Interview With Betty Sutton
This past Saturday I was invited to attend a "Meet The Bloggers" session with Betty Sutton at Cafe Momus in Akron. Betty Sutton is a candidate running for Sherrod Brown's open seat in Ohio's 13th Congressional District. She is one of at least 6 Democrats who will be trying to win the primary in my congressional district. As you can see from the picture I took, the session is recorded. Participants included bloggers Redhorse, Scott Bakalar, McKee Stewart, Scott Piepho from the 13th District. George Nemeth and Tim Ferris came down from Cleveland. I hadn't met any of these guys before, but they gave me a seat at the table which was pretty cool. Each of us had a microphone and were able to ask questions of the candidate. George Nemeth posted the audio of the session at the Meet The Bloggers website. The premise is giving poltical bloggers from the Akron and Cleveland area access to local candidates. It was pretty sweet. I felt so legit.
My impression of Betty Sutton: I liked her. I had not met or seen Betty Sutton prior to this meeting. I knew that Emily's List had endorsed her and that was about it. She was articulate and well versed on the issues that matter to Democrats. When asked what issues she believed were important she listed in order:
1. Jobs and Trade
2. Education
3. Healthcare
These are the issues that I want to hear a Democrat primary candidate talk about. I have posted the transcript of the questions I asked Betty Sutton and her answers in the comments section. You can also listen to the audio for yourself. It is my opinion that Betty Sutton and Tom Sawyer are the front runners for the Democratic Primary.
Press: This article is featured in The Carnival of Ohio Politics 3/1/06
By Kyle - 2/28/2006
10 Comments:
Here were the questions I asked Betty Sutton:
Question #1 – My bad question
Kutuchief: "Good morning. I'm Kyle Kutuchief from The Chief Source.com and I suspect the only college age person in the room I feel obligated to ask a question about young people. I think that a lot of people are down on Ohio's education, but we graduate a lot of talented kids and since we're right by the University of Akron. I'm wondering... when you listed your top three, jobs and trade is huge to us because people can't find jobs in Ohio so they leave. I guess I'm wondering what kinds of things you could see happening in your district to change that... to retain the talent that we produce in this state." Long. Rambling. Nervous.
Sutton: "Well, thank you for that question. Let me just start out that I think its also critical that we protect peoples abilities or make it more affordable for people to seek higher education in this state and in this country frankly. But with that aside, if you recall I spoke of education and trade. They're just inexplicably linked. I don't know what you studied in school. What did you study?"
Kutuchief: "Political science as an undergrad and I'm in the Public Administration program here."
Sutton: "Good. Good to know."
Kutuchief: "We'll see."
Sutton: "You know things have changed in terms of employment. You know when I grew up in Barberton there were a couple of places where almost everybody's father worked. They worked at one factory or the other factory and they worked there their whole lives and they retired from there. You often hear people when they talk about the trade policies and those who are not in favor of the trade policies that we have in tact today are often referred to kind of as dinosaurs.. you know. You can't go back. The world's global. All of that. Well, I think that just because we have trade policies that aren't working and you stand up and say their not working for American workers or their not working for the people in the 13th Congressional District that it doesn't make you a dinosaur. It means that we have to come up with other trade policies that will work within the global market place that we have. Now, one idea that comes to mind is this idea that you hear often we want to have better paying jobs. Jobs are changing, right? The manufacturing base has changed. It's been decimated. We see that in Lorain. We see that in Barberton. We see that through out Northeast Ohio. If we want to be a community that promotes high tech jobs, then we need to make it easy for people to get degrees that help and that are going to lead them to high tech jobs because that's where the employers. are going to need the workforce. You create the workforce, you'll get the employers. So I guess the idea is... what we need to do is strategically think about what kind of community we want to create and we should use our incentives to create the jobs that we want to create for our communities. And that sort of sounds flowery and vague, let me give you an example. If we have for example a ford plant in Lorain that is closing, which we have unfortunately we have had that occurrence. Those jobs paid family sustaining wages and benefits and they can no longer compete and the employer wants to pay their workers, but they just can't because our trade policies create this race to the bottom, frankly, in terms of wages so they close their doors and maybe a lesser, and when I say lesser I mean another automotive manufacturer comes into that same facility. Now, they don't pay healthcare benefits and they don't pay family sustaining wages. Now, those needs don't go away do they? So the cost for when that person gets sick who's working at that factory is still going to be there and society's going to have to pick it up, but the employer's not going to pay it. We might give that second employer an incentive... well that doesn't make any sense because I would want to give the incentive to the employer, the Ford employer perhaps, who is going to pay the family sustaining wages and healthcare benefits and I know that isn't exactly on point with what were going to do, but it's an example of how we need to use common sense with our incentives to focus them on the kind of jobs we want to create so that our people who are graduating do have places to go. I think that we have to fund higher education better. You know there was a time when people came to Ohio to get higher education and they often stayed. They're not coming here for the weather. We're loosing that capacity to do it. The state has seriously under funded higher education I think for a long time making it sometimes more or less expensive to go out of state as an Ohio resident to a state school in Kentucky than it is to go in state in Ohio. That has to change.
Question #2 – My good question
Kutuchief: “Kyle again from The Chief Source.com and I was wondering if there was any word of Sherrod Brown endorsing and are you seeking that endorsement?”
Sutton: “Sherrod, he has to speak for himself. I don’t believe he’s made any formal endorsement and I don’t know if he is intending to make and formal endorsement. That is obviously a question for him, but he certainly encouraged me to run and that’s I think the answer to that question.
Kyle, nice work. She seems like a solid candidate.
Note: Mike Lyons is another candidate for the spot. First, he was a Republican, then switched parties so he could run for th open spot. Second, he beat my dad in Richfield's mayor race. Conclusion: I would rather an actual Republican win the seat, instead of this stiff.
Anyway, a Sutton endorsement seems likely.
Where can I get a Charles P. Kozelka for anything bumper sticker? I would proudly display it on something that I own.
Kyle,
Great post and good questions. Does she have a website?
BJ, I have a vintage "Kozelka for Mayor" ruler.
Brad, she does not have a website. I don't think candidates understand that a website should be the first thing that gets done when running for office. As people get interested in your campaign, you want them to find your website and read what you have to say instead of random internet articles.
I wonder if any Republicans running for the seat will do anything like this. It seems like a good idea. Chief Source is Legit now!!!!
Nice work Kyle!
Thanks. Hopefully I'll get to attend future sessions with other candidates.
Betty Sutton does now have a website - it just went up on Monday: www.bettysuttonforcongress.com.
Thanks Anna. I googled you and here's what I found on a Gephardt for President page:
A native of Wisconsin, Landmark ran the successful campaign of Dave Cieslewicz for Mayor of Madison in 2003 (primary Feb. 18, Apr. 1). Most recently she was a political organizer for the Madison Teachers Inc., organizing member get-out-the-vote efforts and coordinating field strategy for the successful effort to pass a Madison Metropolitan School District operating referendum. In 2002, she worked for the Democratic Party of Louisiana during the victorious run-off elections of Senator Mary Landrieu and Rep. Rodney Alexander. Landmark worked for NARAL in Michigan during the 2000 cycle.
Looks like Sutton got a well qualified manager.
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