Spisak race makes Athens Paper

[irishbobcat]

Write-in candidate
joins 6th District race
By CASEY S. ELLIOTT
Messenger staff writer
Published: Friday, August 29, 2008 9:26 AM EDT
The contest for Ohio's 6th District congressional seat will feature a Green Party write-in candidate.

Struthers resident Dennis Spisak, 49, has filed to be a write-in candidate. He will face off against incumbent Democrat Charlie Wilson of Bridgeport and Republican challenger Richard Stobbs of Dillonvale. The 6th District includes Athens and the eastern half of Athens County.

"The reason I'm running is because I felt that there wasn't a progressive candidate in the race," Spisak said. Spisak asserted that Wilson "is being paid off by the lobbyists for coal and electricity," which Spisak claims causes Wilson to favor use of fossil fuels until the country runs out of them. Spisak, instead, would focus more on a renewable energy platform, he said.

Spisak is a Struthers City School Board member who was recently laid off as a principal at Brookfield Local Schools in Trumbull County.

He received a bachelor's degree from Ohio University and a master's degree from Ohio State University. He has been in education for 23 years, with positions ranging from teacher to principal.

Spisak said his goals, if elected, focus on affordable health care, economic fairness, quality public education and bringing renewable energy manufacturing jobs to the Ohio River Valley. For example, Spisak said, there are a number of old steel factories sitting empty along the Ohio River, and he could see those being used instead to bolster renewable energy business.

"I don't understand why we have all these abandoned steel factories and manufacturing companies along the Ohio River, and they are not being used to house, build and manufacture renewable energy parts," he said. "I'd like to see us having more progressive renewable energy factories in the 6th District, as compared to going back and reusing fossil fuels."

Spisak added he feels he has a good chance of winning the congressional seat, in light of Wilson winning as a write-in candidate previously. "I figured if Charlie could run as a write-in candidate, then I have a chance," he said.