By Matthew Sotlar The Jambar
With less than two weeks until midterm elections, Youngstown State University hosted a debate for the office of attorney general Oct. 20 inside Williamson Hall.
Republican Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber faced off against Democrat candidate John Kulewicz. Faber has served as state auditor since 2019, and Kulewicz has nearly 50 years of legal experience, previously appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court as counsel.
YSU President Bill Johnson opened the event, which was moderated by Tony Paglia, president of Youngstown Press Club. With only one hour to debate, Faber and Kulewicz both agreed to speak for no more than 90 seconds each, with 60 seconds allotted for rebuttals.
In his opening statement, Kulewicz said he believes there’s a need to reform state government and to depoliticize the office of attorney general.
“We need to clean up our state government, and we need to do that with an intensity that only the attorney general can bring to the situation here,” Kulewicz said. “We need also to make the office of attorney general less political and more [of] the law firm for all the people in the State of Ohio.”
In his opening statement, Faber discussed his legal career and said he’s committed to combating felony crimes if elected.
“As attorney general, we’ll fight to root out people who are engaging in cyberfraud, human trafficking and elder abuse and those companies that are taking advantage of Ohioans,” Faber said. “We will make sure that Ohio law enforcement has the training and the tools to keep our communities safe.”
Citing a poll from Bowling Green Independent News, Paglia asked both candidates how they would tackle issues such as state-level corruption, which remains a concern for many Ohioans.
“I think that we need to use every effort we can to wipe out corruption in the government,” Kulewicz said. “We have the right to an honest government, a government we can trust, and that starts with an attorney general who’s going to be straightforward with the people.”
In response to the same question, Faber discussed his plans to implement an anti-corruption task force if elected.
“We will create a permanent anti-corruption task force, similar to what we’ve done in the state auditor’s office,” Faber said. “As auditor, we’ve now convicted 172 politicians and public officials who were lying and cheating and stealing tax dollars.”
The candidates also debated Flock Safety cameras, which have become a nationwide privacy concern. Kulewicz said he supports the cameras in law enforcement investigations.
“I think it’s very important that we listen to the privacy concerns of millions of Ohioans,” Kulewicz said. “I will say though, I believe Flock cameras are a very valuable asset for safety and criminal investigations.”
Faber said he agreed with Kulewicz while emphasizing the need for legal authorization.
“We put out our policy on Flock cameras very early in this campaign,” Faber said. “We said that you need to have a law enforcement purpose to access Flock cameras. If you’re going to try and create a mosaic of somebody’s activities around the community, we think you need to have a warrant.”
Midterm elections will be held Nov. 3.
