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Rep. Morgan to buck state GOP in race for auditor

GOP has already endorsed Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost.

State Rep. Seth Morgan and his wife Debra are seen before greeting suporters in Huber Heights on Jan. 21. Morgan followed a morning announcement of his intention to become the Republican candidate for state auditor with the afternoon event at Huber Heights City Hall. File photo

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra State Rep. Seth Morgan and his wife Debra are seen before greeting suporters in Huber Heights on Jan. 21. Morgan followed a morning announcement of his intention to become the Republican candidate for state auditor with the afternoon event at Huber Heights City Hall. File photo

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer Updated 12:34 AM Sunday, February 14, 2010

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Seth Morgan is looking ahead, not back, as he prepares to buck the Ohio Republican Party and seek the GOP nomination for state auditor.

“I have never seen good politics or good policy advanced by people who take the safe route,” Morgan, R-Huber Heights, said. He said he will file by the Thursday, Feb. 18, deadline.

The auditor’s race is not politically safe for Morgan, a former Huber Heights city council member and unsuccessful candidate for Montgomery County auditor in 2006.

If he loses the primary for auditor or even if he wins and then loses the general election, Morgan will be out of office because he couldn’t run for re-election for his State House seat at the same time. He is running for the GOP nomination against Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost, whom the state party has endorsed.

“If I’m not successful, I’m a business owner,” said Morgan, 31, a certified public accountant. “I’m a dad with three children.”

Win or lose, Morgan will be ending, at least temporarily, a legislative career that put him in the spotlight during his first term in the House. He would be eligible to run for three more two-year terms from a district that trends Republican.

Last year he won a seat on the powerful Finance Committee and also served as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, which comes up with Republican ideas for legislation.

Also in 2009, Morgan picked a fight with Gov. Ted Strickland and did well enough to claim at least a partial victory.

He went to the Ohio Supreme Court in an effort to get public records that Strickland used for his “evidence-based” model for schools and school funding. The all-Republican court ordered Strickland to provide copies to Morgan – Strickland had begun providing copies before the order — but denied Morgan’s request for attorney fees and statutory damages.

Morgan entered the auditor’s race after incumbent Republican Auditor Mary Taylor, like Morgan a CPA, joined GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich as his lieutenant governor running mate.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine, however, asked Yost to enter the race and paved the way for his endorsement. Yost had been running for the GOP nomination for attorney general against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, Kevin DeWine’s second cousin.

Members of the Tea Party movement and other anti-Mike DeWine conservatives lashed out at the move by the state party. They want Morgan in the race for auditor and Yost in the attorney general race. Kevin DeWine said Yost, as a prosecutor and former county auditor, had the experience needed for the state auditor’s race and was already geared up for a statewide campaign.

“I think Seth could have a bright future in our party if he makes the right decisions,” Kevin DeWine said in an e-mail. “He’s a politically ambitious young man and sometimes that desire to climb the political ladder can make you do things you end up regretting.”

The state chairman said that he knows many of Morgan’s House colleagues asked him to stick around to help them try to regain the majority.

However, State Rep. John Adams, R-Sidney, House Republican whip, the number three GOP leadership position, is behind Morgan in the auditor’s because of his CPA credentials and “his tenacity and work ethic.”

“I don’t believe his political career will be over with, whatever happens in the auditor’s race,” said Adams.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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