DEARBORN –The attorney general position is one of the most high-profile and important offices in each state, and the 2010 race in Michigan between David Leyton and Bill Schuette is one that will have a big impact on the future of the Arab American community.

In order to get to know the candidates and their plans better, the Arab Student Union (ASU) at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in combination with the Political Science Club and the UM-Dearborn College Democrats invited them both to speak and field questions on Wednesday, October 27 at the University Center’s main stage.

Leyton attended up as the event’s main attraction after Schuette was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, however.

The current Genessee County Prosecutor, is vying to replace term-limited Republican Mike Cox for the position, which is voted on statewide.

Leyton touched on hot-button issues such as racial profiling, national healthcare and more during his talk.

He touted his experience as “the only prosecutor in the race,” saying that it gave him a leg up on his competitor.

“This is a public safety-first job and I’ve prosecuted over 20,000 cases over the past six years with a 95 percent conviction rate while my opponent has prosecuted nobody,” he said.

While his opponent Schuette recently said he respected Arizona’s decision to pass its controversial new immigration laws because “the federal government failed to do its job,” Leyton said he was firmly opposed to such a law seeing the light of day in Michigan.

“The Arizona lawsuit will not solve that issue (in Arizona), it’s not going to do anything but cause racial profiling in the state and as I’ve stated earlier I am adamantly opposed to racial profiling.”

Leyton said he’s seen some Michigan employers hiring illegal immigrants especially in the northern part of the state to work on farms, however, taking jobs away from American citizens. He said that the practice should be cracked down on but said racial profiling is not the answer.

“The immigration law, it’s a totally different situation from Arizona,” Leyton said.

Leyton also weighed in on the issue of hate crimes, saying that he would like to amend the hate crimes statute in the state to include crimes perpetrated out of hate against groups instead of just individuals in light of recent racial and religious tensions, including against Arab Americans and Muslims along with other groups.

In addition, he said that he would work make his office reflect the state’s population and diversity.

“My staff will reflect the Arab American community and all communities, it should be a microcosm of the whole state’s population and reach out to all people in all communities including the Arab American community for help with the issues that are important to them,” he said.

The response was in sharp contrast to Schuette’s answer at an earlier meeting at the Lebanese American Heritage Club this month in Dearborn with Arab American community leaders during which Schuette said he would likely attempt to cut staff and would not commit to any specific hiring practices.

Leyton also called lawsuits against the “Obamacare” national health care system to be “crass use(s) of political taxpayer money that aren’t going to get us where we need to go.”

He said earlier in his speech that the state also needs to focus on ways to reform the prison system, as each prisoner currently costs taxpayers $34,000 a year according to Leyton.

Another practice he wants to reform is the current situation involving state representatives becoming lobbyists immediately following their terms and lobbying their former colleagues, creating conflicts of interest; Leyton would like to institute a two-year ban to prevent these occurrences.

ASU Director of Recruitment Adam Baydoun talked about the focus of the event.

“For our community I think it’s really important with certain issues we’re dealing with like racial profiling, we need an attorney general who will touch up on those issues and make us feel safe,” he said.

Baydoun was at the previous event this month with Schuette as well.

“When we met Schuette we asked him questions and he clearly dodged them, but Leyton answered them more clearly and that kind of surprised me so I think we should really support this man.”