Candidates use the term "career politicians" all the time. So who is the biggest career politician?

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- “Career politician” is a term that’s going to run its course through the 2018 election.

Candidates routinely try to run as an “outsider” – a sort of catchall antidote to whatever problems are ailing the current government. But what exactly is a career politician? And what differentiates a “regular politician” from a “career politician”?

The answer isn’t really clear. To either question.

“It’s an easy epithet to use against your opponents that you hope will be a dog whistle that is something negative in the minds of voters who are not paying attention to this stuff until they have to,” said Tom Sutton, professor of political science at Baldwin Wallace University.

The descriptor “career politician” is an easy pejorative to use during a campaign. It paints candidates as Washington/Columbus/wherever insiders, and the general public isn't fond of political insiders.

“We would never want an auto mechanic who started last week or a brain surgeon who just got out of medical school six months ago,” Sutton said. “But we are more than happy to have people serve in elected office who have never served before. We’re certainly experiencing that now with Donald Trump as president.”

Congress, for instance, has an approval rating of about 16 percent. At certain points, polling has shown the public preferred the band Nickelback, root canals, used car salesmen and colonoscopies to Congress.

What better way to smear your opponent’s name than to tie them to an unpopular institution?

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Cleveland.com file photo

This is becoming an especially used phrase now that the primaries are heating up. Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, a Republican running for governor, has routinely used the attack on her primary opponent, Attorney General Mike DeWine – one of the longest-serving politicians in Ohio.

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, a Republican from Wadsworth, has consistently railed against U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, as a “career politician” – a similar attack to the one Renacci used when he was running for governor. In turn, Cleveland-area businessman Mike Gibbons has railed against Renacci for being a career politician.

While the attack is very popular among Republicans, Democrats frequently use it as well. Fundraising missives from attorney general hopeful Steve Dettelbach blast Auditor Dave Yost as a career politician. During the first few Democratic gubernatorial debates, everyone attempted to play the outsider card – though that has subsided since most of the younger candidates have dropped out.

The term can be very effective, Sutton said, especially for voters who don’t pay attention as closely, but still go to the ballot in November.

“For a lot of voters, they hear 'career politicians' and it means something negative,” Sutton said. “And the reason is that means that person is part of the system now or in the past and, ‘I think the system has problems, it’s not doing what it’s supposed to, it’s not helping me, all of the above. And if you’re part of it then you’re part of the problem.’”

So, again, who exactly is a career politician?

An answer to that question poses several problems. Is it just length of service? Would a 20-year city councilman be more of a career politician than a three-term U.S. senator? What’s the best way to rank the trajectory of politicians?

For this, (with help from Sutton) I developed a solution: the Career Politician Index Ranking.

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What is it?

The Career Politician Index Ranking is a simple mathematical model to determine the career-iest career politicians. It’s a way to quantify how vested a politician is in his or her political career up to a certain point.

Alternatively, the formula I crafted can be used to measure how much incumbency and name ID affect elections, Sutton said. In theory, the higher the score means the more times and more prominent offices a person has held.

But it also takes into account length of service, upward mobility and the number of campaigns a candidate has engaged in.

It should be noted this was developed thinking of the political dynamics in Ohio. Slight tweaks might be necessary for politicians in other states.

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I am not a career politician. & I know I'm not going to be anyone's anointed candidate.

I have to earn your vote. I'm confident that I will. — Joe Schiavoni (@JoeSchiavoni) April 22, 2017

Let’s start from the beginning

The basic premise of the CPIR is assigning points for a politicians’ terms of service as well as attempted elections (after all, just because you failed doesn’t mean you didn’t try to make it a career).

The point system is below:

Local office – 1 point

Judge – 2 points

State representative – 4 points (+5 points for speaker or minority leader)

Mayor – 4 points

State senator – 5 points (+10 points for majority leader or minority leader)

State appointment (department head or other appointment) – 6 points

State Supreme Court – 6 points

Federal appointment (deputy, assistant, etc.) – 8 points

Federal appointment (U.S. attorney, sub-cabinet department head, etc.) – 10 points

Congress – 12 points (+10 points for speaker or minority leader)

Constitutional officer (except governor and attorney general) – 15 points

Attorney general – 20 points

Governor – 45 points

Senate – 45 points (+20 points for majority or minority leader)

Cabinet – 50 points

President – 100 points

Politicians are given full points for a term and half points for losing an election. Entering a race and then dropping out for another race is considered a loss.

The politician's career is split into 10-year periods with points awarded at the beginning of a political term. These terms are separated into four sections: 0 to 10 years, 10 to 20 years, 20 to 30 years and 30 years-plus.

Multiplier

One thing I considered when crafting this formula was how political figures become more entrenched when they serve longer. For this, we added multipliers.

For the first 10 years, the multiplier is 1. For years 10 to 20, the multiplier is 1.2. For years 20 to 30, the multiplier is 1.5. For years 30-plus, the multiplier is 2.

Formula

For those who might find it easier to follow along with a formula, here it is:

1a+1.2b+1.5c+2d=CPIR

a = points from 0 to 10 years

b = points from 10 to 20 years

c = points from 20 to 30 years

d = points from 30 years-plus.

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Damian Dovarganes/AP

Kasich as an example

Let’s figure Gov. John Kasich’s CPIR before the 2016 presidential election as an example.

0-10 years (a):

State Senate 1979-1983 (1 term) – 5 points

Congress 1983-1990 (4 terms) – 48 points

10-20 years (b):

Congress 1991-2001 (5 terms) – 60 points

President – Lost 2000 – 50 points

20-30 years (c):

Governor – 2011-2018 (2 terms) – 90 points

Kasich’s CPIR formula:

53+1.2(110)+1.5(90)=320

Kasich’s CPIR before his presidential run in 2016 was 320. His CPIR was 185 before he was elected governor.

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We need to institute term limits on all members of Congress. Career politicians are the problem, not the solution. Let them try to make it in the private sector like the rest of us. #DrainTheSwamp #OhSen — Mike Gibbons (@MikeGibbonsOH) April 18, 2018

OK, but are you crazy?

According to Sutton, I am not crazy. At least not for coming up with this system. (The jury is out on my sanity in other matters.)

“Not at all,” Sutton said. “You’re moving into the realm of what political scientists try to do.”

“I think it aligns with other attempts to try to measure candidate experience and see if it has an impact on electability or perceptions on electability,” Sutton said. “There are studies looking at factors like gender, age, race, prior experience outside of politics and certainly experience in elected office makes sense.”

This random concoction at least uses data and analytics – however arbitrary they might be – to gauge how authentic a candidate’s claim is about “career politicians.”

It’s important to note the number is not a measure of success in office or a foregone conclusion on who will be elected. Rather, it’s more an indication of political profile, political career advancement and longevity.

But the formula can be used to determine who can throw stones at whom. Now when you hear the term “career politician,” just refer to this handy formula to see if they, in fact, are more of a career politician than their target.

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Are there problems with the rankings?

As with any ranking system, of course there are problems. Oddities will arise throughout the rankings, and any system has aberrations.

These numbers are not meant to be an end-all, be-all, but an attempt at objectively identifying who fits the mold of a career politician and who can criticize whom.

After all, it's better than just taking people at their word without evidence.

So who is the biggest career politician?

As part of this project, cleveland.com analyzed all of the candidates for statewide and federal office -- more than 60 total.

The rankings for statewide officeholders and candidates, as well as candidates for U.S. Senate, are below, from highest to lowest. We'll roll out more rankings this week, including the congressional races in Northeast Ohio.

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John Minchillo/AP

Dennis Kucinich

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 400.6

Age: 71

Experience: Cleveland City Council (1969-1975), Cleveland City Clerk (1975-1977), Cleveland Mayor (1977-1979), State Senate (1995-1997), Congress (1997-2013)

Campaigns lost: Congress (1972, 1974, 1988, 1992, 2012), Cleveland Mayor (1979), Secretary of State (1982), President (2004, 2008)

Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat running for governor, has been around Ohio politics for a long, long time. His high score is both because he started out as a young man in 1969, but also because he has consistently run for office over the years -- from mayor to secretary of state to president -- with mixed results.

Once he got to Congress in 1997, he was a mainstay until being redistricted out of his old seat upon reapportionment.

Kucinich has avoided the "career politician" label, largely because of his viewpoints that often go against the establishment, making him something of an "establishment outsider candidate." But, according to the rankings, he takes the top spot.

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Paul Vernon/AP

John Kasich

Party: Republican

Office sought: None

CPIR: 395

Age: 65

Experience: Ohio Senate (1979-1983), Congress (1983-2000), Governor (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: President (2000, 2016)

Republican Gov. John Kasich takes the number two spot. The two-term governor has run for president twice unsuccessfully and had a lengthy career in Congress.

Had he not taken a decade off politics to work for Goldman Sachs, he might have claimed the top spot.

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Carolyn Kaster/AP

Sherrod Brown

Party: Democrat

Office sought: U.S. Senate (incumbent)

CPIR: 366.4

Age: 65

Experience: Ohio House (1975-1982), Secretary of State (1983-1991), Congress (1993-2007), Senate (2007-present)

Campaigns lost: Secretary of State (1990)

Sherrod Brown is often described as a "career politician" by his GOP opponents, and it's no surprise why. Brown, having held high-profile political positions for most of his adult life, has the third-highest CPRI of any politician in the state we surveyed.

Brown has been in office for more than 40 years, starting with his first elected office to the Ohio House of Representatives at the ripe old age of 23 before serving two terms as secretary of state.

After a reelection loss, Brown went to Congress in 1993 and graduated to the Senate in 2007, a position he's held since.

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Andrew Harnik/AP

Rob Portman

Party: Republican

Office sought: None (incumbent)

CPIR: 340.7

Age: 62

Experience: Director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs (1989-1991), Congress (1993-2005), U.S. Trade Representative (2005-2006), U.S. Office of Budget and Management Director (2006-2007), Senate (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman comes in fourth in our career politicians ranking. While he has not been around as long as Kasich or Brown, he has held several high-profile executive branch positions, including two Cabinet appointments. He is the highest person on the list who has never lost a campaign.

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John Minchillo/AP

Mike DeWine

Party: Republican

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 339.05

Age: 71

Experience: Green County Prosecutor (1976-1980), Ohio Senate (1981-1982), Congress (1983-1991), Lt. Governor (1991-1995), Senate (1995-2007), Attorney General (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: Senate (2002, 2006)

Mike DeWine could be considered the longest serving politician on this list if you don't consider breaks in political careers -- and he's still running for office. The frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Kasich has served at the local, state and federal level consistently since starting all the way back when he was a county prosecutor in 1976.

Outside of Brown, DeWine is probably the figure on this list most attacked for being a career politician. His high CPIR score shows why.

Edit: DeWine's score was updated to include his unsuccessful 1992 U.S. Senate run.

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Tony Dejak/AP

Marcy Kaptur

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 294

Age: 71

Experience: Congress (1983-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Marcy Kaptur has been the congresswoman from Toledo since 1983 when Republican Ronald Reagan was president, Hall & Oates' "Maneater" was the number one song in the country and Return of the Jedi was new to theaters. The district has been safe for her during that timespan. Her closest race was in 1984 when she won by only 11.8 percentage points.

Kaptur holds the distinction of being the longest serving woman in the U.S. House.

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John Minchillo/AP

Richard Cordray

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 119.3

Age: 58

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (1991-1993), Ohio Solicitor General (1993-1994), Franklin County Treasurer (2002-2007), Ohio Treasurer (2007-2009), Ohio Attorney General (2009-2011), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director (2012-2017)

Campaigns lost: Congress (1992), Attorney General (1998, 2010), Senate (2000)

Cordray, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, could conceivably be higher on this list if he'd won any of the several statewide races he's lost in the past.

That said, he's still been in Ohio and federal politics for more than 20 years and served as both treasurer and attorney general. While he is considered the more "establishment" choice in the primary versus Kucinich, Kucinich has a CPRI score three times greater than Cordray's.

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Carolyn Kaster/AP

Jim Jordan

Party: Republican

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 112

Age: 54

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (1995-2000), Ohio Senate (2001-2006), Congress (2007-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Jim Jordan, who is most known as one of the founders of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, is at the top of what could be considered the second tier of career politicians in Ohio. At 54 years old, he's well on his way to being the next Marcy Kaptur or Sherrod Brown should he decide to serve long enough.

Despite the rating of 112, Jordan isn't often considered a career politician. Like Kucinich on the far-left, Jordan operates enough on the far-right of the party to remain something of an outsider.

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Charlie Neibergall/AP

Tim Ryan

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 110.6

Age: 44

Experience: Ohio Senate (2001-2002), Congress (2003-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Tim Ryan has made waves in recent months, especially after challenging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the head of the House Democratic caucus. While he's seen as an up-and-comer, Ryan has been around politics for the better part of two decades now.

Ryan is also seen as desiring higher office, though he never takes the leap. Democrats pushed him to run for governor this year, but he declined. He's also visited Iowa and New Hampshire -- the first two states in the presidential election.

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Tony Dejak/AP

Betty Sutton

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lt. Governor

CPIR: 94.4

Age: 54

Experience: Barberton City Council (1990-1992), Ohio House of Representatives (1993-2000), Congress (2007-2013)

Campaigns lost: Congress (2012), Governor (2018)

Betty Sutton originally ran for governor this year before dropping out to join Richard Cordray's campaign. She has a long political history, starting with her election to the Barberton City Council until winning a spot in Congress.

Sutton hasn't suffered from the career politician moniker just yet, partially thanks to her time off in between service.

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John Minchillo/AP

Jon Husted

Party: Republican

Office sought: Lt. Governor

CPIR: 94

Age: 50

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (2001-2009), Ohio House Speaker (2005-2009), Ohio Senate (2009-2011), Secretary of State (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: Governor (2018)

Secretary of State Jon Husted has been a force in Republican politics, racking up position after position including two terms as speaker of the House and two terms as secretary of state.

He originally declared to run for governor in 2018, but backed out of a fight with DeWine to become DeWine's number two on the ticket. That merger brought together the top-two Republicans in the race in terms of CPIR.

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Josh Mandel

Party: Republican

Office sought: None

CPIR: 91.5

Age: 40

Experience: Lyndhurst City Council (2003-2006), Ohio House (2007-2010), Treasurer (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: Senate (2012, 2018)

Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel ranked just outside the top-10 for the CPIR rankings at just 40 years old. Mandel was slated as the GOP frontrunner to take on Brown in the Senate race, but unexpectedly dropped out of the race, citing a family illness.

During his time in office, Mandel has been criticized for being a political climber who is always focused on the next office. Mandel and Ryan are the only candidates in the top 20 who are younger than 50.

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Seth A. Richardson/cleveland.com

Jim Renacci

Party: Republican

Office sought: U.S. Senate

CPIR: 90.6

Age: 59

Experience: Board of Zoning Appeals (1994-1995), Wadsworth City Council (1999-2003), Wadsworth Mayor (2004-2008), Congress (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: Governor (2018)

Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci has often used the "career politician" line while campaigning to describe his opponents. He first used it against DeWine and Husted when running for governor. Since dropping out of that race to run for Senate, he's used it against Brown consistently.

But a look at the numbers show Renacci is firmly entrenched in politics as a career compared with his peers. He ranks 13th in CPIR, putting him firmly ahead of most of the rest of the pack.

By the CPIR rankings, Renacci had a case against DeWine, but less so against Husted. Fewer than 4 points separate the two.

Renacci's potential opponent in the Senate race, Sherrod Brown, has him beat by almost 276 points. Renacci, just as he did in the governor's race, has roundly criticized Brown as a career politician.

On the flipside, Renacci is being attacked by his Senate primary opponents for being a career politician, especially those with a zero score.

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Sabrina Eaton/cleveland.com

Marcia Fudge

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 77.6

Age: 65

Experience: Warrensville Heights Mayor (2000-2008), Congress (2010-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Marcia Fudge, the Democratic congresswoman, might seem like she should rank higher on this list.

That's partially because Fudge is essentially the most unchallengeable congresswoman in the state. She routinely wins elections by 60 percentage points and has built a political power structure around her in Cuyahoga County.

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Jay LaPrete/AP

Bob Gibbs

Party: Republican

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 73.2

Age: 63

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (2003-2008), Ohio Senate (2009-2010), Congress (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Gibbs, a farmer by trade who has been in elected office for 15 years, knocked off incumbent congressman Zack Space (who is not too far down on this list). Now he's facing a challenge of his own from a candidate who has never run for office before in Ken Harbaugh.

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Marvin Fong/The Plain Dealer

Dave Joyce

Party: Republican

Office sought: Congress (incumbent)

CPIR: 66.9

Age: 61

Experience: Geauga County Prosecutor (1988-2013), Congress (2013-present)

Campaigns lost: U.S. Attorney (2002, nomination withdrawn)

Joyce is one of the more interesting entries on the list. On the one hand, he has been in politics since 1988, serving as the Geauga County prosecutor for 25 years before heading to Congress in 2013. Even with his longevity, he ranks in the middle in terms of CPIR.

Why is this the case? Because Joyce served most of his time at the local level, not climbing any ranks until he was well into his career.

Joyce is a prime example of the CPIR measuring factors other than just longevity.

Edit: This entry was updated to include Joyce's unsuccessful nomination as United States attorney.

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Dake Kang/AP

Mary Taylor

Party: Republican

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 60

Age: 52

Experience: Green City Council (2001-2002), Ohio House of Representatives (2003-2007), Auditor (2007-2011), Lt. Governor (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Mary Taylor was once an ally of the "establishment" in Ohio considering she is serving as Kasich's lieutenant governor.

But as the gubernatorial race has progressed, she's positioned herself as an outsider in the race compared to DeWine -- frequently criticizing him as a "career politician."

While the outsider status is up for debate, Taylor may have a point on the career politician front. DeWine outranks her by more than 250 points. DeWine's running mate Husted also outranks Taylor by 34 points.

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Jay LaPrete/AP

Keith Faber

Party: Republican

Office sought: Auditor

CPIR: 45.8

Age: 52

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (2001-2006, 2017-present), Ohio Senate (2007-2016)

Campaigns lost: None

Keith Faber is the first downballot candidate on this list, and it's no surprise why. The longtime lawmaker has bounced around both the Ohio House and Senate -- including one term as Senate president -- to avoid leaving Columbus because of term limits. Now he is running for auditor. One note: Faber's CPRI score outranks current Republican Auditor Dave Yost.

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Jeremy Pelzer/cleveland.com

Dave Yost

Party: Republican

Office sought: Attorney General

CPIR: 39

Age: 61

Experience: Delaware County Auditor (1999-2003), Delaware County Prosecutor (2003-2010), Auditor (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Compared to his fellow members of the executive branch, Dave Yost ranks relatively low, with 21 fewer points than Taylor and 51.5 points fewer than Mandel.

Still, Yost outranks his attorney general opponent Steve Dettelbach.

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Photo provided by the Space campaign

Zack Space

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Auditor

CPIR: 34.2

Age: 57

Experience: Dover Law Director (2000-2005), Congress (2007-2011)

Campaigns lost: Congress (2010)

Zack Space was a congressional casualty in the 2010 election that was a bloodbath for Democrats. He alienated a lot of his Democratic base when he voted against Obamacare, but he faced a strong headwind from the get-go.

Space is trying to make a comeback as auditor in a race against Faber, who has a score more than 10 points greater than Space.

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David Petkiewicz/cleveland.com

Bill O'Neill

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 31.6

Age: 70

Experience: Appeals Court Judge (1997-2007), Supreme Court (2012-2018)

Campaigns lost: Supreme Court (2004, 2006), Congress (2008, 2010)

Bill O'Neill has been involved in Ohio politics for decades, but has one of the lower scores for somebody of his age. That's largely because he spent his time as a judge instead of in Congress -- though he did run for Congress twice.

O'Neill is a longshot option in the Democratic primary. His controversial Facebook posts describing his sexual history in response to the #MeToo movement didn't win him many backers.

While O'Neill hasn't played up the career politician angle in the primary, he has accused Richard Cordray of being the Ohio Democratic Party's "anointed candidate," referring to him as "Prince Richard."

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Gus Chan/cleveland.com

Joe Schiavoni

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Governor

CPIR: 30

Age: 38

Experience: Ohio Senate (2009-present), Ohio Senate Minority Leader (2013-2017)

Campaigns lost: None

Joe Schiavoni is the youngest candidate for governor by a wide margin -- a fact that he's looked to play up. During a cleveland.com editorial board meeting, Schiavoni pointed out his primary opponents had collectively been running for office for more than 100 years.

As such, Schiavoni has tried to position himself as part of the new wave of the Democratic Party, railing against career politicians on both sides of the aisle.

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Tony Dejak/AP

Steve Dettelbach

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Attorney general

CPIR: 26

Age: 52

Experience: Assistant United States Attorney, Maryland (1997-2001), Assistant United States Attorney, Ohio (2003-2006), United States Attorney (2009-2016)

Campaigns lost: None

Steve Dettelbach, a Democrat running for attorney general, has the distinction on this list of having the highest score for someone who's never run a campaign.

That's thanks to Dettelbach's numerous federal appointments under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as an assistant U.S. Attorney and Barack Obama as U.S. Attorney.

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Photo provided by the O'Brien campaign

Sandy O'Brien

Party: Republican

Office sought: Treasurer

CPIR: 23

Age: 66

Experience: Ashtabula County Auditor (1995-2003)

Campaigns lost: Ohio House of Representatives (2000), Treasurer (2006), Secretary of State (2010)

Former Ashtabula County Auditor Sandy O'Brien just bests primary opponent Robert Sprague on this list, mostly due to her two unsuccessful attempts at statewide office. O'Brien is making her third attempt at statewide office, again running for treasurer.

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Photo courtesy of Don Elijah Eckhart

Don Elijah Eckhart

Party: Republican

Office sought: U.S. Senate

CPIR: 22.5

Age: 68

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: Senate (2016)

Don Elijah Eckhart has only run for office one time on an official party ticket (he also has two independent runs). But during that one time, he shot for the moon.

Eckhart has never held office, but his failed Senate race gives him a ranking of 22.5, higher than multiple elected officials on this list. However, he has arguably had more ballot exposure, running for a statewide office.

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Provided by the office of Rep. Sprague

Robert Sprague

Party: Republican

Office sought: Treasurer

CPIR: 18.8

Age: 45

Experience: Findlay Treasurer (2005-2008), Findlay Auditor (2008-2011), Ohio House of Representatives (2008-2011)

Campaigns lost: None

Robert Sprague's decade in politics has yielded him a CPIR score of 18.8 points, 4.2 fewer than his primary opponent Sandy O'Brien.

Sprague is the first Ohio House of Representatives member on this list, all of whom are in the teens in terms of CPRI score.

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Julie Carr Smyth/AP

Kathleen Clyde

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Secretary of State

CPIR: 16

Age: 38

Experience: Ohio House of Representatives (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Kathleen Clyde bests her opponent in the secretary of state's race, state Sen. Frank LaRose, by a small margin, even though they've served the same amount of time. But there's a specific reason for that. Clyde has appeared on the ballot more times than LaRose, who, while serving in a higher position, is not on the ballot as often as Clyde.

The difference between Clyde and LaRose is mostly negligible on a macro scale.

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From the office of Sen. LaRose

Frank LaRose

Party: Republican

Office sought: Secretary of State

CPIR: 10

Age: 39

Experience: Ohio Senate (2011-present)

Campaigns lost: None

As described above, LaRose ranks lower than Kathleen Clyde by virtue of having not been on the ballot as many times, even though he's been on the ballot to a wider audience. Both Clyde and LaRose entered elected office in 2011.

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Seth A. Richardson/cleveland.com

Tara Samples

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lt. Governor

CPIR: 2

Age: 47

Experience: Akron City Council (2013-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Tara Samples, Dennis Kucinich's running mate, has yet to serve in a political capacity outside local government. Currently, she's served only two terms on the Akron City Council.

Of the gubernatorial pairs, Kucinich and Samples have the second highest score, showing the disparity between Kucinich's rank and Samples' rank.

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Photo courtesy Richardson campaign

Rob Richardson

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Treasurer

CPIR: 2

Age: 39

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: Cincinnati Mayor (2017)

Rob Richardson made the leap from losing the Cincinnati mayoral race to running statewide in a very short time. He has yet to hold public office.

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Photo courtesy of Schiavoni campaign

Stephanie Dodd

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lt. Governor

CPRI: 2

Age: 39

Experience: State Board of Education (2013-present)

Campaigns lost: None

Stephanie Dodd has held elected position since 2013 on the state board of education. While this is technically larger geographically than a local office, it's prestige is arguably of the same size. More people are likely to know who their city council member is than their state board of education representative.

Thus, Dodd is graded as if she'd held local office for two terms, arriving at two points.

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Amy Sancetta/AP File

Chantelle Lewis

Party: Democrat

Office sought: Lt. Governor

CPIR: 2

Age: 42

Experience: East Cleveland School Board (2006-2009), East Cleveland City Council (2010-2013)

Campaigns lost: None

Bill O'Neill chose Chantelle Lewis as his running mate. Lewis served one term each on the East Cleveland school board and East Cleveland city council.

Edit: Lewis' rank was updated to reflect her elected offices.

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Photo provided by the Gibbons campaign

Mike Gibbons

Party: Republican

Office sought: U.S. Senate

CPIR: 0

Age: 65

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: None

Mike Gibbons is running for Senate against Jim Renacci and several other candidates. His campaign provides some interesting insight into the "career politician" as a narrative.

Throughout both of his elections, Renacci has positioned himself as not a career politician despite having the 12th-highest score of the politicians surveyed.

Gibbons (and most of the rest of the Republican field) have a score of zero. Gibbons in particular has also taken up the career politician angle and accused Renacci of being a Washington insider multiple times.

That leaves Renacci in this weird middle land between Sherrod Brown, the number one on this list, and Gibbons, who has a much better argument about not being a career politician in terms of numbers.

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Photo provided by the Ackison campaign

Melissa Ackison

Party: Republican

Office sought: U.S. Senate

CPIR: 0

Age: 40

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: None

Like Gibbons, Ackison has never run for office before, but has appeared in Trump administration sponsored videos attacking the Affordable Care Act.

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Photo courtesy Kiley campaign

Dan Kiley

Party: Republican

Office sought: U.S. Senate

CPIR: 0

Age: 58

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: None

Dan Kiley is another Republican in the U.S. Senate primary. Kiley does not have any political experience.

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Photo courtesy Taylor campaign

Nathan Estruth

Party: Republican

Office Sought: Lt. Governor

CPIR: 0

Age: 50

Experience: None

Campaigns lost: None

When Mary Taylor decided to try and claim the outsider mantle against the decidedly insider campaign of Mike DeWine and Jon Husted, she went with a first-time candidate for any position for her campaign in Nathan Estruth.

Estruth has been politically active, running super PACs and the like for Republicans over the years, but until retiring from his job in the private sector had never sought office.