Yost and Morgan provide lively GOP race for state auditor

Primary races for state auditor are rarely all that interesting.

Not so in 2010, in the race for the Republican nomination between Dave Yost, 53, of Delaware, Delaware County prosecutor and former county auditor, and Seth Morgan, 32, of Dayton, a state legislator and former Huber Heights city council member.

Yost has earned solid Republican credentials during one term as auditor of Delaware County, just north of Columbus, and as a three-term prosecutor. He’s been making the GOP rounds for a year, preparing for a run for attorney general, and was the front-runner until former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine entered that race. When the current auditor, Mary Taylor, was tapped to run for lieutenant governor with John Kasich, party leaders saw a new place for Yost on the ticket.

In the meantime, Morgan, who was about halfway through his first term as a state legislator, saw his own opening when Taylor joined the gubernatorial ticket. He almost immediately announced his candidacy for auditor, noting that, like Taylor, he is a CPA.

The big switch

When Yost announced that he was switching from the attorney general’s race to the auditor’s race, Morgan stood firm. There wasn’t going to be a race for the GOP nomination for attorney general, but there was certainly going to be one for auditor.

In the last month, Yost has managed to gain support from more party chairmen and elected GOP officials than Morgan. But Morgan managed to get the Cuyahoga and Summit county party endorsements and the endorsement of the Ohio Tea Party PAC, which represents various Tea Party and 912 groups. In their campaign material, Yost and Morgan devote a lot of ink to establishing their conservative bona fides.

Generally, The Vindicator editorial board conducts individual rather than joint interviews with candidates as part of the endorsement process. This was a time when it certainly would have provided great political theater if we had brought Yost and Morgan together.

Alas, we conducted separate sessions that were not as much fun, but gave each candidate time to explain why he could best serve as auditor of state.

Yost noted that he has a long history of service in government and of demanding transparency in government. Suggesting the ultimate in such transparency, Yost says the technology exists for the auditor to provide on-line access to every check the state writes, with Social Security and other sensitive information easily and automatically redacted.

He says the auditor’s office could do more than it has to contain the costs of audits — which are paid for by the governmental agencies being audited.

He notes that as auditor of Delaware County, the fastest growing county in Ohio, he found that land, especially in the Polaris area, was being developed for commercial or residential uses, but remained on the books as agricultural. He said his aggressive stance earned the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue.

He also pledged, if he were elected, to serve on the reapportionment board, which will oversee the drawing of new legislative districts following the 2010 Census, in a way that would give geographic and community interests more weight than partisan advantage.

Morgan acknowledged his relative youth by saying that he’s always been told he’s too young to take on a job, but he’s always gotten the job done. While Yost has more years of experience, Morgan, who has worked as an accountant and run a consulting firm for small businesses, says neither candidate has a background in managing an 800-employee office.

Morgan said he has an eye for detail, and as a Huber Heights councilman he questioned the cost of the city’s audit, and the bill went from $60,000 to $40,000.

He argues that his CPA credentials are more important to a state auditor than Yost’s experience as a county auditor because the state and county offices, despite their similar titles, perform completely different functions.

Conservative vs. conservative

Both are serious and thoughtful candidates who espouse a conservative fiscal approach to state government.

Our endorsement, goes to Yost, the more experienced candidate with a broader background. The state has had good auditors and bad from both political parties, and the quality of their service has not been defined by formal accounting education. Management and people skills and a practical view of how to get things done will best serve the holder of this office. And, given the broad responsibilities of the office, including participation in reapportionment, a lawyer’s training is at least as valuable as an accountant’s.

The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat David Pepper, 38, of Cincinnati, an attorney and Hamilton County commissioner, in November. L. Michael Howard of Westerville, former chief auditor in the state auditor’s office, is running as a Libertarian.