DEVELOPING : Pepper Entering Race for Auditor Tuesday?

We're getting tips from a number of sources that Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper is entering the race for Ohio Auditor tomorrow morning in Columbus. An event is scheduled at ODP Headquarters at 10:30AM with several notables reported to be in attendance including the Governor.

Further fueling speculation on Pepper's entry into the race is the registration of "pepperforauditor.com" by national Democratic web developer BlueUtopia of Seattle. BlueUtopia, who currently host Pepper's Hamilton County Commissioner Campaign Committee website, registered the domain on May 4th.

The entry of Pepper and the early endorsement of Governor Strickland essentially clears the field for Pepper out of the gate. Pepper, who should have little trouble finding donors (with Pepper's family holding key roles at Proctor and Gamble), is likely to give current Auditor Mary Taylor a nightmarishly strong challenge.

Pepper is young and smart and adds a fresh face to the state Democratic ticket for 2010. However, with Strickland, Cordray, Pepper and Boyce, you've now got four men in four slots. The fifth, Secretary of State, is still a tossup as Marilyn Brown is the only official entrant with others rumored. The final piece of the ticket is Lt. Governor, and if balance and diversity is an important factor in establishing a strong ticket (and I believe it is), it's still a safe guess to predict that the Governor will select a woman as his running mate. Top to bottom, that looks incredibly strong (with the exception of regional balance as none of the candidates resides north of the Franklin County border.

More on this story throughout the day along with coverage tomorrow on OhioDaily.
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