Miami University alumnus and former Sen. Mike DeWine plans to add Ohio Attorney General to his long list of career achievements in the 2010 general election after he announced his candidacy for the Republican ticket this summer.
Although DeWine originally graduated from Miami in 1969 with a degree in education, he said the attorney general seat fits his political resume well.
"(Attorney general) is a natural extension of what I've done throughout my career," DeWine said. "My career has been focused on protecting families and protecting children."
After starting his political career as the Greene County Prosecutor in 1977, DeWine was subsequently elected to serve Ohio as a state senator, a U.S. Representative in Congress and Ohio Lt. Governor. From 1994 to 2004, DeWine served Ohio as U.S. Senator.
In 2007, DeWine returned to his alma mater to help teach classes in the Miami political science department. Political science professor Ryan Barilleaux said DeWine's inside view on politics added to students' experiences in his classes.
"Sen. DeWine had real gift for teaching," Barilleaux said. "I had the pleasure of watching him teach a class over the course of a semester and I talked to students who were in his courses after that. They said he had a real talent for teaching. He had a way of making the material come alive."
Barilleaux said he and DeWine originally co-taught "Inside American Politics" and then DeWine taught an American politics capstone and a campaigns and elections course on his own.
"It was a lot of fun to talk with students and relate some of my experiences in elections and campaigns (to the class)," DeWine said.
DeWine said following his hiatus from state and national politics he is now seeking the position of state attorney general to forward his commitment to law enforcement, just as he did on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was in Washington.
"One of the problems that exists in attorney general's office today is that the BCI (Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation) has a tremendous delay," DeWine said. "… If you don't get that evidence processed, there is a criminal on the loose who is committing more rapes, more robberies."
DeWine said his vision for the office of attorney general is to clean up some of the present "inefficiency" problems at the BCI and assist local law enforcements in getting their jobs done day-by-day.
"The quality of life in the state of Ohio depends on whether crimes are solved and crimes are prevented," DeWine said. "The attorney general can play major role in that."
DeWine is running against Delware County Prosecutor Dave Yost for the Republican ticket. The current attorney general, Richard Cordray, is running on the Democratic ticket to seek a four-year term.
