Coughlin, who has represented Summit County in the Senate since 2001, has filed the necessary papers with the secretary of state to begin raising and spending money for a gubernatorial campaign.

Coughlin, 38, announced his candidacy on his Web site, saying, "The days when a handful of people in Columbus pick our candidates for us have come to an end."

Former U.S. Rep. John R. Kasich of Westerville also is considering a run for governor, but he has yet to form a campaign committee.

Kasich has been wooing support from GOP activists for more than a year, and during the next two months, he is scheduled to keynote about a dozen county party Lincoln Day dinners.

Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to seek re-election, but he has not formally declared his candidacy. Even so, he and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher have been holding fundraising events across the state billed as "kicking off their re-election campaign."

Strickland filed a campaign-finance report last week showing that he had $2 million on hand for a re-election bid.

Coughlin said yesterday that he announced his gubernatorial candidacy early "to make it crystal clear that this is the position I intend to run for. I'm guessing that it's going to take at least $12 million just to compete with Ted Strickland."

With the 2010 May primary election "coming up on us sooner than people think," Coughlin said would-be GOP candidates "really can't afford to have our toe in the water for too long. If we're going to get our message out there and we're going to get our base rallied and organized to run against a popular incumbent, people need to take the field."

Regarding Kasich's possible candidacy, Coughlin said, "I don't consider myself running against John Kasich. I know there are some people who think, 'Well, he's been out there flirting with it for a couple of years now and he's entitled to the nomination.' But we're the party of free markets and ideas, and I think it's not bad to have multiple candidates out there building an organization and talking about our issues and defining our party."

Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine declined to comment about Coughlin's candidacy. A Kasich aide did not respond late yesterday to an e-mail seeking comment.

jhallett@dispatch.com