DeWine avoids chaos with AG pick

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine deserves credit for resisting the temptation to give his fellow Republicans a political advantage in the November elections. He easily could have done so in naming a replacement for outgoing Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who announced last week that he was resigning effective June 7 to take a job with the Alliance Defending Freedom. Indeed, almost as soon as Yost made his announcement, speculation began that DeWine would name Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, the Republican running to replace the term-limited Yost, to the post. DeWine acknowledged Monday that he considered doing exactly that. Thankfully, DeWine instead picked Andy Wilson, the director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, to serve as attorney general for the next seven months. Had DeWine appointed Faber, it would have given him the advantage of incumbency against the Democratic candidate, John Kulewicz. It also likely would have touched off a game of musical chairs among the state's executive office holders, all of whom are term limited and most of whom are running for other state-level executive jobs. (DeWine and Yost are the only two not running this year.) With Faber in the AG's office, DeWine could have appointed Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the Republican running for auditor, to replace him. He then could have appointed state Treasurer Robert Sprague, the Republican running for secretary of state, to replace LaRose. That likely would have led to the Republican candidate for treasurer, former state Rep. Jay Edwards, being named treasurer. All of them would have been able to run as incumbents, which, again, tends to be an advantage. It also would have been a shocking display of cynical partisanship, which the governor appeared to recognize. "For me to step in as governor and appoint literally every single statewide office holder just didn't seem right to me," DeWine said. Shifting all those high-level officials around would have been disruptive to state government, especially with an election a few months away. It would have been even more disruptive if one or all of them ended up losing in the fall. If one really wanted to game out just how cynical the shift in Ohio government could have been, it's possible that DeWine could have faced pressure to resign himself. Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel would have then become governor. Tressel could then have appointed the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, as lieutenant governor. Perhaps Tressel even would have resigned himself, elevating Ramaswamy to the Governor's Mansion. Thankfully, DeWine short-circuited all that by naming Wilson attorney general. Wilson, who has led the Ohio Department of Public Safety since 2022, appears to be a fine choice. He previously served as DeWine's senior adviser on criminal justice and before that had a long run as Clark County prosecutor. The job Wilson is stepping into comes with big responsibilities. He'll face tough choices, including whether to retry the case against two former FirstEnergy executives facing charges in connection with the House Bill 6 bribery scandal. (The two executives, Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling, have denied wrongdoing and their first trial ended in a deadlocked jury.) Wilson said Monday that he needed to review the case before deciding how to proceed. Kulewicz saw something suspicious in Yost's departure. "Attorney General Yost has been the only statewide officeholder willing to call for transparency and accountability for JobsOhio," Kulewicz said in a statement Thursday. "It is too convenient that he is now leaving the Attorney General's office after his recent criticism of the scandal-ridden agency. Ohioans deserve answers why Mr. Yost is being pushed out." Anything's possible, but that seems like a stretch. Yost has been pushing for greater transparency at JobsOhio, the state's quasi-private economic development arm, since he was state auditor, the job he held before being elected attorney general in 2018. (While we've had our differences with Yost over the years, we've long agreed with him that JobsOhio needed to be more transparent.) We've seen no evidence to suggest that Yost was pushed out of office because of JobsOhio. Rather it appears that without another gig lined up in government, Yost went looking elsewhere. (Yost had planned to run for governor but dropped out of the race once it became clear that Ramaswamy had greater support within the GOP.) Perhaps becoming vice president of strategic research and innovation for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative outfit at the forefront of various culture-war fights, was simply too good for Yost pass up, even if that meant someone else finishing out his term. Yost, after all, has made fighting the culture wars part of his brand. Regardless of why Yost decided to leave office early, once he did the stage was set for DeWine to upend state government. Ohioans should be glad the governor picked a less disruptive path.