Republican Keith Faber and Democrat John Kulewicz are running for Ohio attorney general, a seat that will be open when current Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson leaves office in January.
The election will mark the first time in eight years that Ohio voters choose a new attorney general, who operates the state's largest public interest law firm. The attorney general represents state agencies, pension funds and public colleges and universities, investigates and prosecutes charity fraud and Medicaid fraud, and operates the peace officers' training academy, state crime labs and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Wilson was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in June to serve the remainder of Dave Yost's term. Yost resigned to work for a Christian legal
group.
If elected, Faber said his top priorities will be to increase resources at the state crime lab, the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy and the consumer protection bureau.
Kulewicz said if he's elected, he'll work to address financial hardships that Ohioans face. "An active attorney general can improve the economic lives of Ohioans by taking a very rigorous approach to consumer protection, fighting consumer fraud, defending us against wage theft, against monopoly pricing, against exorbitant utility rates," he said.
Who is Keith Faber?
Faber said voters should pick him because he has extensive experience as state auditor and lawmaker − work that can pay dividends in the attorney general's office.
Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder recruited Faber to run for the Ohio House in 2000. Faber, of Celina, has been in state politics ever since then. This is the third time Faber has been forced by term limits to seek another office.
He served four terms in the Ohio House and moved to the Ohio Senate where he eventually became president. Again, facing term limits in the Senate, Faber moved back to the House. And for the past eight years, he has been state auditor where his team identified more than $21 million in misspent funds and won 171 fraud convictions.
During his lengthy legislative career, Faber:
- Supported Senate Bill 5, the 2011 bill that would've gutted collective bargaining rights for public employees, including police and firefighters.
- Initially blocked a bill to ban abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected but later brought it to a vote in 2016 when the political landscape had changed.
- Backed an expansion of Ohio concealed weapons law in 2010 to allow adults to carry guns in bars, which was opposed by law enforcement groups.
- In 2008 and 2018, Faber voted in favor of bills to crackdown on payday lending practices that consumer groups said harmed low-income Ohioans.
- Established a low-cost path through the Ohio Court of Claims in 2016 for Ohioans to contest public records denials.
As a legislator, Faber benefited from campaign donations linked to Bill Lager and his associates. Lager founded the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which grew into the largest online charter school in the state. Attendance audits by the state concluded ECOT owed tens of millions of dollars. Faber was among Republicans who donated the ECOT campaign money to other causes. As state auditor, Faber concluded in 2022 that ECOT owed Ohio $117 million.
Faber said he plans to aggressively pursue that debt owed to Ohio. "We are going to be vigilant to make sure that the prosecutors move forward in a prompt way," he said.
Who is John Kulewicz?
Kulewicz says if voters want more of the same, they can stick with Faber. But if they want change, he's the right candidate for attorney general.
If elected, he pledges to focus the resources of the attorney general's office on economic issues such as wage theft and consumer protection cases. "I would much rather devote the limited resources that the attorney general has to the things that can help us and empower us economically, as opposed to getting involved in culture war issues," Kulewicz said.
Kulewicz spent 44 years as an attorney with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, a law firm founded in Columbus in 1909 that now has offices in multiple states and countries. He led teams of attorneys and investigators on complex corporate cases in state and federal courts. He retired as a partner but is still an attorney.
Kulewicz' elected office experience is limited to two terms on the Upper Arlington City Council in Franklin County.
Kulewicz is a long-distance swimmer who has led relay teams crossing the English Channel and who has swum the Straits of Gibraltar. As a statewide candidate, he has campaigned − and taken swims − in all 88 Ohio counties.
Kulewicz swam at YMCA and community pools and in reservoirs, lakes and Lake Erie. While in his swimsuit, Kulewicz talked to the Ohioans who happened to show up to the beaches and pools at the same time as he did. He called the cross section of people he met a "poor man's focus group."
"They expect the state government to be listing to them and caring about them," he said. "And secondly, what they want the state to do is just handle the basics, protect our health care, protect our pensions, our jobs, our communities, our daycare. Just the fundamentals."
Where do Faber and Kulewicz stand on issues?
Former FirstEnergy executives: Chuck Jones and Mike Dowling, whose last trial ended in a mistrial, are newly charged in state court with 22 countslinked to the alleged bribery of the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and pumping bribes through dark money groups to get a $1.3 billion bailout bill into law. The scheme is the largest public corruption case in Ohio history. Kulewicz said he's committed to retrying the duo. Faber said based on the facts he knows now, "it seems to warrant continuing that prosecution."
BCI police shooting investigations: The Bureau of Criminal Investigation has examined more than 300 officer-involved shootings and critical incidents, offering an independent review and publicly posting the results. Kulewicz wants to add resources as needed to make sure BCI has the bandwidth needed. Faber said these investigations take far too long because resources are stretched thin and the investigations take resources away from other priorities. "If we are going to be the de facto use of force investigating entity in Ohio, we need to fund that and support it."
Filing amicus briefs: The attorney general can also join multi-state lawsuits on behalf of Ohio. Kulewicz noted that Yost used this to fight culture wars but he pledges to be more focused on economic issues. Faber said he'll review the cases and determine which ones make sense to continue.
Prison investigations: Lawmakers recently handed off the duty of inspecting state prisons to the AG. Kulewicz said he would bring in outside experts to assist in the inspections as a means to mitigate the state's risk of getting sued over prison conditions. Faber, who as Ohio Senate president threatened to dismantle a long-standing prison inspection agency, pledged to take the duty seriously in the AG's office.
ECOT: The attorney general serves as the debt collector for the state, often suing to recover money owed to public agencies. Ohio sued Lager and others in 2018 to try to collect $160 million owed to the state. The case has been dragging on since then. Kulewicz said he'll go after the damages "by any means possible" and call for an overhaul of oversight for charter schools. "My opponent has not only done little to move forward on this but also is known to have ties to the owner of ECOT and has even spoken at ECOT events," Kulewicz said.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Who's running for Ohio Attorney General?
