Why I am running for Stark County Treasurer

     In 1970, the population of Stark County was 370,000.  Today, fifty years later, Stark County's population is still the same at 370,000 residents.  We need new leadership. We need people with forward thinking and progressive ideas. As young people continue to leave our community, and the population according to experts keeps getting older, and less prosperous, the stasis that seems to have a lock on our county must end.

     As critical 2020 elections approached,there were many local offices up for election with only one candidate.   I offered to step up to once again serve my community, and the county's Democratic Party chair asked me to consider running for treasurer.  I said yes.

     In a functioning democracy, voters need to have choices when they are picking their local, state and national leaders.  Especially in these current times of cynicism and division, with our institutions under attack from within and outside our country,  citizens need to have the opportunity to make a selection of their choice from among candidates for all offices.

     I am a born and raised Stark County resident.  After growing up and attending Perry and Plain Local schools, I moved to Columbus to attain my degree from Ohio State University. In my 20's in Columbus, I founded and ran the Stonewall Union, Ohio's first and largest LGBT rights organization.
We founded then also the state's Gay Pride Parade, now the largest such annual march between New York and Chicago.

     In Michigan, I founded or managed additional state-wide civil rights and health education organizations. I was elected twice as a city councilman in Ferndale, Michigan, and then after eight years there was elected mayor of that city twice.  In 2010 voters elected me to the Oakland County Commission.  Oakland County as a population of 1.3 million and is among the top 5% wealthiest counties in America.

     I returned  home to Canton to support my family here three years ago and I have already begun volunteering and working to make the region stronger and better.

    My core values have always included the need to give back to the community.  Honesty, hard work, inclusiveness, and a love of our country's diversity are bedrock principles that have guided my life.  I believe in science, knowledge, and data-driven progress. Every organization and office that I have been a part of have always attained balanced budgets, honest accounting, open management, and sustainable programs.  I worked on women's equality in the 70's, gay rights in the 80's, community health in the 90's, and environmental protections for the past forty years.

     Every elected leader's top goal should be to serve their residents, and if Stark County voters elect me in November, I will always strive to make them proud.