CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If Ohio voters want a governor who is a bland, bureaucratic type, promising to do little more than protect their money, then Richard Cordray is their man.

Cordray's current campaign ads hype his stint as Ohio Attorney General and head of the U.S. Financial Protection Bureau, saying he'll protect Ohioan's money, and say nothing more.

Like him or not, Kucinich deserves credit for directly addressing his position on a wide variety of issues of interest to Ohio voters.

While Kucinich has expressed his vision for Ohio on a number of issues, Cordray has offered little more than saying he'll protect Ohio's money. Cordray's now running for governor, but sounds like he's running for treasurer.

Cordray is endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who created the financial protection agency he ran in President Obama's administration. But Cordray noticeably lacks Warren's energy and passion.

Kucinich has been endorsed by allies of Bernie Sanders. Their support is not surprising. Kucinich is a pioneer of the progressive movement that championed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election.

As I wrote last year, Kucinich's two presidential runs proved to be ahead of their time with Sanders and Trump riding high on progressive and populist waves in 2016.

Kucinich has been portraying Cordray as "Republican lite," saying he resigned from the CFPB allowing Trump to appoint his replacement. In truth, it was only a matter of time before Trump would have fired Cordray as an appointee of Obama, and head of an agency Trump didn't think should exist.

Kucinich also has been saying that Cordray was given an A+ grade from the NRA, compared to Kucinich's call for an assault weapons ban and F grade from the NRA. The Cordray campaign reports that Cordray was given an A rating in 2010, but has since been given a C- for his positions in this campaign.

Kucinich's gun control position makes it even more indefensible that he's been a past apologist for Syria's Bashar Assad, who's killed his own people with barrel bombs. I addressed that contradiction in my April 20 cartoon and column criticizing Kucinich accepting a $20,000 speaking fee from a group sympathetic to Assad. To his credit, on April 26, Kucinich, a long time peace advocate, announced he will be returning the speaking fee.

Cordray comes off as someone suited to be a competent department head or cabinet secretary. But being governor calls for more intangibles than just being an efficient administrator.

After more than a year of Trump, Cordray could be counting on voters being ready for steady, reliable blandness. On Tuesday we'll find out

***********

This post as been updated to note that the NRA is currently giving Cordray a C- for his positions in the campaign