OHIO HISTORY IN MAKING IN ATTORNEY GENERAL'S RACE

SPECIAL ELECTION

With 93 percent of the official vote tallied, Montgomery was leading 52 percent to 48 percent over incumbent Democratic Attorney General Lee Fisher, who has never before lost a bid for elective office.

Library note: Montgomery won the election with 1,716,451 votes, or 51.36 %. Fisher received 1,625,247 votes, or 48.63%.

Neither side was prepared to declare victory late Tuesday night, but a win by Montgomery would be the most prominent GOP gain in a historic sweep of statewide offices by the GOP that would give the party control of every branch of Ohio government for the first time since 1966.

Statewide voter turnout fell slightly below the 55 percent estimated, but in Montgomery County nearly 57 percent of voters went to the poll. Final voter tallies will be available today.

"We are being cautiously optimistic," Montgomery press secretary Dennis Ebersole said. "If Betty Montgomery wins, this will be the political upset of the year."

In the treasurer's race - the first statewide race in Ohio between two black candidates - Republican Treasurer J. Kenneth Blackwell went from being the first black appointed to a statewide non-judicial office to the first to be elected to one, with a strong victory over Democrat Barbara Sykes. With 93 percent of the precincts counted, he led 54 percent to 42 percent. Independent Edward Licht garnered 4 percent of the vote.

In March, Gov. George Voinovich made Blackwell Ohio's first black treasurer by appointing him to replace Mary Ellen Withrow.

Fisher has struggled to overcome the specter of his razor-thin victory in 1990 that earned him the satirical moniker of "Landslide Lee."

Fisher, 44, was elected attorney general that year by the slimmest statewide margin in Ohio history, besting Republican Paul E. Pfeifer by 1,234 votes out of more than 3.2 million cast. The results weren't finalized until after a recount.

This year, the attorney general's race was viewed as the Ohio Democratic Party's best chance for maintaining a toehold in the statewide elected offices.

The last Republican to be elected attorney general was William B. Saxbe, who defeated Democrat Robert E. Sweeney in 1966.

Montgomery, 46, is a former county prosecutor who ran on an anti-crime platform. The two waged a bitter and expensive campaign.

The most recent campaign finance reports, filed Oct. 27, showed Fisher had spent $2.8 million compared with about $1.3 million for Montgomery.

Both spent heavily on TV, and Montgomery was aided by a $200,000 donation from Gov. George Voinovich and a last-week infusion of free TV time from Secretary of State Bob Taft.

The treasurer's race received a lot of attention because of its historic significance and because Sykes surprised many observers by giving Blackwell a tough challenge.

Sykes, 39, lagged far behind Blackwell in fund-raising ($875,800 to $126,750 at the last reporting on Oct. 27) and didn't go on TV until 11 days before the election. Blackwell went on TV and radio statewide - often targeting the traditionally Democratic black vote - before the May primary.

Blackwell, 46, is a former Cincinnati mayor who was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission and deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also was a director of Fifth Third Bank.

Sykes, deputy Summit County auditor, became the first black woman elected to the Akron City Council in 1983.

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jim Petro was winning handily over Democrat Randall Sweeney in the race for state auditor.

With 93 percent of the vote counted, Petro was beating Sweeney, 58 percent to 42 percent.

Sweeney is a Columbus businessman and a member of the state Board of Tax Appeals. This was his first campaign for elective office. While he tried to use that to paint himself as an outsider, Petro hammered away at Sweeney, 45, for his connections to incumbent auditor Tom Ferguson, who is retiring after 20 years in office.

Petro, 45, is a former city prosecutor and state representative from Rocky River, a Cleveland suburb. He outspent Sweeney nearly 3-to-1 ($988,574 to $360,091). He was aided by a $200,000 gift from Voinovich.

As expected, Secretary of State Bob Taft was cruising to a second term over Democratic challenger Dan Brady.

Taft led Brady by a 30 percentage point margin, with 93 percent of the vote counted.

Taft, 52, outspent his opponent nearly 10-to-1, and he was the only one of the two candidates who bought TV ads. Brady, 40, is a Cleveland City Council member who has never before run for statewide office.

(Jim) Petro

ELECTION '94

STATE OFFICES