Politicians running for local, state and national positions came to Wayne County to discuss politics and policies with Wayne County residents.
Sam Kang
Contributing Writer
On Oct. 10, Wayne County residents met with several politicians during Candidates’ Night at Shisler Auditorium at The Ohio State University’s Wooster Campus. This event, sponsored and moderated by the League of Women Voters of Wayne County (LWV), gave citizens a chance to have one-on-one experiences with politicians before the election.
LWV, a “national nonpartisan organization working to protect and expand voting rights,” provided several resources to get more information on local representatives, including the LWV website and the Wayne County Board of Elections website.
The event centered around a roundtable discussion with six candidates, where every candidate had 15 minutes to speak with local Wayne County residents and answer questions. LWV stated that this was organized to improve “functionality, bipartisanship, and fairness” and was based on LWV meetings in other cities.
Two candidates for Wayne County commissioner participated in this event. Karla DeMali focused her opening speech on the skills she received working as an educator for 17 years, which ranged from learning how to budget to managing crises and administrative work.
DeMali purports she would focus on homelessness and mental health around the county by increasing the number of accredited mental health counselors, including those in schools. She would also expand the offices of the county commissioner in cities like Orrville.
She proposed to increase city-wide transportation by implementing a hybrid bus system grant for the greater Wayne County area and electric bike rental systems. Demali also hopes to expand funding for emergency services.
“No one should ever have to beg for money — [emergency services] are the things that keep us safe.” Per DeMali, this would entail giving more equipment and manpower to Wayne County’s emergency services.
She is challenged in this election by Matt Martin, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran and former secretary and treasurer of the Wayne County fair. He described how his time in the Marines shaped his values, which include “integrity, dedication, commitment, selflessness [and] patriotism.” He emphasized a “focus on serving the community and county by example.” Additionally, he spoke on the importance of protecting arable land.
“We have by far some of the greatest farmland in the country,” Martin said. “That’s a resource we can’t get back when it’s gone.” One of the current challenges he sees is urbanization and energy farms taking over important farmland. While he spoke of his support for these urban projects, Martin stressed Wayne County’s need to protect its agriculture and ensure that increased areas for commercial and residential use do not eat up natural resources.
One candidate for the Ohio State House of Representatives, Mark Gooch ’90, was also present. Gooch currently serves as the Collection Management and Discovery Services Librarian at The College of Wooster. Gooch spoke about his involvement in the Wayne County community, specifically in Wooster.
“I finally got to a point where I felt like I was not working on real issues, so I made a decision that I would step up and try to represent Wayne County,” Gooch said.
Gooch supports Ohio’s Issue 1, as he believes gerrymandering is greatly harming the U.S. Gooch is also focused on education — he wants to shift from “voucher programs,” or federal funding going to religious schools, into funding for affordable housing, addressing poverty, increasing the quality and quantity of school meals and other strategies that he believes will improve Ohio’s education system.
He told a personal anecdote about once overhearing teachers talking about how they had to bring snacks for some students who were unable to get a meal before important test dates, which “seem[ed] crazy” to him.
Two candidates for the U.S. Congress were also present. Matt Diemer, the Democratic Party candidate, spoke first. He has worked in outreach programs to support Issue 1. Diemer is running with a campaign slogan, “Make Congress Work Again,” a reference to the impact he says big money and political lobbying have in Congress.
“That is wrong,” Diemer said.“It put the thumb on the scale for people with a lot of money to change our democracy.”
Diemer focused on the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) and climate change response during his question and answer session. According to Diemer, the U.S. needs to refocus its response to climate-related issues.
“I think that American people are getting really frustrated that we don’t have a quicker and greater and appropriate response [to climate disasters],” Diemer said.
He also advocates for increasing FEMA’s funding and ensuring insurance companies cannot drop coverage during disasters.
U.S. Congress candidate Dennis Kucinich was also at the event. Kucinich represented Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2013 as a Democrat, but is running as an Independent in 2024, emphasizing his prior experience in improving the job market. He pointed to the federal response to Hurricane Helene and Milton as key evidence of the political stagnation of the U.S.
During the question and answer portion, he claimed that a way to refocus issues is by pulling out of international defensive organizations like NATO, as he sees U.S. foreign policy as “overstretched” and contributing to the national deficit.
“Our economy is in trouble … and our foreign policy has put the dollar in trouble,” Kucinich said. “We have caused other countries to unite economically against us.”
Kucinich wants to fully withdraw political involvement from the Middle East and refocus the U.S. on national policies and concerns compared to international issues, as well as dial back U.S. arms sales.
Steve Elliott is running for the 9th District Court of Appeals. He currently serves as the chief magistrate for the Summit County Court of Appeals and has heard over 1000 cases. He also worked as a law enforcement officer, a parole officer and a federal officer for the CIA. His motivation for running stems from his perception of a critical crisis in the U.S. judicial system.
“Politics has seeped its way into the judiciary [and] I reject that,” Elliott said.“As your next judge for the 9th District Court of Appeals, all my decisions will be based on the law and only the law, and my personal political views will remain out of my decisions, as it should be.”
He points to his cases, specifically those regarding guardianship, as his evidence that he will be able to decide cases despite his political opinions. He also stated that he is uniquely qualified due to his law enforcement experience in the state and federal levels, allowing him to understand both sides of cases in the Court of Appeals.
The event offered citizens of Wayne County a chance to meet candidates for multiple offices, both local and national. The LWV Wayne County will host a number of events leading up to election day.