TU Democrats host candidates night

TIFFIN — With election day less than four weeks away (Nov. 3), and early voting already underway, the Tiffin University College Democrats hosted a Candidates Night Town Hall event on Wednesday in the Gillmor Student Center, inviting state and federal-level candidates to answer voters' questions. The TU College Democrats invited six candidates to speak at Wednesday's town hall: Congressman Bob Latta and his opponent Council President Brian Shaver, State Rep. Gary Click and his opponent Councilman Aaron Jones, and Commissioner Bill Frankart and his opponent Trustee David Ziegler. Jones and Shaver were the only candidates in attendance for the event. Trenton Staib, President of the TU College Democrats, acted as moderator for the town hall, asking the candidates prepared questions as well as questions submitted by the audience. Both candidates were given one minute to answer questions that were written so both could answer the same questions. Q: What are the three most important issues that you would work on if elected, and what specifically would you try to accomplish with each of those issues? Jones: "The first thing I would work on if elected would be the Fair School Funding Act. Right now, our public schools are only funded at 70%. This year, according to the Ohio Dept. of Education, they received a 1.9% increase… that's not going to provide the resources for our schools to be able to keep their buildings open or to pay their staff. That's going to force more levees and for those of you who live in Tiffin you have already seen that. That will become the norm if we don't correct the school funding issue." Shaver: "The biggest issue I will work on is the affordability problem in our country. I blame that 100% on our elected officials in Washington D.C.. Our Congresspeople are not showing up and doing their job. They are giving away their legislative and fiscal authority to the President. They should have rushed back to Washington today to talk about articles of impeachment after the President suggested that one of our enemies attack one of our major cities." Q: If elected, how will your constituents be able to hold you accountable between elections? Shaver: "I will tell you right up front, put me in there and give me two years, it's not a lot of time, but, if I can't come back with something to show for, vote for somebody else. We can't have career, lifelong politicians that do nothing for us. My plan if elected is to do what I've been doing since this campaign started: putting boots on the ground, mileage on my truck, and seeing and talking to people where they are. I serve the people. So, I will be available, I will answer your phone calls and questions at my office." Jones: "If elected, if I fail to listen or fail to act, then I should not be elected again. Right now we have politicians that think they know more than you. They think they have all the answers rather than talking with the people who are actually living it. Right now, politicians are about 'Me' and not about 'We'. You have to act, you have to do what you said you were going to do, and those actions are through legislative acts." Q: What will you do to ensure that students from rural Ohio have access to higher education? Jones: "That's a tough question. And it's an answer I may not have to be perfectly honest with you. The first thing that we don't want to do is to close colleges or technical schools. That has been mentioned by a certain candidate for governor, who says we have too many colleges in Ohio. If you start closing colleges, you've essentially just shut down any opportunity for rural students to even seek higher education. That's not just college aged students, it's also young adults and working people that go to technical schools and Ohio State auxiliary schools. As far as the cost, that's going to take a lot more than Aaron Jones. I would love to be a part of it, but I would have to work with experts on that." Shaver: "I'm going to answer this from a broader point-of-view of the idea of proper funding. Our congressman, who sits on the chair of the Energy Committee, helped write a bill making data centers a matter of national security. I mention this because there's no reason why we shouldn't see education and intelligence as a matter of national security and mandate that we make education a priority in this country over data centers, bombs, and unconstitutional wars. As an educator I think that is paramount." Q: What should the proper role of both the state and federal governments be in protecting free speech? Shaver: "The Constitution puts in protections for people. The writers of the Constitution use the word 'citizen' in two different places. Citizens have a right to vote and the right to run for office. Everything else in the Constitution is for all people. I see it everyday with the silencing of our students on campuses, with the DEI and wokeness claims… it's everything education doesn't stand for. We should be focused on the right things." Jones: "The government shouldn't be involving themselves into every aspect of someone's life or education. We are sitting on a campus of higher education, and there are a lot of smart people that work here. We should let the experts educate. We should just give them the tools to do that. We shouldn't tell them how to educate. We should let them do what they earned their masters' and doctorates' degrees for, and that's educate our students." Q: What policy would you support to encourage graduates to stay in Ohio, and more specifically, your districts? Jones: "The 88th District is made up of a majority of manufacturing and agricultural jobs. We don't have a lot of jobs here in Tiffin for college graduates. The fact is we are losing people in the 88th district, and in a larger part, Ohio, because the opportunities aren't here. That starts with a couple of different things. Our property tax burden and our lack of available housing. So, I think we need to fix our taxes and housing first." Shaver: "This is largely an Article 4 of the Constitution issue because it is a state's rights issue. However, there are things that I can do at the Congressional level. We are anticipated to lose 700,000 Ohioans by the end of the decade, and that is due to the drain we are creating with our horrible policies from the state and federal legislators. One thing I can do to have the most impact is to reinstitute the system of checks and balances in order to stop the fearmongering at the federal level and put the power back where it belongs." Q: What policies would you support to encourage small business owners to start or grow their business ventures in your district? Shaver: "Well, this is also an Article 4 issue, but what I can do as a member of Congress is to really look at our taxes and tax codes from the people's perspective. Right now, we as people are expected to pay all of our taxes and prove that we aren't scamming the system. Meanwhile, the wealthiest groups get the best tax benefits. They don't ever have to be accountable to the money that's handed to them by the federal government. Some of that money needs to be scaled back, because if we win as individuals, the small businesses win as well. Right now the system is rigged at the federal level for the richest of us." Jones: "I applaud anybody that is an entrepreneur and opens a small business, I understand how hard that can be. Brian [Shaver] is absolutely right… we give the house away to million and billion dollar companies. We take the burden away from the large companies, but we don't take it away from our small businesses, the businesses that only survive because of our local community. We hammer them with taxes and give the big breaks to the largest companies, and maybe we should expect them to pay their fair share." Q: If you had a vote that you personally oppose, but your constituents supported, how would you proceed? Jones: "I truly believe that if you're elected to the position I'm running for, you don't always get to have your own opinions on things. If the community wants it, they should get it. The people's voices need to be heard. This office will not belong to me if I'm elected, it will belong to the people of the 88th district." Shaver: "I'm going to give the same answer Aaron (Jones) just gave. We are public servants, first and foremost, and we shouldn't have any other interests. I feel like I am equipped, as a union president, to be the public servant that can bring a voice of reason to the federal government and get things done for us, the people." Q: In 5-10 years from now, what would you like Ohio to look like for its citizens and what actions would you take in office to get us there? Shaver: "My answer is going to be less how I want it to look, and more how I want it to feel. I would like us, as Ohioans, to not be scared on a daily basis. I would like an Ohio that doesn't fear a boogeyman that we are told to be afraid of. I would like the words diversity, equity, and inclusion to mean something positive and not something horrible. I would like education to be something that is inspired rather than vilified. I would like to see Ohio be a successful place where we respect everyone for who they are." Jones: "When I was running for city council, my father told me, 'You're getting into a game where half the people aren't going to like you right off the bat … but you still have to work for them, too.' That has stuck with me. I want to leave my term with Ohio looking better than I found it. I want my four grandchildren to have the same opportunities that I have been given and enjoy the beautiful state we all live in."