Name: Rick McKiddy
Age: 55
City of Residence: Miamisburg
Education: Wayne State University (bachelors, masters), Sinclair Community College (associate)
Current Employment: consultant, retired auto worker/union negotiator
Political Experience: None
Party: Democrat
Name: Peggy Lehner
Age: 62
City of Residence: Kettering
Education: St. Mary of the Woods College (bachelors)
Current Employment: State senator
Political Experience: Ohio senate (2010-present), Ohio house (2009-2010), Kettering City Council (1998-2008)
Party: Republican
COMPLETE COVERAGE
The presidential and U.S. Senate races may be getting most of the attention, but there are more than 100 candidates and a lot of school levies and other tax issues on the November ballot in our area. In the coming weeks, we will take a look at most of the races and issues on the ballot and try to bring news to you to help you make an informed decision.
You can get in-depth information on the races and issues in your area with our interactive online voters guide. You can create your own ballot, pick candidates and more at DaytonDailyNews.com/go/vote
Also, look for our voters guide in the Oct. 25 newspaper.
Rick McKiddy is hoping there is enough residual anger over last year’s Senate Bill 5 to help him unseat incumbent Ohio Sen. Peggy Lehner. The Kettering Republican says there’s more to her record than SB5.
McKiddy, a 55-year-old retired negotiator for United Auto Workers International, McKiddy, a Democrat, enjoys union support and frames much of his campaign material from that perspective.
“If someone sucker punches you, you don’t forget it a year later,” McKiddy said of the Republican-backed SB5, which Lehner voted for. “Their (public employees) family members won’t forget it, and their neighbors won’t forget it.”
The bill would have limited collective bargaining rights for Ohio’s public employees. But in November 2011, voters repealed it 62-38 percent.
Lehner stands by her record saying Republicans have balanced the state budget and helped Ohio rocket up nationwide rankings for job creation. Lehner has sponsored bills with bipartisan support, including a bill that overhauled Cleveland city schools, and said she is committed to reforming education in Ohio.
“There are going to be some people who will continue to have resentment over the Senate Bill 5 issue,” Lehner said. “I would hope that people will see that issue is done with. I will continue to try to find reasonable solutions to the problems we face. I hope they will have the fairness to look at my entire record, and not to obsess on one vote.”
Ohio ranked fourth nationwide in job creation between August 2011 and August 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s compared to being ranked 48th between 2000 and 2010. As of July 2012, Ohio has $482 million in its rainy-day fund, compared to 89 cents the year before.
“I think at the end of the day, that’s what voters are going to look at. It’s that age old question: are you better off now than you were two years ago? I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Lehner said.
Lehner, 62, is the chair of the Ohio Senate Education Committee. She was a first-term state representative when in 2011 she was was appointed to the state senate to replace Jon Husted, who was elected Ohio Secretary of State. Before that, Lehner on Kettering city council for 10 years. She is also a past president of anti-aborition group Dayton Right to Life and sat on the Ohio Ethics Commission from 1991 to 1997.
McKiddy is a first-time candidate. He worked worked at a brake stamping plant in Moraine from 1976 until 1992, when he was promoted to be a negotiator for UAW in Detroit. After retiring in 2008, McKiddy worked for the Screen Actors Guild briefly as a negotiator before returning to the Dayton area. He now owns a small acting management company called Chain Reaction Management. He said SB5 — which he referred to as a “massive attack against the workers of Ohio” — inspired him run for office.
The two are competing to represent Ohio’s 6th Senate district, which sits inside Montgomery County and includes parts of Dayton as well as Centerville, Huber Heights, Kettering, Englewood, Clayton, Miamisburg, Moraine, Oakwood, Germantown and Vandalia.
State senators make $60,584 a year for a four-year term.
The district’s composition appears to lean Republican, but McKiddy said there are enough independent voters to swing things in his favor. One of his first moves was to find out who in the district had signed Senate Bill 5 repeal petitions.
Besides SB5, McKiddy also criticized Lehner for voting for a state budget that cut state funding for local governments. He said it was especially irresponsible for Republicans to repeal the estate tax at the same time — both are crucial sources of money for Ohio cities.
Because of lost state funding, many local cities are now seeking to make up the difference. For instance, Oakwood has plans to make up for the resulting loss of $2.6 million in annual revenue through a combination of service cuts, fee hikes, reduction of income tax credits and increase on income and property taxes.
“My opponent took money out of your schools and towns to balance the budget. Now your city has no choice but to raise taxes,” he said.
In response, Lehner said she didn’t support the cuts in local government funding, but voted for them to get a larger budget passed.
She said she supports restoring some local government funding by using proposed new taxes on expanded fracking throughout the state to encourage local governments to consolidate and collaborate. Republican Gov. John Kasich wants to use that money to pay for income tax cuts for Ohioans.
“I think we’d get more bang for our buck if we used that money to drive down local taxes,” Lehner said.
Asked about his plan to help improve Ohio’s economy, McKiddy said he is developing a “Buy Ohio” website that would list products that are manufactured here in the state. He also said Lehner hasn’t done enough to prevent the outsourcing of Ohio jobs. As a negotiator, McKiddy said he worked with management to help identify inefficiencies to free up money to protect jobs. He said he would support the state government doing the same thing for companies here.
McKiddy takes issue with Republicans’ decision to reject $600 million in federal funding that would have helped establish a passenger rail line connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnatti. The project would have created thousands of jobs, he said.
He also criticized Lehner for her support of election-reform law House Bill 194, which would have limited early and weekend voting had Republicans not repealed it in the face of a voter referendum.
In response, Lehner said the “choo-choo train” would have been a waste of money, and said HB 194 would have preserved ample opportunity for people to cast their votes early.
Among Lehner’s proudest legislative achievements is a bill coined the “Cleveland plan”, which she co-sponsored along with two Cleveland-area Democrats and another Republican.
The bill, passed last June, ties Cleveland teachers’ compensation to special skills and performance and makes seniority and tenure a secondary factor in determining teacher layoffs.
The plan also allows Cleveland schools to share levy money with high-performing charter schools. McKiddy calls Lehner’s general support of charter schools, privately-run schools that receive state funding, a “dismantling of public education” and said some of the biggest charter schools have the highest dropout rates.
Meanwhile, Lehner said: “My absolute most consistent idea with schools is I don’t care if they’re traditional or charter. It’s whether they’re high-performing.”
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