Mathews, an intellectual property lawyer who previously served as vice mayor of Lebanon, touts a variety of accomplishments from his first term in the Ohio House, which include procuring tens of millions in state funds to keep a premier tennis tournament in Mason and passing a straightforward good-governance bill to begin numbering state issues sequentially from here on out, among others.
Credit: PROVIDED
Credit: PROVIDED
Canova, a former American history teacher turned salesman, is well aware of the disadvantage he faces in a heavily Republican district but believes he can turn the tide in the largely suburban district with the support of traditionally conservative voters who want to support abortion rights.
Both candidates hope to join the 136th General Assembly, which commences in January 2025. The office comes with a two-year term and a $63,007 base salary. Election Day is Nov. 5, though early voting is now open at the Warren County Board of Elections.
Abortion
House District 56 voted narrowly last November to enshrine abortion access into the Ohio Constitution, just a year after widely electing Mathews, a staunch anti-abortion conservative who rallied against the amendment.
Canova, who has spent much of his campaign camped out at busy intersections in Mason and Lebanon with signs asking drivers to “honk for women’s rights” and gets “inundated” with honks, believes this discord will boost his chances on Nov. 5.
“This issue runs much deeper than you think. I foresee my path to victory on this,” Canova said. “Suburban women, which make up 40% of the electorate... they’re going to vote, they’re going to be privately voting, and they’ll know who they voted for, and they don’t have to tell anyone what they did when they walk out of that voting booth.”
Mathews told this news outlet that, while the district did vote to enshrine abortion access and while he thinks his side needs to work to change minds, he doesn’t think it will define this race.
“We continue to be the pro-life, pro-family party and I think the good people of Warren County want those types of values represented in the statehouse,” Mathews told this news outlet.
Party endorsements
As expected, Mathews has received the endorsement of the Warren County GOP. The Warren County Democrats, on the other hand, decided against endorsing Canova in House District 56. Kelly Sakalas, the party chair, told this news outlet that Canova’s lack of endorsement was due to “unresolved tax issues” and “public records (that) were a concern” to most of the county party.
“Simply put, he just didn’t earn the party’s confidence,” Sakalas said.
A background check run by this news outlet found more than 20 state and federal tax liens against Canova spanning from 2009 to January of this year. Canova declined to disclose how much he still owes, but said his federal liens have been resolved and he’s working towards taking care of the state liens. He told this news outlet that he was unaware of the state liens made against him until he moved back to Ohio in 2019 and that efforts to resolve those liens have been interrupted by the pandemic and an ensuing cancer diagnosis and medical costs.
“I understand that that was a red flag for the Democratic party, but to say that was the only reason, I think, is certainly not being completely upfront about it,” said Canova, who argued that the party turned against him when he made a stand for President Joe Biden to force a ceasefire in Gaza. “They were behind me until I started to come out against the Biden Administration.”
Mathews, when asked about his opponent’s liens by this news outlet, said, “I think the facts speak for themselves. We want to have people that will be good stewards of our taxpayer dollars representing us in the statehouse.”
Cost of living
For constituents, both candidates flagged the cost of living as a major problem for House District 56. but they drew different roadmaps to bring down costs.
In Mathews’ view, the central tool the state can use to provide fiscal relief for Ohioans is tax cuts, and he believes the state can go even further. He’s behind a proposal to gradually eliminate the state income tax — which brings in more than $10 billion in tax revenue — over six years, which he believes will provide relief to Ohioans while spurring economic growth.
“If we want to continue to rack up the victories that we have, and have people move, stay, live here, grow their families, grow their businesses, we want to show that we trust them with their own money and right-size state spending to match that,” Mathews said.
Mathews recognizes that such a drastic cut to state taxes will require a cut in state spending of equal measure, which Canova sees less as tax relief and more as the state further shifting the tax burden onto local governments, resulting in even higher property taxes.
“That money has to come from somewhere,” Canova said.
For Canova, the best way to reduce the cost for everyday Ohioans is to increase the state’s minimum wage from the current $10.70 an hour.
“Certainly, I’m going to push for legislation to get this well over $15, we need to get it closer to $20 an hour,” he said.
Canova blamed Republicans, who have controlled the state government nearly unilaterally for much of the 2000s, for “stagnant wages” in the state of Ohio.
Canova also called for legislation to protect consumers from being price gouged at grocery stores and said the state needs higher corporate tax rates. Meanwhile, Mathews called for the state to increase the affordability of houses, specifically “starter” homes for first-time buyers and homes for seniors looking to downsize.
Education
On education, Mathews said he supported the state’s newly expanded school voucher system implemented along party lines, which gives all Ohioans the chance to receive state funds at a sliding scale to attend a private K-12 school.
“This was a huge victory in this past budget and I’d like to see how it stabilizes over the next budget,” Mathews said when asked if he’d make any changes to Ohio’s new policy.
Canova, who left the teaching profession in part because of pay, told this news outlet that Ohio’s teaching wages need to be higher to attract and retain talent.
“This is capitalism we’re dealing with. The free market competes for talent, and it competes for professional talent. I left the teaching profession because someone was going to pay me $90,000 a year and I was making $35,000 a year,” Canova said.
Canova took aim at Ohio’s universal school voucher program, which the state spent nearly $1 billion on in its first school year and which went mostly to children who already attended private schools.
“These are tax breaks handed from the taxpayer to the richest Ohioans, and that’s simply not fair,” Canova said.
He said “there is no doubt” the voucher system will erode Ohio’s education system and argued the money should instead go to public schools, which he believes need more funding to attract teachers and provide students with oft-overlooked needs like on-campus mental health care.
Mathews proposed a bill this term to make it a felony for teachers and school librarians to peddle obscene materials to students, despite there being no indication such a problem actually exists according to the state’s top education union. He’s also behind a bill that would protect student’s data from being sourced in certain public records.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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