Representing Wood County on this year’s ballot for State Representative are Republican Robert Latta and Democrat Scott McCarty.

Latta, who currently sits in the state legislature, said he does not like the word “politician.”

“I consider a politician to be one who tries to take as much as possible from the people,” Latta said. “I would rather be known as a public service man, one who works on giving to the people.”

Latta, who graduated from the University in 1978, wants to focus on three main things if re-elected. His first point of focus is secondary education. He believes that more money should be spent on schools and school construction.

Secondly, Latta wants to improve the budget. He wants to make sure that a substantial amount of the budget goes to education.

The third point of his campaign is to reform taxes. He wants to put information that was collected from select hearing committees into legislation. By doing this he will also create more job opportunities by making it cheaper to start or open a business in Ohio, rather than in one of the neighboring states where taxes are currently lower for businesses.

“Why would someone want to start a business here when they could go to Michigan and pay a good percentage less in taxes for starting the same business?” Latta said.

Candidate McCarty has a similar plan. The first main focus of his campaign is improving higher education. He wants to restore funding to the schools because he believes that the recent cuts were unnecessary.

Secondly, he wants to pass the Prescription Drug Fair Pricing Act, which would give a drug card to all Ohioans who don’t have prescription drug coverage.

And his third main point focuses on improving the economy. He plans to do this by giving tax incentives to businesses who give money to Ohio schools, he said. “I want to make Ohio so exciting people don’t want to leave.”

McCarty also said the past congress should not have spent Ohio’s Rainy Day Fund. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. When asked in a recent interview what he would’ve done instead, he simply replied, “Arithmetic.”

McCarty also brought up the fact that his opponent, Latta, had reportedly accepted money from Enron. Latta admitted that he did accept money from the corporation, but it was only $150. He put it into a scholarship fund at the University in honor of his father.