Dave Yost running for attorney general

SANDUSKY — State Auditor Dave Yost has wanted to be attorney general of Ohio for years, and now he's getting another chance.Yost, 60, a Republican and a Franklin County resident, announced Tuesday that he plans to run for Ohio attorney general in 2018.The current attorney general, former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, is preparing to run for governor.Yost announced back in 2009 that he was running for attorney general. He eventually agreed to run for state auditor instead, clearing the way for DeWine's race.He told the Register Tuesday that he'd considered running for the post even earlier."I feel like my entire life has prepared me for this work, but the first time I thought about the AG's office was in the run up to the 2006 election, when it looked for a little while as though it might be an open seat. I concluded then I was not ready," he said. In a Tuesday news release announcing his campaign, the former prosecutor said he's eager to serve as attorney general."As your attorney general, I will never give up, and I will never give in — I will always fight for right.""As a former prosecutor, and as your auditor of state, I have fought to find the truth and to bring forth justice," Yost said. "I will continue that fight as your attorney general — in the courts or in city hall, from the streets to the statehouse."He listed his top priorities as fighting human trafficking, battling the opioid epidemic and providing support to law enforcement officers.Yost was Delaware County's prosecuting attorney for eight years. He said he prosecuted the county's first capital murder case, prosecuted a large drug ring and took on public corruption. He said that as auditor, he played a part in obtaining criminal convictions against 110 former public officials. He said his causes as auditor included charter school problems and a data scandal in the Columbus school system.Yost also crusaded to help members of the public obtain public records from public officials."Accountability starts with accurate, accessible records. When I was a newspaper reporter in the early 1980s, I learned first-hand how important public records and public meetings are to making government responsive to the people it serves. The government's records are the people's records," he said. (Yost was a reporter for the now-defunct Columbus Citizen Journal). Yost filed a financial report Tuesday saying that he has raised $486,267 and has $1,084,219.82 of cash on hand.Yost earned a degree from the Ohio State University and then a law degree from Capital University. He and his wife, Darlene, have three children and three grandchildren.Dave Yost, the state auditor.