By Fletcher Word
The Truth Editor
John Kulewicz, a retired attorney, is on the ballot this election cycle as the Democratic Party’s candidate for Ohio attorney general. His Republican opponent is Keith Faber, the Ohio state auditor.
A lawyer with scant political experience, Kulewicz believes he is exactly what Ohioans need. “At this point in our history in Ohio, we need a lawyer, not a politician, to serve as attorney general,” Kulewicz has said.
During a chat with The Truth last week, Kulewicz explained his concerns about the difficulties Ohio’s citizens face, particularly with mounting challenges of widespread fraud and scams, but also with the lack of accountability on the part of government offices and office holders.
As he organized his campaign for attorney general, Kulewicz visited all 88 Ohio counties to get an understanding of what residents in all parts of the state need from their government.
“People gave me the opportunity to see life from their perspectives,” he says. And the sum of those perspectives, the candidate recalls, is a general feeling that a lack of connection exists between Ohio residents and their government.
“People feel no one in Columbus is paying attention,” he says. “People feel no one is protecting jobs or protecting our safety.”
So, from a long-time lawyer’s standpoint, he feels his experience will be put to good use as the state’s attorney general.
The job of an attorney general, explains Kulewicz, has two aspects. One, “he’s a lawyer for the state,” overseeing matters “such as criminal justice, commerce, education” while representing the state.
The second aspect, he says, is “representing the interests of the people” in matters such as “consumer protection, wage theft, unlawful discrimination, antitrust, elder abuse…”
In that second aspect of the attorney general’s job is where things have gone adrift in recent years, says Kulewicz, and have “diminished in importance over time … we really need to make them a priority again.” The office, he adds, has become “too political in my view.”
Kulewicz believes that “in this state, people care about their pocketbooks and their pay checks” and that is not a feeling shared by many in Columbus.
Critically, Kulewicz is also focused on the warning signs that demographically things could get worse for Ohioans in the future. He cites forecasts that predict a 700,000 loss in population for the state in the coming years. That loss, he says, will mean that the state’s population on average will be much older – as younger folks leave for jobs, leaving more grandparents here. Elder abuse, he says, will become a much more prevalent problem.
In spite of his relative lack of elected office experience – he is serving his second term in the Upper Arlington City Council – Kulewicz is optimistic about his chances to win this statewide office.
His campaign’s internal polling taken in June showed a virtual tie between the two candidates, as 73 percent of respondents did not know anything about his opponent, Faber who has held elective office since 2001 (as state representative, state senator and state auditor). The same polls taken in late summer show Kulewicz up by four points over Faber.
His travels have given him the same sense of confidence. “I can distinguish a friendly environment from an unfriendly one,” he says of his encounters with the public throughout Ohio’s 88 counties.
Kulewicz is an Ohio native. He grew up in Columbus and earned a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal. He spent 44 years with the Columbus law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, arguing successfully before the United States Supreme Court on several occasions.