Ohio attorney general: Democrat Steve Dettelbach making first run for state-wide office

By Miranda Wyse

Steve Dettelbach seemed calm on during his interview with Between the Lines Live, a public affairs program produced by the Sandusky Register. His demeanor was relaxed when being questioned, with one of his legs crossed over the other as he spoke to reporter Matt Westerhold. When answering the questions, Dettelbach became more passionate, moving his hands moving around. He spoke mostly about his campaign in the interview, saying he had been going around Ohio, working to get elected as Ohio’s next attorney general.

As great as that is, what do young people actually know about the attorney general? This election has been called by many a determining election. Under a Trump presidency and many people have become increasingly upset with policies put into place, including the Muslim travel ban and repeal of net neutrality. Along with Taylor Swift encouraging people to get out and vote, that means there are more eyes on this election. According to ABC News, 100,000 people registered to vote in her home state of Tennessee alone, immediately after Swift’s call to action.

Given Swift’s demographic of young people, mostly young girls, the question arises as to what people know about the campaigns running in their state. The fact that so many people would register for this upcoming election, a good percentage could be drawn away from the fact that they do not know much about what candidates are actually running. How many actually know what is going on in their own home states?

Upon walking around Cleveland Heights High School to see what students actually knew about the attorney general race and what might sway their votes, the results weren’t surprising. A majority of students said they will not be eligible to vote in this year’s midterms but will be able to vote by the time of the 2020 presidential race. When asked the reason why they would, or would not, be voting in the midterm elections, the most prominent answers were that they were not allowed to vote or that they didn’t know when midterm elections were.

Some said they were voting in the midterm elections and noted the importance of such an election—as one person said, “because it is very important to vote so you have control over who represents us as people.” Another answer on the side of actually voting was “because the voices of young people make a difference in election results.”

On the other end, responses were more concerning, with one student saying, “I don’t know what midterm voting is, so I may vote, but I don’t know.”

“I don’t when the midterm elections are. Nor do I know what it is,” was another reply.

A majority didn’t know who the attorney general was and a staggering majority (88 percent) barely knew who was running during midterms. Some people said they have seen the ads on television, but only their names and parties. When factoring out who isn’t voting, a majority of people did say that their education would affect their voting.

In an interview with Cleveland Heights High’s AP Government teacher of eight years, Richard Wiggins, he recalled feeling that there wasn’t much time to teach everything he wanted. While dull, he said that the section on the founders and the Constitution is important for understanding other chapters in the AP Government book. He said he would like to focus more on current events, as it helps contextualize what he is speaking about in class. But there has always been a strict focus on taking—and passing—the Advanced Placement exam that happens in May, which might lead to uninformed and undereducated voters in the future.

What do young people actually know about the attorney general? What exactly does the attorney general do? The attorney general position was first brought about in Ohio in 1846. It is more of an administrative position than a legislative position. According to the attorney general’s website, the office oversees all law enforcement in the state, helps to uphold all the state’s laws and interpret them as well, and represents the state in legal cases when necessary. There is also a consumer protection branch.

Ohio has an affinity for voting in Republicans for attorney general instead of Democrats, with the current incumbent, Mike DeWine (now running for governor) being a Republican. Ohio is a notoriously purple state and one would have expected that there would be more variety within the position instead of being dominated by Republicans. It is also important to note that no woman has ever held the Attorney General position in Ohio, leaving the position to be dominated by men.

Dave Yost is running against Steve Dettelbach in this year’s attorney general race. Yost is a Republican who is currently the auditor of Ohio and has 165 prosecutions to his name. He also served eight years as Delaware County before he started his race against Dettelbach for the attorney general position.

Dettelbach is the Democrat in the race. He was a federal prosecutor for 20 years, including seven years as the U.S. Attorney for Ohio’s Northern District. He won a primary (held when more than one person from a party wants to run, so there’s only one Democrat and one Republican) before this midterm election. Dettlebach has been covered in the media before.

Dettelbach started campaigning in the summer of 2017, but hasn’t run for a statewide position before, so he needed to introduce himself to the electorate.

While Dettelbach is all for helping people with the opioid crisis, he doesn’t support Issue One. This is a proposal to “defelonize” drug possession, dropping it from a felony to a misdemeanor. Supporters of this issue have said that it would help keep dealers and users off the streets. Another main bit that the supporters are saying about Issue One is that it will help get drug users into the treatment they need. With this information being spread across YouTube and television in ads, students at Cleveland Heights High were 50:50 on knowing what Issue One was.

Dettelbach’s website lacks a Contact Us button, which is concerning. It begs the question as to why he would leave it off of his page. What makes him and his team so busy that there couldn’t be someone to man a contact page on his page? Can’t he hire someone onto his team to actually staff this page and work on answering the questions? His Facebook and Twitter are active and running, but even a journalism student had trouble getting in contact with him. So, what hope does that give a normal citizen of getting in contact with him?

The first person this student spoke to about the election was the president of the John Carroll University College Democrats, Mike Bishop. He responded within hours of being contacted and was able to meet within a few days of the first email. The College Democrats is a club that not only tries to get all of the Democrats on campus together, but also gets students in contact with other Democrats in Ohio. They work in social projects as well. Bishop said that election season for the College Dems is “crazy.”

Even with all of the Republicans who held the attorney general’s office before, and unlike some other Democrats, Bishop is optimistic for a Democrat to hold the office—which is good since he is the president of the College Democrats. He is also feeling optimistic about Democrats in general. While Bishop is from Pennsylvania and doesn’t know much about the races here in Ohio, he said that Dettelbach has good experience and is a good candidate. Bishop said that he likes the focus Dettelbach has on human trafficking, and as attorney general, Dettelbach could help with that issue.

Numerous attempts were made to try and contact Dettelbach via Facebook and Twitter, but no response was received.