Three Jewish candidates have home in Ohio House Greenspan re-elected in 16th District

JANE KAUFMAN | STAFF REPORTER jkaufman@cjn.org | @jkaufmancjn

Incumbent Dave Greenspan, R-Westlake, will retain his Ohio House of Representatives 16th District seat for a second term after defeating a challenge from Democrat Cassimir Svigelj of Rocky River in the Nov. 6 election.

Greenspan garnered 29,182 votes to Svigelj’s 24,969, according to final, unofficial results from the Ohio Secretary of State’s website. Greenspan received 53.89 percent of the vote to Svigelj’s 46.11 percent of the 54,151 ballots cast.

He will rejoin a Republican-controlled state House.

Greenspan spent election night at Panini’s in Westlake with about 150 supporters and volunteers.

He said during his five-month campaign, about 200 people helped him make 55,000 voter contacts door-to-door or by telephone.

He also had a series of annual campaign events.

“I don’t like just cold-calling people and asking for money,” he said. “That’s not my style, I want to develop the relationship, and often when I develop relationships, they don’t inolve fundraising at all. It’s just building relationships and seeing how I can be an effective legislator.”

In addition, he has held periodic town hall meetings, roundtables, and a Saturday morning event called “Donuts with Dave” for one-on-one conversations with constituents.

As a member of the Heroin, Opioids, Prevention, Education and Safefy Task Force he also arranged a HOPES Task force event that involved MetroHealth to highlight the

Weinstein elected to District 37

AMANDA KOEHN | COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF akoehn@cjn.org | @AmandaKoehnCJN

opioid crisis. Greenspan made the opioid crisis his first priority in the campaign, and said he hopes to be able to continue to work on that issue. He also said he was relieved that voters rejected Issue 1 in the Nov. 6 election,

Greenspan is chairman of the House Finance Subcommittee on Transportation, which develops the state transportation budget. In addition, he serves on the following committees: transportation and public safety; the finance committee, which approves budget; government accountability and oversight; and community and family advancement.

He praised his poitically diverse district for its collaborative approach to issues and said Attorney General Mike DeWine will be a consensus builder as Ohio’s next governor.

“I would expect it to be very, very collegial,” he said, “And one that we’ll be able to work together to address his priorities as well as the priorities of the House and the priorities of the state.”

Greenspan has introduced 17 bills in his two years as a legislator. Three have become law. Three are in the House and 12 are in the Senate.

Leland retains seat in 22nd District

AMANDA KOEHN | COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF akoehn@cjn.org | @AmandaKoehnCJN

Incumbent David Leland, D-Columbus, will retain his Ohio House of Representatives 22nd District seat after defeating Republican opponent Doug Moody in the Nov. 6 election.

According to final, unofficial results from the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, Leland received 32,277 votes (73 percent) to Moody’s 11,932 votes (27 percent).

“I appreciate the support and the outpouring of support from the people in my district,” he said.

Going into his third term, the Columbus resident

Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, defeated opponent Mike Rasor, R-Stow, in the Nov. 6 election to become the next 37th District Ohio state Representative. According to final, unofficial results from the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, Weinstein received 27,930 votes (50.5 percent) to Rasor’s 27,391 votes (49.5 percent).

Weinstein said he wanted to thank his supporters for putting their trust in him.

“I want to note that I would not have won without bipartisan support because of the Republican heritage in the district,” he said. “And I plan to operate that way with a bipartisan spirit so I’m representing everybody in the district.”

Weinstein is a Hudson city councilman and Rasor is a Stow city councilman.

Current 37th District Ohio State Rep. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, was term-limited and thus ineligible for re-election.

On Nov. 5, Weinstein filed a Hudson police report and posted a video on Facebook, saying with his wife, Amanda, that his family was targeted for their religious views via notes left at their door.

“We haven’t called it specifically anti-Semitic, but it was clearly kind of intended that way,” said Weinstein, a member of Temple Beth Shalom in said he’s looking to oppose a “stand your ground” gun bill in an upcoming lame-duck session, as well as push forward legislation he introduced in August 2017 to condemn neoNazi and white supremacist groups that has not yet passed. The bill would direct Ohio law enforcement to recognize neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups as domestic terrorist organizations and investigate such groups with similar resources dedicated to other homegrown terrorist groups.

Hudson.

Weinstein told the Cleveland Jewish News the notes contained old social media posts he had written from a private account, promoting Jewish and civil rights causes.

According to the Hudson police report, one of the papers left at his home read, “As a concerned member of the Hudson Community, I wonder why Casey Weinstein decided to delete his twitter account? Are his views in line with yours?”

Hudson police charged it as criminal trespassing and the police report said the notes contained nothing threatening.

Weinstein said the person or people who came to his door to leave the notes woke up his kids and dog, and it made him feel “disappointed.”

“In that we are so far away from talking about the positive messages or how we can make positive change in people’s lives, and instead we are focusing on … how you pray essentially,” he said. “It brought it home for me the divisiveness that we have in our country today – it was literally brought to my doorstep. It also made me concerned for my family’s safety.”

Weinstein added that in light of the incident, the community was supportive, which made him feel more positive about the race.

“It really reclarified in my mind that we do live in a welcoming, accepting community and that those kinds of ... anonymous notes that question your religious beliefs are really the outlier. It’s the exception, not the rule.”