He told India-West last week that his campaign's agenda centers on "progressive reform of the "criminal justice system."
Current Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason has announced that he is not running for reelection when his term ends in 2012.
Dec. 7 is the filing deadline for countywide offices. The primary is scheduled for March 6, but that could shift to another date because of legal challenges to redistricting.
So far at least three other candidates are running in the Democratic primary and a fourth candidate is expected to announce soon. According to news reports, former Cleveland city law director Robert Triozzi, former North Royalton city prosecutor James J. McDonnell and Cleveland city Councilman Kevin Kelley are running.
Also expected to announce soon is Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty, a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who said he would retire from the bench effective Oct. 31. Ohio law does not allow a sitting judge to be a candidate for a non-judicial office.
Chandra is undaunted by the challenges from the other candidates. "The numbers work for us," he said, explaining that his progressive agenda sets him apart from more conservative candidates who can be painted with a status quo label.
Chandra said his platform offers ideas similar to those put forward by current California Attorney General Kamala Harris when she was district attorney of San Francisco.
They include setting up a wrongful-conviction unit, forming public and private partnerships to help ex-convicts' reenter society, improving forensic-scientific procedures, ending politicization of the death penalty, muting truancy and focusing on treatment to reduce drug demand.
Chandra said he is the only candidate in the race who was both a federal prosecutor and the prosecutor of a major city. The Indian American attorney currently heads The Chandra Law Firm, LLC.
When he finished his term as Cleveland law director in 2005, he led a staff of 82 attorneys with both criminal and civil divisions.
He last ran for office in 2006 when he lost in the Democratic primary for Ohio state attorney general to Marc Dann, who beat the GOP candidate in November 2006, but who later resigned from office after a sexual harassment charge was levied.
Chandra is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review. He also graduated from Stanford University, which awarded him the John Gardner Fellowship to work with Ohio Governor Dick Celeste.
Chandra is married to Meena Morey Chandra, a supervising attorney with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. They live in Cleveland, where they raise their triplet sons, who are first graders. Source: India-West By RICHARD SPRINGER, India-West Staff Reporter
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