Whaley brings campaign for governor to New Philadelphia

On Feb 14, 2022

Nan Whaley, a Democrat who is running for governor of Ohio, speaks to a group Saturday at the Daily Grind in New Philadelphia.

NEW PHILADELPHIA — Nan Whaley, a Democrat who is running for governor of Ohio, is calling for more state investment in broadband, education and treatment for people addicted to opioids.

As part of her effort to visit all 88 counties in the Buckeye State, Whaley came to Tuscarawas County on Saturday, making a campaign stop at the Daily Grind in New Philadelphia to speak to local Democrats.

Whaley, who served two terms as mayor Dayton, touts her working class background, noting that she was the first person in her family to graduate from college. She credits her parents with helping her achieve that goal.

She says that Ohio needs to help raise the incomes of families and reduce their bills.

“The state can really invest, making sure that we raise pay and raise wages for folks, but at the same time really get these costs off families’ backs, like child care, like transportation costs,” she said after the event. “The state has plenty of money right now to do that, and they’re not investing in that way.”

Instead, she said Ohio’s leaders are investing the state’s money in such things as the recent nuclear bailout bill, which has been linked to a $60 million bribery scandal.

Whaley said Ohio needs to invest in families and communities, “but we can’t get it done because there’s this corruption in the way. They’re (elected officials) too much part of the status quo to get that changed.”

She also is a big supporter of expanding broadband in the state, especially broadband efforts by municipalities. She said she doesn’t support waiting on telecommunications companies to do it.

“To do broadband in rural and urban areas, you’re not going to make any money off of it. It’s incredibly necessary if we want to get talent, you want to keep talent, you want to have good-paying jobs,” she said.

“I’m worried if the state stays the same and we have the same leadership that we will see the same results. We’ll see no broadband where the cost would be too exorbitant for rural communities to actually have broadband, and as governor, I would make sure it is affordable and it’s invested in and it’s not just given over as a gimme to corporate telecoms.”

She said the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important it is for widespread availability of broadband, not just for schools, but also for business.

“It’s about long-term investment too. If we want good-paying jobs in Tuscarawas County and New Philadelphia, we’ve got to make sure that we have the infrastructure to make that happen,” Whaley said.

“Broadband has become so important it’s the equivalent of if you didn’t have a bridge to go across a river or if you weren’t able to drive through one of our hills or mountains. It is the equivalent of that now. We need to treat it as such.”

Whaley applauded efforts by the Ohio General Assembly to improve funding to Ohio’s schools, but she is in favor of a long-term solution.

“They need to make sure they’re not just kicking the can down the road,” she said of state legislators.

However, she does not support the “backpack bill,” which would treat school funding as if each kid had a backpack of money, and it should travel with them wherever their families want them to go.

Whaley said that would destroy public education in Ohio.

She also favors the state investing in treatment of people who are addicted to opioids. Currently, the state will only fund 30 days of treatment, she said, which is not enough time to get off heroin.

“What we’ve done in Dayton is we’ve used local funding to actually do longer term services for folks that are addicted because it takes a very long time, maybe different levels of service. But most communities can’t afford that,” she said.