Attorney general candidate: I'm a prosecutor, not a career politician

SANDUSKY — Steve Dettelbach, the Democratic candidate for Ohio attorney general, said there's a pretty clear difference between himself and his opponent, Dave Yost."I am a career prosecutor and he is a career politician," said Dettelbach, the former U.S. attorney for northern Ohio.Dettelbach appeared Wednesday on Between the Lines Live, the Register's public affairs program. The interview, about 15 minutes long, is available for demand viewing at sanduskyregister.com/btl.Yost, the Republican candidate for Ohio attorney general, has served two terms as the state auditor.Dettelbach, a Cleveland native who worked for years as a federal prosecutor, said because he is not a politician, he is used to making hard decisions, even if they go against the wishes of his own political party."My career as a prosecutor has been about making decisions on cases as best I could," he said. Those calls are "not based on who is happy or sad about it.""I personally prosecuted lots of public corruption cases," he said.In the big picture, the attorney general is supposed to fight for the basic idea that everyone in Ohio plays by the same set of rules."On each issue, that's the test for the attorney general," he said. "Is the attorney general going to be on the side of the special interests, or is the attorney general going to be on the side of the people?"Citing the FBI probe that forced the sudden resignation of Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and the ongoing scandal over money paid to ECOT, the now-closed online school, Dettelbach vowed to fight corruption in Columbus."I don't think I've ever seen a political culture that is more corrupt or more broke than what we are seeing in that Statehouse in Columbus," Dettelbach said.That's been fueled by one-party rule, he said.Dettelbach said as the opioid epidemic in Ohio has grown, the Local Government Fund has been cut 55 percent.Forcing local cuts for treatment and police should not be done "so we can suck money to Columbus and pretend Columbus is the be-all and end-all," he said.Local police and prosecutors are on the front line of fighting crime and officials in Columbus should support them, Dettelbach said.Reach reporter Tom Jackson at jackson@sanduskyregister.com and follow him on Twitter @jacksontom. Ohio Attorney General candidate Steve Dettelbach appears on Between the Lines with Matt Westerhold on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.