“I’m very pleased and excited to go back to Columbus to serve the good people of western Greene county,” Lampton said Tuesday night. “I also want to congratulate and thank my opponent for running a clean campaign focused on the issues.”
Lampton added there are a lot of things he wants to get done, including school safety, addressing mental health and career tech programs to “prepare the young folks for the jobs we know are coming to Ohio.”
Ohio’s new 70th Statehouse district represents western Greene County, including Fairborn, Beavercreek, Bath Twp, Bellbrook, Sugarcreek Twp, and Spring Valley.
Lampton, a Beavercreek resident, currently works as the president of his namesake insurance agency, and said he is running to continue his service to the community.
One of the priorities Lampton would pursue if re-elected to his office is support of a bill increasing penalties for distracted driving, and support of Jacob’s Law, which he introduced in the House last year.
Eric Price, of Sugarcreek Twp, served in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years, working in law enforcement, sensitive weapons security, antiterrorism, active shooter defense planning, and other fields. Price said he is running as a counterpoint to the extremism that is “destroying our democratic republic,” he said.
Price also said that ending corruption in the Ohio statehouse is another priority, citing the $60 million FirstEnergy bribery scandal that rocked the Ohio statehouse in 2020.
Both candidates have said making schools safe from active shooter threats and revitalizing the economy with investment in trade education, but the two differ on abortion issues.
Lampton is anti-abortion, but is leaning toward exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother as the laws continue to be debated, he previously told the Dayton Daily News.
Price said Ohio’s abortion laws as they currently stand force raped children and female cancer patients to seek treatment in other states, adding that laws that superimpose religious beliefs upon others are leading Ohio and the United States towards theocracy.
District 71 - Bill Dean vs. Jim Duffee
Additionally, Republican incumbent Bill Dean has beaten Democratic challenger Jim Duffee in the statehouse race for the District 71 seat, per unofficial final results from the Greene, Clinton, and Clark County Board of Elections Tuesday night.
With all precincts reporting, Dean had received 72% of the vote, while Duffee had received 28%.
The newly drawn District 71 runs from southern Clark County, includes Xenia, Yellow Springs and eastern Greene County, to all of Clinton County.
Dean was appointed to finish Bob Hackett’s unexpired term in the House in 2016, and has held the office since.
Dean said he is running for re-election to shrink the government. He graduated from Xenia High School and has owned Dean’s Plumbing in Xenia for 30 years.
Dean said he votes against all taxes and “is pro-life and pro-gun.”
Duffee is a retired pediatrician and said he is running for office to continue to improve lives at the policy level, just as he spent his 25-year career to “improve the lives of children, families, and communities in the Miami Valley.”
Duffee has criticized Dean for baseless claims about abortion and pregnancy, specifically that women face “no great risk of dying” from pregnancy, and that American women die in childbirth as a result of their “lifestyle” choices.
Reproductive freedom is a high priority if he is elected, Duffee said, adding that the decision to prevent or end a pregnancy is a private healthcare decision that should be left to the person, their family, their doctor, and their god. The involvement of government in private healthcare decisions in Ohio is causing pregnant people to suffer needlessly.
On economic policy Dean said that he would “like to vote no on legislation that is counter-productive and hurts the poor,” but also told the Dayton Daily News he would eliminate the state income tax and cut welfare programs. Asked about the impact on programs funded by the state budget, Dean said the Statehouse is not making good use of its money.
Duffee said if he is elected an overarching priority is to end gerrymandering and draw fair maps.
Ohio voters are electing their state legislators this November in Republican-drawn districts that were ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. A months-long redistricting fight between Ohio GOP leaders, Democrats and the Ohio Supreme Court resulted in a federal court finally intervening and picking one of the redistricting plans to use just for the 2022 election.
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