The League of Women Voters of Athens County hosted a candidate roundtable at the Athens Community Center on Tuesday where 12 candidates across eight local, statewide and federal elections were invited to engage in discussion with voters.
The LWV of Athens County is a nonpartisan organization focused on registering people to vote, and providing local voting services and candidate information to the public.
Out of the 12 invited, six candidates accepted and attended.
Those present for local elections included Sarah Smith, Republican candidate for Athens County Commissioner; Autumn Brown, Democratic candidate for Athens County Commissioner and Zachary Saunders, the unopposed candidate running for election to the Athens County Court of Common Pleas, Probate and Juvenile Division.
For elections to the Ohio House of Representatives, both Wenda Sheard, Democratic candidate for the 94th District and Paul Cameron, Democratic candidate for the 95th District were in attendance.
The only candidate present for a U.S. House of Representatives seat was Jen Mazzuckelli, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 2nd district.
The event began with each candidate giving a brief introduction and discussing their platform. Following the introductions, candidates spent 10 minutes at six tables where audience members were seated, engaging in discussion and answering questions.
Brown spoke to the crowd first, outlining her almost 30 years of work at the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and seven years as the director of Integrate Athens.
During her time there, Brown has worked under a county program, operating a county budget primarily funded by tax levies. She said her experience there led to an understanding of how to handle taxpayer money in a fiscally responsible way.
If elected, Brown hopes to increase transparency and build a plan for the future that has participation from the community and includes what they want. She said there is a misconception among the public that county commissioners do not do anything.
“I think what is lacking is being able to take what's happening on the commissioners' platform, weekly, monthly, yearly, and communicate it out to Athens County citizens”
Smith’s introduction discussed her current jobs which include running a beef and cattle farm in Albany with her husband, owning a small business in Shade and working for Ohio University Human Resources.
She also believes in bringing more transparency to the office, saying county commissioner meetings should be live streamed and commissioners should be present in the courthouse to allow Athens' residents the chance to talk with them.
She emphasized the commissioners work for the people, not the other way around, specifically noting the need to be fiscally responsible when spending taxpayer money.
“The taxpayer dollars that we're looking to spend belong to a taxpayer at one point or another, and we need to remember that,” Smith said. “And we need to make sure that when we're spending their money and we're making decisions on their behalf, that they are decisions that they are going to agree with.”
According to Smith, as county commissioner it is important to receive community input before making big decisions like approving data centers. She mentioned recent controversy due to a plastics factory, planned to be built in The Plains, saying commissioners had given a green light for the development before a public forum was held.
Smith said while Athens County, one of the poorest counties in the state, desperately needs more job opportunities, which both the plastics factory and data center plan to bring, the county needs to make sure to approve business developments that properly fit the mold citizens want.
Sheard, an attorney and former adjunct instructor at OU, said the current struggles in society are not characterized by left versus right, but rather by billionaires and large corporations versus “the rest of us.”
While she is running as a Democrat, she claims to have support from both Republicans and Independents.
Rep. Kevin Ritter, the Republican incumbent running for re-election in the Ohio House of Representatives 94th District seat, declined the invite to attend the event.
Sheard attacked his record in office, saying he has proposed no legislation regulating data centers or injection wells, both major issues in the counties he represents. She continued by saying he voted for Ohio’s flat income tax which gave billionaires tax benefits and has refused to properly fund Ohio’s public schools.
Sheard said she is running on what should be “nonpartisan issues.” One of those issues includes safe drinking water, a topic she touches on extensively due to ongoing concerns in Washington County, according to a previous report by The Post.
Cameron spoke during his introduction about the 24 years he served in the army, with 12 in active duty.
Cameron identifies his ideology as a progressive libertarian, saying the people's tax dollars should go towards programs beneficial for them and not serve as a subsidy for wealthy corporations.
“My platform priorities are community revitalization, supporting local governments and Columbus, opposing data centers, protecting individual liberties,” Cameron said. “I believe that we need to support and defend our public education system by getting rid of the private school vouchers, and we need to protect a diverse tax base by maintaining income and property tax.”
Cameron's opponent, Republican incumbent Rep. Ty Moore, did not respond to the invite and was not present at the roundtable.
In her introduction, Mazzuckelli mentioned the prevalent issues the country currently faces, including immigration, the environment, the economy and international issues.
“Right now, the people in Washington, Congress, they're behaving more like children than grownups,” Mazzuckelli said. “And we need grownups in the room.”
Mazzuckelli also touched on the substance abuse issue in the eastern counties of Ohio. She said many legislators pledge to help solve the opioid crisis but are unfamiliar with it and the issues it carries.
She said her history as a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 30 years, among her other life experiences, will allow her to identify with a broader range of people.
Mazzuckelli decided to run against incumbent Rep. David Taylor when President Donald Trump, “started doing Congress's job and he said nothing about it.”
Rep. Taylor was not present for the LWV of Athens County roundtable and did not respond to the invite.
Saunders was previously appointed to the position by Gov. Mike DeWine in December 2020 and began a full-term in February 2021, according to a press release from the governor's office.
Election day is Nov. 3. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, with absentee voting by mail and early in-person voting both beginning Tuesday.
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