CLEVELAND, Ohio - In what is likely to be one of the premier issues in the November gubernatorial election, Democratic nominee for governor Richard Cordray on Friday attacked Republican nominee Mike DeWine as responsible for people dying from opioid and heroin overdoses.

The comments, made both in an interview with cleveland.com and during a campaign stop rolling out endorsements from 17 Ohio sheriffs, is the start of what will likely be a protracted law and order-style battle between Cordray, the attorney general from 2009 to 2011, and DeWine, who defeated Cordray in 2010 and has served since 2011. Opioids and drug addiction in general have ravaged communities around the state, with deaths and overdoses spiking dramatically in the past five years.

Cordray said DeWine's sluggish response as the state's top law enforcement official has led to people dying.

"It's tripled on his watch - the number of deaths in the last several years," Cordray said. "He did nothing about it. Law enforcement recognizes that. They're the ones who have to cope with this in the community every day."

Republicans, who control both the Statehouse and governor's office, have also cut local government funding, starving them of resources necessary to combat addiction, Cordray said.

"I do think he bears responsibility for that," Cordray said. "A number of other people do as well, but he certainly bears his share for the responsibility of that. I don't see how that's a debatable question."

Sheriff John Lenhart, the Republican sheriff of Shelby County, was one of the sheriffs who announced their support for Cordray on Friday. Lenhart said DeWine was a good person who was trying to do the right thing, but he and others in Columbus let the problem fester for so long it spun out of control.

Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin, left, and Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart, center, announced their endorsement of former federal consumer watchdog Richard Cordray, a Democrat running for governor. In an interview with cleveland.com, Cordray said his Republican opponent, Attorney General Mike DeWine, bore responsibility for the surge in drug overdose deaths.

"Nobody has declared this an emergency," Lenhart said. "Are you kidding me? And it's not like they didn't know about it. They've been going around the state grandstanding for four or five years talking to everybody. It's more like a public relations thing than trying to get something done."

DeWine called the notion that he contributed to the addiction problem around the state absurd. He said he was proud of the work his office has done.

Part of the reason the state had to play catch-up at the onset of the crisis was because Cordray's office hadn't addressed the issue, DeWine said.

"He was asleep and his office was asleep," DeWine said. "When I took office, we were not asleep. We started rolling from literally the first few days to go after this opiate problem."

DeWine is not without law enforcement support and praise for his response to the opioid epidemic. Forty-seven sheriffs have endorsed his campaign.

His response to the problem has also received praise from sheriff's, both Republican and Democrat. Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, a Democrat who endorsed Cordray on Friday, has said DeWine's response helped mitigate the epidemic.

"Lucas County is so much further along in this opioid fight thanks to Mike DeWine and his leadership with our DART program and more," Tharp said. "DeWine has been a tremendous attorney general in fighting this opioid epidemic in Ohio."

DeWine also has the support of controversial Butler County Sheriff, who has refused to give his deputies Narcan - a drug that reverses overdoses.

Both Republicans and Democrats have cited opioid and heroin addiction as a prime issue that needs solving immediately. But Democrats have routinely placed blame on Republicans, who were in control of state government when the epidemic worsened.

Warning signs of an impending addiction scourge were evident as far back as the mid-2000s. Deaths from prescription painkillers outnumbered heroin and cocaine combined by 2004.

Health officials signaled a problem as far back as 2009 when Cordray was attorney general. That year, drug-related deaths surpassed deaths from motor vehicle accidents.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranked Ohio in the top five for drug overdose death rates in each year from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, it was second in the nation next to West Virginia.

Emergency room visits for overdoses in Ohio increased 28 percent from July 2016 through September 2017.

DeWine has taken some actions as attorney general, including cracking down on pill mills, creating a dedicated heroin unit in his office and suing the opioid manufacturers in 2017 and pharmaceutical distributors in 2018 for flooding the state with drugs. Democrats say he waited too long to file suit manufacturers and distributors after the damage had been done.

He also released a plan that called for expanding drug courts, creating a data analytics system to track Mexican cartels and creating a cabinet position to address opioids.

Cordray has said he would declare a state of emergency to free up some resources to combat addiction in the state. He also said protecting the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion - which DeWine has criticized as unsustainable - is key. The expansion helps pay for some drug treatment.

A previous version of this article indicated Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp had endorsed Mike DeWine. Tharp has not endorsed DeWine, but praised his response to the opioid epidemic.