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October 23, 2008
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October 23, 2008 |
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editorial Local candidates are good choices Yellow Springs should win some sort of prize: our village has surely produced more political candidates per capita this fall than any other small town. On Nov. 4, Yellow Springs will field candidates for national, state and county offices, and the good news is, all are excellent choices for their respective races. Democrat Sharen Neuhardt, a Dayton attorney who lives just outside the village, faces Republican Steve Austria in the race for U.S. House, 7th District, the seat made vacant by the retirement of Dave Hobson. Neuhardt supports investment in alternative energy sources to reduce dependence on foreign oil and relief for working class families, while Austria champions the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy, along with other failed Republican policies. Last week the Dayton Daily News endorsed Neuhardt as the “smarter, bolder” choice. Neuhardt has shown herself to be a woman of heart as well as mind. In 1999 Neuhardt and her husband, Dave, were the “angels” who took a huge financial risk to save Whitehall Farm. More recently, Neuhardt and her family invited into their home a young Rwandan man whose parents were murdered in that country’s chaos. After discovering that an application for the young man’s asylum had been denied, Neuhardt arranged for him to stay in the country legitimately as she untangles his legal difficulties. But Austria attacked Neuhardt for “harboring an illegal immigrant.” The Dayton Daily News rightly called this attack “shameless.” Village Democrat Connie Crockett also deserves our support in her run for state representative of the 84th District. Both Crockett and her opponent, Robert Hackett, are seeking the former seat of Austria. As a two-term Village Council member in the 1990s, Crockett worked hard, did her homework, and excelled in building bridges between constituencies. She championed the construction of the bike path as a way to boost the local economy. The economic health of small towns continues to concern Crockett, as does preservation of the environment, as shown by her opposition to the construction of megafarms. In the state house Crockett would be a strong supporter of the environment and a champion of economically viable small towns. At the county level, village Democrat Jerry Sutton is a good pick for one of two open seats on the Greene County Commission. A retired top-ranking civilian leader at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Sutton would bring to the job strong administrative and managerial skills. While his opponent, Republican Marilyn Reid, has many years of experience, those years have shown her to be divisive and problematic. Sutton also makes the case that the commission, after several decades of Republican rule, would benefit from representation from both parties. He’s the best choice. It’s inspiring that these villagers are giving their time and energy to strengthen our county, state and nation, carrying on Yellow Springs’ proud legacy of activism.
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