the Cuyahoga County Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner, he would have done better.