Today in series of events in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Ed FitzGerald made official what has been obvious for a while: he's going to take on Taxin' John Kasich for the governor's office.
He spoke to a packed ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Cleveland before heading off to similar stops in Columbus and Cincinnati, accompanied by his wife and four teenage children.
He was introduced by former longtime congressman Louis Stokes, nearly double his age. (Stokes retired in 1993 and was succeeded first by Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and currently by Marcia Fudge). Stokes' lengthy introduction ran through all the points of Ed's career — including his stints as an FBI agent and prosecutor, his terms as mayor of inner-ring Cleveland suburb Lakewood, and his role as the first county executive, coming in to clean up corrupt on the heels of a widespread scandal.