Richard Cordray (D)
Mike Crites (R)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) -- Ohio Democratic attorney general nominee Richard Cordray leads Republican Mike Crites by eight points, a new poll indicates.
The SurveyUSA poll released Wednesday by Ohio's NBC affiliates shows that Cordray, the Ohio state treasurer, leads Crites 42 percent to 34 percent.
The poll also shows that Independent candidate Robert Owens has 12 percent support, the same percentage of undecided voters in the race.
The poll of 693 likely voters, conducted Sunday and Monday, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
Compared to an identical poll released 15 days ago, Cordray is down by two points; Crites is up by one point, and Owens is down by a point.
In a statement, Crites noted that Cordray's support has declined since mid-August when he led the race by 18 points.
He has sought to tie Cordray to former Attorney General Marc Dann, who resigned in May after admitting to having an affair with a subordinate and amid a sexual harassment scandal in his office.
"Ohioans want an Attorney General with the leadership experience to repair the damage caused by Marc Dann and his enablers," Crites said Wednesday. "My record shows that I'm the only candidate with that kind of leadership experience."
Crites, a former U.S. attorney, is the managing partner with the Columbus-based law firm of Rich, Crites & Dittmer, LLC.
The winner of November's election will serve the two years remaining on Dann's first term.
From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.