Ohio’s state auditor: Republican Keith Faber focuses on redistricting and higher education costs
By Ricky Ward
Ohio state auditor Dave Yost is stepping down to run for attorney general. The majority of media coverage has been on this move, and not on who will be replacing Yost as the state auditor. One of the candidates is Keith Faber, Republican, the current representative for the 84th district in the Ohio House of Representatives. Faber is running against Democrat Zack Space and Libertarian Candidate Robert Coogan.
State auditor is a fairly low-profile job except for one thing: This office-holder gets to sit on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. This is the group that draws the new map after the 2020 Census, setting the boundaries for districts for a decade to come. Since the state auditor’s term is four years, this puts the person elected in 2018 in a position to help redraw electoral boundaries. Being on the commission helps whichever party is in control to secure support in partisan regions, and influences who gets into office.
Thus, it is important to the Republican party to replace the former state auditor Yost with another Republican in Faber. This will help the party control specific seats at all three levels of government.
In addition to this, the auditor wears many hats and is charge of multiple things related to the finances of the state. The state auditor is meant to make sure that the state’s resources — particularly its money — are used efficiently. The office of the auditor must run fiscal and performance audits on a range of things including public offices, cities, school districts and state agencies. The position for state auditor is held for four years, and the person elected can serve at a maximum of two terms.
Faber was formerly in the Ohio Senate, and was the 94th president of the Ohio Senate in 2016. He was ineligible to run for senate again because of term limits, which means he is now looking to fill the shoes of fellow Republican Yost as state auditor. According to Faber, his plan is to continue his work of making the government transparent and more efficient.
“The best ideas come from constituents. So if someone has an idea to make government work better, share it with us,” Faber said in a podcast shared on his website. He is open to listening to the public, he emphasizes. “It’s your government, not government’s government.”
Faber is also on Twitter, where he retweeted a comment stating that his opponent does not understand the job he is running for.
Reaching Faber to do an interview for this profile turned out to be rather difficult. After about a month of emails to Faber’s campaign website, a phone interview was finally set up. It is clear from his Twitter feed that he is out actively campaigning, walking door to door and attending events all over the state. Despite only a brief interview with Faber, there is still plenty of information out there about the Republican candidate for state auditor.
Faber uses his experience to support his work on the high price of higher education. In a podcast version of Tom Roten’s radio show on iHeart Radio, Faber tells him:
“I am the first one in my family, I’m the youngest, to go to college. I did it because I got some scholarships and some opportunities to work my way through college.”
Faber’s big message and campaign emphasis is to cut waste. He connects to young people by mentioning that he will deal with the cost of higher education. “Education is a consumer product, and you want to make sure you are getting value,” Faber says in the Tom Roten podcast.
He brings in his previous work as Ohio Senate president on this issue, saying that by increasing efficiency, higher education can become more affordable. Faber says he plans to continue this mission if elected as state auditor.
In a phone interview, Faber discussed how the auditor can affect the cost of higher education. He explained that the state auditor’s office is now allowed to go to state colleges and perform audits on them. The good news for students in private colleges is, “ Private colleges like John Carroll will follow the lead of the state colleges and universities because they have to from a competitive standpoint.”
When asked how quickly Faber could make this happen, he laughed and said, “Hopefully tomorrow.”
Faber presents himself online as a family man. He frequently mentions his son, daughter and wife in his tweets and the campaign material that gets passed out when he goes door to door. He frequently shouts out his wife on Twitter and is often seen in communities all over Ohio, stumping for fellow Republican candidates in their campaigns.
The election for state auditor will be on Nov. 6, and while you may see Faber out in the community, it may be hard to contact him beforehand.
