Jim Petro

James M. Petro (born October 25, 1948) is an American lawyer and politician who was the 46th Ohio Attorney General from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as Ohio State Auditor from 1995 to 2003 and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Ohio in 2006. Petro was the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents from 2011 to 2013.

Early life and education Petro was born October 25, 1948, in Brooklyn, Ohio. After graduating from Brooklyn High School, he attended Denison University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He later earned his Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. As auditor he served as the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices in the state; the office is the largest state auditing agency in the United States, second in size only to the United States Government Accountability Office.

In November 2002, Petro was elected the Ohio attorney general, serving from 2003 to 2007. Petro became the first attorney general in the country to intervene in a case spearheaded by the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that pioneered the use of DNA testing to prove wrongful conviction, to exonerate Clarence Elkins.

In 2005, Petro became the first Ohio attorney general to argue a case in front of the United States Supreme Court in over thirty years; He also advocated exploring the creation of a Department of Education to oversee the state's education system from kindergarten through college. Padgett, a Republican state senator from Coshocton, Ohio, was selected after Petro's first running mate, Hamilton County commissioner Phil Heimlich, dropped out of the campaign to run for re-election. Petro was defeated in the May 2, 2006, primary by Ken Blackwell, Ohio's then-secretary of state.

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