Why should voters elect me? I believe that Governance is a Profession. We need to stop the bullying, lies, and discrimination in our elections, schools, communities and government. I am an Environmental Lawyer and We Need One in the State Senate. I am 43 years old; my generation is leaving the state by the tens of thousands every year. We need to give us a seat at the table in the General Assembly to attract us back and keep us here in Ohio. I appreciate listening, learning and working with people. I have worked for the past two decades on issues pertaining to health and safety, community building and care-giving, civil rights and democracy, law and policy, energy, agriculture and conservation.
Environment: I will work on getting funding to clean up the Superfund and Hazardous sites in Ohio, establishing Bio-remediation as a practice. Unfortunately, our government has permitted the technique of deny, dilute, and bury for too long. I will work on banning Class II injection wells, this has never been a safe practice for the toxic radioactive liquid waste produced by the gas and oil industry. They create an imminent threat to our drinking water. I will work to stop fracking under our state parks and public lands. I will continue to support our restoration and conservation practices, while contributing funding to the documentation of this work. We know how to restore water, air and soil quality in Ohio which is valuable information that will attract people to Ohio.
Education: We need to stop the billion-dollar voucher program that is taking public school funding and giving it to private and religious schools. We need every to support our public schools and ensure they have funding for everything they need including art, music, theater, and the full variety of sports activities, paid nurses, counselors and therapists in their schools. We must provide healthy nutritious food to all students. We also need to support our trade-schools. My three siblings and I all benefited from the post-secondary and trade schools that were offered in High School. I went to Tri-C my Senior year, my twin brother went to autobody school, my sister went to culinary school and my youngest brother went to horticulture school. These programs prepared us for adulthood.
- We can cut the costs of our public schools that we pay with our taxes by utilizing the marijuana tax revenue that will be substantial in the coming years and decades. The way we will defeat addiction dependency and the war on drugs is through education and community engagement. We can also make our public buildings energy efficient and utilize renewable energy to cut down on our costs.
- We must make higher education affordable as well. We cannot allow our students to be in debt if they are going to be working for the public. We can work with industry, hospitals, and our government to forgive debt by offering a contract of employment if they agree to stay in Ohio and work for five to ten years here. We can also cut our costs at our state universities by adjusting the administrative and coaching salaries. It is unreasonable that administrators, deans and coaches are making more money than the President of the United States, the Governor of Ohio and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Energy: Ohio is a water state and we can utilize this energy with strategic dams and wave turbines. We can supplement that base-load with nuclear energy, solar and wind energy. We can reduce our energy costs in our government buildings, public buildings and schools buildings by making them energy efficient and utilizing 100% renewable energy. We need to build a electric train system that connects our cities and communities which will reduce our carbon emissions, fossil fuel demands, car accidents, and drunk driving.
Economy: We need to help the caregivers in our society. We need to reward the peacekeepers. I have been endorsed by seven labor unions, we represent the workers, caregivers and teachers. We need support, unemployment benefits, living wages, childcare, healthcare, retirement, vacations and a forty-hour work week. We cannot continue to glamorize workaholic expectations, that is a destruction lifestyle for our health, families, communities and democracy. We need our government to support and protect our labor movement that has always protected the public against the greed of capitalism. Our parent’s generation need social security, affordable healthcare and retirement. They should not have to go bankrupt to have assisted living.
Democracy: We must provide equal protection for all citizens. Diversity, Inclusion and Equality are the goals of our Constitutional government, our Democratic Republic. Our public libraries and historical societies teach us about our civic responsibilities and the legacy of our civil rights movement and they need our support. We need to stop the bullying, lies and discrimination in our elections, schools, communities and government. I will work immediately on the Fairness Act and Equality Act and repeal laws that create barriers to the Reproductive Freedom Amendment that was passed in 2023.
My Opponent: Senator Jerry Cirino, does not represent us. He is 72 years old and is making laws and policies without a law degree. He is attacking our colleges and universities with his Senate Bill 83. He is wanting to control our teachers and professors, their lesson plans, threatening their tenure and collective bargaining. He voted against Majority Rule for our ballot initiatives, the Reproductive Freedom Amendment, and legalizing Marijuana. He is attacking the LGBTQ community by discriminating against transgender members of our state. He is calling immigrants and migrants that are legal citizens of our state, "murderers and rapists". He is a bully that wants to control everyone because he is afraid of change. He is afraid to change his language, his education, and to accept that society has changed. We have to stop the bullying, lies, and discrimination in our State Senate, and the easiest way to do that is by electing me to replace him this election year.
