15 Facts About Jim Petro

James M Petro was born on October 25,1948 and is an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party who served as the Attorney General of Ohio.

Previously, Petro served as Ohio State Auditor and he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio during the 2006 Ohio primaries, but lost to Ken Blackwell.

Jim Petro later earned his JD degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jim Petro served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County as a trial lawyer responsible for felony prosecutions, and then as Assistant Director of Law for the city of Cleveland, Ohio.

Jim Petro began his political career in 1977 when he was elected to the Rocky River city council, and later served as the director of the city.

In 1991, Jim Petro became County Commissioner for Cuyahoga County; during his four-year term he was President of the board for a year.

Jim Petro was elected Ohio Auditor in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, serving two terms from 1995 to 2003.

In November 2002, Jim Petro was elected the Ohio attorney general, serving from 2003 to 2007.

In 2005, Jim Petro became the first Ohio attorney general to argue a case in front of the United States Supreme Court in over thirty years; he won the case by a vote of nine to zero.

On January 30,2006, Jim Petro announced that Joy Padgett would be his running mate for the Governor's position.

Padgett, a Republican state senator from Coshocton, Ohio, was selected after Jim Petro's first running mate, Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich, dropped out of the campaign to run for re-election as Commissioner of Hamilton County.

Jim Petro was defeated in the May 2,2006, primary by Ken Blackwell, Ohio's then-Secretary of State.

Jim 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.

Jim Petro was appointed chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents in March 2011 by Governor John Kasich.

Chancellor Jim Petro leads the University System of Ohio, which is one of the largest comprehensive systems of public higher education in the nation.