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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > April > 25
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Editorial: GOP should pick Yost for auditor
2010 ELECTION
A primary contest for state auditor doesn’t typically generate much political passion. If there’s a good fight, it might simply pit ambitious people against each other, representing nothing bigger.
But this year’s Republican primary is different. It offers the clearest test of the Tea Party movement’s strength in Ohio when everybody’s talking about the Tea Party.
The situation is odd: both candidates are staunch conservatives. Some months ago, one of them, David Yost, the prosecutor in Delaware County, was running for attorney general. He was complaining that Mike DeWine, the moderately conservative former U.S. senator, was too liberal on gun control, environmental issues, judicial nominations and more — the regular litany of the staunchest conservatives.
The other auditor candidate, freshman state Rep. Seth Morgan, of Huber Heights, was, back then, supporting Mr. Yost, despite the local roots of the DeWine family. That tells you where Rep. Morgan is coming from.
He’s been a Tea Party favorite all along, eager to separate himself from the big Republican names of the recent Ohio past.
When auditor Mary Taylor was tapped to be Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich’s runningmate, Mr. Yost switched to run for her job at the urging, he says, of state Party Chairman Kevin DeWine.
By then, Rep. Morgan had already jumped in, accelerating his plan to run for auditor in 2014.
The party’s role struck some people as mainly an effort to ensure that Mr. DeWine didn’t have a primary fight. That made Mr. Yost a symbol of the establishment in some eyes.
Rep. Morgan has been pushing that point ever since, insisting that his opponent caved to pressure. Caving is a constant worry that some in the conservative movement have about the people they support.
Mr. Yost says running for auditor is perfectly consistent with his long-term interest: promoting clean government. (And he grants that Mike DeWine has certain advantages as a candidate.)
Both candidates are simply pursuing the political paths they think right for them. If Rep. Morgan has been focused longer on the auditor job, it’s because he sees that job as his natural step up the political ladder, because he’s a certified public accountant, not a lawyer.
So what about qualifications? Rep. Morgan, 32, is in his first two-year term in Columbus. He’s been a very active member of the Huber Heights City Council. He’s worked in the private sector, and he ran unsuccessfully for Montgomery County auditor.
Mr. Yost, 53, is a county prosecutor. He has been Delaware County auditor and has worked for former Gov. George Voinovich and former Columbus Mayor Buck Rinehart. Before politics, he was a newspaper reporter.
His breadth of experience and his specific record in managing a county prosecutor’s office — with about 25 employees — trump the CPA credential. Mary Taylor is the only Ohio auditor to have been a CPA. The job entails running a large operation, not actually doing audits.
The two men don’t have dramatically different plans for the auditor’s office. But Rep. Morgan talks about farming more work out to private accountants. Mr. Yost doesn’t necessarily oppose that direction, but does respond that “privatization” in government work can sometimes go too far.
And Rep. Morgan talks about using the auditor’s job as a “bully pulpit,” whereas Mr. Yost minimizes that role.
Rep. Morgan’s conservatism extends even to the point of voting against the Third Frontier, which is endorsed by the Republican Party and got the vote, for example, of William Batchelder, the conservative leader of House Republicans.
Rep. Morgan says that people are looking for an alternative to the “muddy middle,” that they want stronger, more principled leadership. In effect, he’s calling for more polarization, exactly what the state and country do not need.
Mr. Yost’s mature demeanor is more likely to instill confidence in the good intentions of the office than the demeanor of the tightly wound, ideologically rigid, ambitious young politician.
For prudent, relatively non-political management of a position that should be non-political and non-ideological, the better bet is David Yost.
(Endorsement letters submitted by the candidates are here.)
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