CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland police Tamir Rice killing, likely the city's most celebrated case of police excessive force and racial unrest, was center stage at the debate at Cleveland State University in Cleveland Oct. 8 of candidates for Ohio governor Mike DeWine and Richard Cordray, Cordray blasting DeWine and saying he broke a promise and did zero police training in response to the tragic killing by White Cleveland cops of the 12-year-old Black boy in November of 2012.

Corday is the Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio, a pivotal state for presidential elections, and DeWine, the Republican nominee.

Less than two percent were Black at the event, though Cleveland is a largely Black major American city, a political gathering that drew some 800 people to CSU's Glasscock Family Foundation Ballroom, and by ticket only.

The few Black elected officials there included state Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) of Cleveland, state Rep. Stephanie Howse (D-11), also of Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, also chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

The public radio and television's Statehouse News Bureau's Karen Kasler, Columbus 10TV News anchor Jerry Revish and the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jackie Borchardt were moderators.

Monday's hour-long debate, which was sponsored by the Ohio Debate Commission and kicked off at 7 pm, was the third and final debate in a close race for governor, and as momentum, very little in fact in the Black community, builds as the Nov. 6 general election nears.

Both were prepared, and did well, political pundits said, and it got contentious at times.

The Dems hope to regain Ohio's governor's office after it was stolen from them in 2010 when Republican Gov. John Kasich, who is term-limited, ousted then governor Ted Strickland.

"He [DeWine] failed us on police training and he failed us across the board," said an articulate Cordray as he highlighted the aftermath of the killing of Rice, who was gunned down in less than two seconds at a park and recreation center on Cleveland' largely White west side while playing with a toy gun.

A former U.S. senator, DeWine, currently Ohio's two-term attorney general, shot back, and hammered Cordray regarding thousands of rape kits that went untested when Cordray, a consumer watchdog when Obama was in office, was the state's attorney general, DeWine bragging, as he has done in television ads, that when he became attorney general he began testing rape kits that Cordray ignored.

Rape and murder of women are on the rise in Cleveland, which has gained nationwide attention over the past 10 or so years, including the rape and decade- long  kidnapping of Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry on Seymour Ave on Cleveland west side by the infamous and now dead Ariel Castro, and the murders of 11 Black women on the city's majority Black east side at the since demolished home on Imperial Avenue of serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell.

Other hot topics were the rainy-day fund, public transit, Issue 1, abortion, job and family services, school funding, education, criminal justice reform, preexisting hralth care conditions, and the economy.

On criminal justice reform Cordray said he supports State Issue 1, a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that minimizes penalties for drug affiliated crimes, including reducing some felonies to misdemeanors and providing more resources and rehabilitation as Ohio is top in heroin and opiates deaths, the latter of which Cordray blamed partly on DeWine.

DeWine, who holds a narrow lead over Cordray, vehemently opposes Issue 1, which is supported by the Cleveland NAACP, social services organizations, Black leaders, unions, offenders-support agencies, and many Democratic officials, among others.

He argued it would destroy Ohio's drug courts and increase crime, though there is no conclusive data that crime will increase if Ohio is voters adopt Issue 1.

Cordray, said DeWine, is out on a limb by himself in his support of Issue 1.

Both agree that more reentry programs are needed for felons coming back into society, and more job opportunities.

As to the economy, both promised more jobs, and Cordray, 59, promised no more taxes.

DeWine, 71, said his tax plan will best benefit Ohians, with Corday countering that he wants no tax increases whatsoever, and that  DeWine's tax plan punishes the middle class and the poor and promotes the rich.

"His prosperous plan benefits the prosperous," said Cordray.

DeWine said his record speaks for itself and that Cordray was under attack and making promises he cannot keep if elected governor.

Cordray reminded voters in the audience that DeWine filed suit as soon as he took office as attorney general in an attempt to undermine aspects of the Affordable Care Act, specifically the provision that precludes prejudice by insurers or prospective insurers of people with preexisting medical conditions.

DeWine danced around the topic but was adamant when moderators posed a question relative to the gubernatorial candidates' positions on abortion and reproductive rights.

"I am pro-life, I have eight children," said DeWine. "We value human life."

Cordray said he is pro choice and pro reproductive rights, and said Ohio's Republican controlled state legislature is outdated when it comes to abortion policies and a woman's right to choose, including the heartbeat bill he is against and a new law adopted last year that makes it illegal to abort a pregnancy if the fetus has downs syndrome.

Former president Barack Obama, who appointed Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spoke to a capacity crowd in Cleveland last month in the inner city at East High School and stomped for Corday and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Betty Sutton, and for the entire ticket of Dems seeking statewide office this November.

Both DeWine, whose lieutenant governor running mate is current Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, and Cordray agree on increased funding for the state's child welfare system and that standardized testing in elementary and secondary schools must be minimized coupled with more emphasis on learning.

Cordray said school vouchers and charter schools, pushed by DeWine and his fellow Republicans, hurt public education, and that inequitable public school funding, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court as to the DeRolph decision, hurts poor kids.

Both said they support expanding medicaid.

And they both said they support Ohio teachers, and early childhood education, Cordray saying education is often a deterrent to crime.

"We are going to help teachers and students have the technology they need," said DeWine.