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State Auditor Keith Faber during a February 2023 Statehouse news conference.
Celina's very own Keith Faber, who has served as Ohio auditor since 2019 and logged 18 years in the state Legislature, is training his sights on his next office: Ohio attorney general.
The 59-year-old Republican announced his run for Ohio attorney general on Monday, vowing to protect Ohio families and defend the state Constitution.
"The Ohio attorney general plays a vitally important role in the lives of Ohioans," Faber said in a statement. "I'm running for attorney general because I believe experience matters, and I will capitalize on my service as a lawyer, legislator, and state auditor to create an office that protects and defends Ohio's people and institutions."
The term-limited state auditor laid claim to identifying misspent taxpayer funds, convicting 129 people "who betrayed the public trust" and helping uncover billions of dollars in unemployment fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sitting Oho Attorney General Dave Yost, too, is term-limited, and last week he threw his hat in the ring for governor. Faber said as the state's next attorney general, he would focus on public safety and actively support police officers and prosecutors.
"From human trafficking to drug trafficking to violent crime, we've seen the impact of national policies like the open southern border right here in Ohio," Faber said. "My office will do all it can to aid local and federal law enforcement, protect victims' rights, and keep our communities safe. We will efficiently and effectively use the Bureau of Criminal Investigations and other tools within the AG's office to better support our law enforcement and protect Ohioans."
Faber, a former state representative from 2001 to 2007 and Ohio Senate president, was elected Ohio auditor in November 2018.
A few months later, Faber was sworn in as Ohio's 33rd state auditor, where he functions as watchdog over spending by 6,000 government entities in Ohio, according to his keynote speech at Midwest Electric's annual political action breakfast in October 2021.
"We do roughly 4,800 audits a year and in that capacity our job is to catch people who are lying, stealing and cheating with government money," he said. "Since I've been your auditor we've put more than 27 such individuals into one of the state's finer facilities, including a corrupt county sheriff that's doing six years that we've prosecuted."
He also took the opportunity at the time to heavily criticize then President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, which came on the heels of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
"How many of you have heard that during the pandemic, local governments were really fiscally strapped, they all had difficult problems meeting their budgets and the federal government had to jump in and bail everybody out?" Faber asked. "The reality is that's just not true."
Over 80% of state cities and counties, Faber said, "ended the year of COVID with more money in the bank than they started the year of COVID."
"For the state of Ohio, our revenues went up by more than $1.2 billion," Faber said. "When you look at the federal money and other things that come into it, these gentlemen ended the fiscal year for the state with nearly $4 billion more than was budgeted a year before COVID started."
While serving as Ohio Senate president, Faber was credited with securing a $1.2 million state capital line-item to help fund the nearly $2 million Harley C. Jones Memorial Rotary Amphitheater in the Bryson Park District in Celina, which was officially dedicated in September 2019.
Faber earned his undergraduate degree from Oakland University and his law degree from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. After working in the private sector, he opened his own law firm, Faber and Associates LLC, in Celina.
Faber and his wife, Andrea, have two children. Andrea Faber is the vice provost and chief administrative officer of Wright State University-Lake Campus.
