Running mate: Mary Taylor ticket offers business experience

SANDUSKY — The Republican primary for governor offers voters a clear choice, said Nathan Estruth, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's running mate.The choice is between a ticket that offers 44 years of private sector experience versus a ticket that has spent "60 years on the public dole," Estruth said.Estruth, 50, who retired as a Procter and Gamble executive to join Taylor's campaign, visited the Sandusky Register Friday and said he expects voters looking for job creation will welcome a ticket that understands business.The Taylor-Estruth ticket is taking on a rival slate that pairs attorney general Mike DeWine with the secretary of state, Jon Husted.Estruth's race for lieutenant governor as part of the Taylor ticket on the May 8 primary is his first race for public office, and Estruth emphasized he's not a politician."Mary Taylor is a bold leader," Estruth said. "She sticks by her principles even when her own party tries to step down on her. I look for people like that in politics."When Taylor was in the Ohio House, she voted against a tax hike supported by the Taft administration and was booted off the Finance Committee by her own party, Estruth said."I think Mary Taylor is the only person who can win for the Republicans in November," Estruth said, and added he doubts voters will be excited by "a ticket of career politicians."Many politicians and groups have been lining up behind DeWine as the presumptive nominee. The Buckeye Firearms Association, for example, endorsed DeWine on Feb. 8, although the group acknowledged Taylor is a "friend" who is strong on gun rights.Estruth said he's "not a politician" and doesn't understand all the dynamics behind the group's action, but added what the endorsement from the Buckeye Firearms Association appears to do is "coronate D.C. DeWine as the establishment candidate."Husted hit back Friday, and said Mary Taylor spent 12 consecutive years in office as a statewide politician."She's the longest consecutive serving office holder in the state of Ohio, and she has nothing to show for it," Husted said. "What's she done? I don't ever hear her talk about anything she's actually accomplished."As for business development, Husted said his secretary of state office has been setting annual records for the number of new businesses created in Ohio. He said he reduced the fee for recording a new business from $125 to $99 and the office became so efficient it doesn't need tax dollars to support it."That is a record of success versus Mary Taylor's record of doing nothing," Husted said.Estruth said he had never met Taylor when she asked him to be her running mate. He said he carefully researched her before agreeing to retire from his successful business career and mount the race."My read on her was she was in it for the right reasons," Estruth said.She is determined to help Ohio, and to do it using conservative principles, he said.Estruth retired in January as the chief executive officer of iMFLUX, a Procter and Gamble subsidiary and a plastics processing company. He served from 2007 to 2014 on the board of directors of Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that works through the courts to defend religious freedom.Reach reporter Tom Jackson at jackson@sanduskyregister.com and follow him on Twitter @jacksontom.Nathan Estruth