HANOVERTON - It has been a long political journey for Mike DeWine, one that has taken him from county prosecutor to the U.S. Senate.

He is now on that political road again, crossing the state of Ohio seeking the office of Ohio attorney general next year.

"It's a great time to be in Columbiana County," DeWine said of his trip. His wife, Fran noted that the leaves here are further along in turning color than in southwest Ohio, where the DeWines call home.

The couple made a political fund-raising stop Wednesday night at the Hanover House in Hanoverton. DeWine said he and Fran have spent the night there in the past, and they were staying Wednesday at the historic home built in the 1830s and restored by Columbiana County Republican Chairman David Johnson and his father.

Sitting next to an inviting fire burning in the house's old fireplace, DeWine laid out his reasons for moving again into the political arena. Most recently he has been spending his time on the family farm in Cedarville, Ohio, and teaching political science classes at Cedarville University, Miami University and Ohio Northern University.

DeWine feels his interest in the Ohio attorney general position goes back to his past as a county prosecutor and certain legislation he has passed through the years in areas like anti-crime and protection for children.

As attorney general, DeWine said he would work to "ferret out political corruption."

"It would not take me 15 months to realize there is corruption in Cleveland," DeWine said, adding he would work closely with federal investigators and local law enforcement.

He also talked about the challenges currently being faced by the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in the state of Ohio. DeWine called the huge backlog of cases at BCII a "huge crisis."

For instance, he said a rape kit setting on a shelf for five or six months is "intolerable." DeWine believes that the people working at BCII do a good job, but the backlog is due to a management problem. The attorney general oversees the work of BCII.

He further talked about the need to use the DNA database in a timely manner to aid investigators and local law enforcement in determining who is and who is not a suspect so they can continue their investigation. Making the information provided in databases available more quickly is the difference between aiding law enforcement in their investigation or just backing up the theories they had to reach on their own while the evidence sat on a shelf.

With a background that includes 12 years on the U.S. Senate judiciary committee, DeWine said working with law enforcement is something he has "a real passion for." Although the actual election is more than a year away, he said he already is excited about the opportunity.