U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur Identifies Most Important Issues Facing Toledo & Cleveland
Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012, will be an important election for Ohio and the country. Not only will Cuyahoga County be electing a new Prosecutor (see Cool Cleveland’s questions to Prosecutor candidates here), but they will also be electing a member to the House of Representatives from the newly created 9th Congressional District, which stretches along Lake Erie from Toledo to Cleveland. Because the new district contains heavily Democratic voters, the primary on March 6 will most likely determine who is elected in November.
Three candidates are in the race: Representative Dennis Kuchinich, Representative Marcy Kaptur, and Graham Veysey. All three have been invited to answer a few questions from Cool Cleveland that we plan to publish prior to the election.
Please use a maximum of 700 words total to answer the following two questions:
What procedures and techniques will you put in place to ensure that you are able to fully & fairly represent the two vastly disparate urban regions: Toledo & Cleveland?
My office has always provided excellent casework, whether it involves Social Security, veterans issues, immigration, student aid, passports, or providing advocacy work with federal agencies and even foreign governments.
At the same time, my office has consistently returned dollars to the Treasury by limiting mass mailings and by efficient operation.
My training as an urban planner will assist in making these decisions. There is no cookie-cutter solution to serious challenges. There is no substitute for digging deep into each community and working with stakeholders on solutions that are uniquely tailored.
Cleveland and Toledo are the two most populous cities in a widely geographically dispersed new Ninth Congressional District. Lorain and Erie Counties, however, constitute a major population center in the new Ninth District. That would seem to augur for at least three district offices, although specific decisions would be predicated on a management study. Essentially, you go where the people are.
Due to the wide geographical range of the new Ninth District, our outreach services likely would be augmented by a mobile office, which is something we have done already. And certainly the burgeoning use of technology affords all congressional offices with an opportunity to extend constituent service with greater efficiency.
This will be imperative because House offices are facing an unprecedented budgetary challenge. Members’ office expenditures have been cut by 5.0% in 2011 and 6.4% this year.
Name the top three issues that affect Toledo specifically, and the top three issues that affect Cleveland specifically, and why.
Cleveland and Toledo are the two largest cities in the new Ninth District, but to adopt a dualistic approach would be a strategic error.
The portion of Lorain County in the new Ninth District—primarily Lorain city, Sheffield Lake and Avon Lake—is significant and must not be overlooked. Even more so if you include Sandusky as part of that “central” part of the district.
Moreover, to look at Cleveland or the western portion of Cuyahoga County monolithically is unnecessarily limiting. Significant demographic differences exist between Lakewood and Parma, for instance, or, say, the West Side and the West Shore communities.
But the gerrymandered map that the Republicans drew—and which Congressman Kucinich supported—was done in order to pack Democrats into one district in order and to dilute the voting power of urban areas—read, Democrats—statewide.
Still, in this rough configuration, the top three issues that affect Cleveland, Toledo, Lorain and Sandusky specifically are essentially the same:
- Job creation initiatives, including support for core industries, particularly the auto industry, complemented by high-growth sectors such as solar energy, sensor technology and biomedicine;
- Support for housing rehabilitation and physical infrastructure maintenance;
- Social infrastructure such as education, health, seniors programs and crime prevention.
To read all the candidates’ responses to all of Cool Cleveland’s questions, please click here.