GREENVILLE — Leaders of the Darke County Democratic Party held their annual Spring Gala at the American Legion hall in Greenville Thursday evening. Several candidates for elected office throughout Ohio spoke at the event, including Steven Dettelbach, who is running for the office of Ohio Attorney General in 2018.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper introduced Dettelbach, but first shared some encouraging words about the “Blue Wave” he believes is coming to Ohio in 2018.
“We have a candidate in every single district of Congress,” Pepper said. “That means that not a single Republican is going to get a free ride this year. That’s how you win: you’ve got to run everywhere.”
Dettelbach previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
“That means I was the head fed for the northern half of the state,” Dettelbach said. Dettelbach has been a proseuctor for most of his 26-year legal career, in which role he has tried cases involving both corporate and political corruption, as well as ones involving Mexican drug cartels.
Fighting the cartels, according to Dettelbach, is one of several key strategies needed to help defeat the opioid crisis, both in Ohio and abroad.
“The cartels may be based in Mexico, but they distribute here in Ohio,” Dettelbach said. “We need to be able to trace back the drugs and the money and prosecute the big drug dealers.”
Dettelbach also believes it’s important to drive down the demand for the cartels’ product by helping people get off drugs.
“It’s not either/or, it’s both/and,” Dettelbach said. “We need to be doing enforcement, but it’s also important that we work on treatment and prevention.”
The treatment part of the strategy involves providing funding for opioid addicts looking to kick the habit, according to Dettelbach, while prevention comes down to changing certain rules about how legal painkillers are prescribed.
“We need to stop the flow of pills in such great numbers,” Dettelbach said. “If somebody has a minor procedure, they don’t really need 70 percocets.”
Dettelbach also voiced concerns about public education in Ohio, saying that recent events like the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) debacle show that something is deeply broken in Columbus.
“This big company takes hundreds of millions away from our publich schools,” Dettelbach said. “And the people in Columbus are in bed with them. They’re looking the other way.”
According to reports in The Columbus Dispatch and The New York Times, ECOT had the highest rate of students who either dropped out, or failed to complete the program in four years, of any high school in the U.S. in 2016, leading to a number of legal actions that forced ECOT students to find new schools in the middle of the academic year.
Dettelbach’s overriding concern, he said, is to make sure that the law works for everyone equally in Ohio.
“The law is supposed to be one set of rules that applies to everybody,” Dettelbach said. “It’s supposed to protect everybody, no matter how vulnerable, as well as hold everyone accountable, now matter how powerful. That’s pretty basic stuff, but it’s never happened on its own. It’s always taken people willing to fight to make it real, and that’s what I hope to do.”
Eigth District Congressional Candidates who spoke at the event include:
Bill Ebben, of West Chester, a veteran and former union worker and teacher, whose son died from a drug overdose after becoming addicted to painkillers he was prescribed following surgery. “The war on drugs doesn’t work,” Ebben said during his comments at the gala. He also expressed concerns about the lack of funding for veterans hospitals.
Dr. Vanessa Enoch, also of West Chester, who expressed support for unions and public education, as well as questioning whether the small-town Ohio values she was brought up with are shared by those in the government. “Do unto others – love your neighbor – some of these things I’m not seeing in Washington,” Enoch said.
Matthew Guyette, of Greenville, who stressed the importance of standing up against President Donald Trump’s agenda. “We have someone in the White House who is drawing shame on our country and flouting our Democratic beliefs,” Guyette said.
And, finally, Ted Jones, of Piqua, who expressed concern about the plight of working people in Ohio. “The current climate in Washington seems to be totally against working families,” Jones said.
