Local - Ohio State Senate District 33 - Matt Lewis

    Recently, I've had the opportunity to meet a couple of times with Matt Lewis, the Republican candidate for Ohio State Senator for District 33.  While I've yet to meet with his Democrat opponent, Joe Schiavone (although currently my wife and I are arranging for that to happen and I look forward to), I figured I'd put my two cents in concerning Mr. Lewis individually.
    My initial thoughts are that, simply put, Matt is a genuinely "nice guy."  I know that sounds like a cheap compliment that anybody would make about any candidate that they may support, but who's apologizing?  He is a very down-to-earth person who lives his daily life much like the rest of us, fighting to pay bills and raising his kids the best way he knows how.  Take the "Matt Lewis for Ohio State Senate" logo away from his golf shirt and you've got "Joe Bag of Doughnuts" as one of our local radio hosts likes to say.
    Matt Lewis' biography (found at www.mattlewisforohio.com) reads pretty impressively and certainly a little differently than that of your average bear.  His father was a union organizer.  He forwent his career as a contractor to join the Air Force in 1996.  He graduated magna cum laude from Walsh University and is currently enrolled at Akron University's School of Law.  More can be found on his website, particularly information on his family life (of which I am not comfortable reconveying). 
    In our conversations, one thing is for absolute certain about Matt:  he's in it for the right reasons.  He wants to serve the Valley.  He doesn't want to serve Republicans of the Valley, but rather the people here.  He's sees fault with both political parties, which isn't hard to do these days, especially with how those in Columbus view their obligation to the Youngstown-Warren area.  He argues that essentially Democrats and Republicans both ignore this area simply because there's nothing to gain politically.  Paraphrased, he says that Democrats don't have to worry about working for votes here because they feel it's a lock no matter what they do and Republicans don't bother trying because no matter what they do, this is a Democrat stronghold.  These attitudes, he believes, do damage to this region socially and economically that has to be overcome if we as a region are to progress.  Personally, I tend to agree with those observations.
    Certainly, I'm not going to set this page up as an advertisement or spoon feed whoever would choose to read my page with a bunch of talking points.  Neither will I tell you that Matt and I agree on every subject we have or will discuss.  To do so would be disingenuous.  What I will tell you is that I personally believe that 1) his heart is, without question, in the right place, 2) if his past is a clear indicator of his future, there is reason to be confident and 3) he seems to understand what this Valley's strengths and weaknesses are and in what direction we need to go.
    To close, I will leave you with a list of what I feel are key points from his website, which I encourage you to visit, and conversations we've had.

• Encourage our students and current labor force to remain in the area by making the Valley and the State of Ohio more business friendly.  Encourage this growth by reducing the tax rates for businesses to levels more competitive with the lowest states in the nation.
• Reduce interference from Federal entities by challenging regulations that actually keep teachers, businesses and individuals from performing their essential tasks by reducing the monies allotted to those tasks and/or reducing the amount of red tape necessary to perform their jobs.
• Reduce the Ohio income tax to put more money in the pockets of working families.