District 43
Daniel Foley (D) |
Jefferey Todd Smith (R) |
Bio: I was born and raised in the 43rd district, attended Cheminade-Julienne high school, Bowling Green State University, and Wright State University. I’ve been married to my wife Kathleen for 25 years, and we have two daughters together – aged 21 and 23. I was elected Montgomery County Clerk of Courts in 2000 and served until elected County Commissioner in 2006. As county commissioner, I advocated for growing the number of jobs and diversifying our economy-in areas such as advanced manufacturing, logistics/distribution, and a focus on international development. I developed JusticeWeb, a criminal justice database that keeps our community safer by providing first responders with crucial information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over 4500 law enforcement professionals in Montgomery, Preble, and 10 other southwest Ohio counties use this system every day to see a “single version of the truth” around criminal interactions for individuals in the justice system. I co-chair the Community Overdose Action Team (COAT). Drug Overdoses have consistently trended downward over the last year (over 60%) in Montgomery County because major system partners-police, treatment providers, healthcare, Public Health and ADAMHS are communicating. Much work still has to be done, but this structure is helping. |
No Response. |
What legislation do you support regarding the cost and availability of healthcare? The Second Amendment is an important part of our constitution and American life. But we have neglected to focus on those laws and practices that would make our communities safer. I do not support the measures suggested in Ohio to take the 2nd amendment to unreasonable extremes. We can uphold the Second Amendment but also institute reasonable and significant gun-control measures (universal background checks, keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, banning assault weapons) to uphold public safety. |
No Response. |
What do you view as the most important issue in Ohio? Longterm, the most important issue is the skilled trades pipeline I mentioned in the question about what I would do as state representative. “I will work to build the workforce talent pipeline for employers so that we can retain and expand jobs and tell employers-both existing and future-that Ohio is the place to do business. This focus will also reconnect those workers who have fallen out of the workforce and in the process stabilize families and make the economy stronger. I will also work to improve public education. We need to infuse more dollars into public education and find a way to more equitably fund school districts in both prosperous and lower income districts. We need to demand accountability for how those dollars are spent, reduce the over-testing climate for teachers so they can actually teach, and not fund bad experiments with for profit charter school that take away money from all public schools.” |
No Response. |
How do you plan to address the opioid epidemic? We can’t arrest our way out of the crisis. As County Commissioner we've implemented a public-health-oriented strategy to reduce overdoses. As co-chair of the Community Overdose Action Team (COAT), we've overseen an organizing of a full-scale response to the crisis that has reduced opioid overdoses by 60% in our county in the past year. Simply by making sure that all of the relevant actors (first responders, public health officials, medical professionals) are talking and cooperating, we can make sure that someone who overdoses receives follow-up and can be put into recovery treatment. |
No Response. |
What is your stance on gun ownership, including personal ownership, arming teachers in schools, and the sale of guns? The Second Amendment is an important part of our constitution and American life. But we have neglected to focus on those laws and practices that would make our communities safer. I do not support the measures suggested in Ohio to take the 2nd amendment to unreasonable extremes. We can uphold the Second Amendment but also institute reasonable and significant gun-control measures (universal background checks, keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, banning assault weapons) to uphold public safety. |
No Response. |