Today, I am announcing my plans to run for 1st District seat of the Ohio House of Representatives. It will be my goal to run a grass roots campaign, reaching out to every neighborhood in every community in the county as well as to the county’s rural townships. My message to voters is quite simple: Columbiana County needs representation in Columbus: we need investments in our basic infrastructure - in our crumbling roads, in our antiquated water and sewage facilities, in our under-funded schools and in our parks. Above all else, we need an economic development approach to state government so that we can not only preserve the jobs that we have, but start to create new jobs.

As a business person, I am all too familiar with the anti-business climate for which Ohio has become known. We have not only one of the highest tax structures in the nation but one of the worst regulatory environments of any state in the nation. Is it any wonder that we are losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, not so much to overseas locations, but to more “business friendly” states like Indiana, Tennessee and Texas. This has got to stop. But it will not stop unless and until we begin to elect “business-friendly” representatives to our legislatures.

This November, voters of the 1st District will have a golden opportunity to reverse the course of affairs here that is driving up joblessness, allowing our streets and roads to crumble, and causing our young people to leave the area for lower tax states with better opportunities for employment. One thing is for certain: I will be waging a vigorous campaign throughout all of the county to make perfectly clear what the differences are between the current state representative and me.