Baker seeking Ohio House seat
By Kevin Kelley
West Life
Published June 6, 2007

Nan Baker

Ward 6 Council member Nan Baker announced last week that she is seeking the Republican nomination for the 16th District seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.

The seat is currently held by Democrat Jennifer Brady of Westlake, who upset Republican Ed Herman in the November 2006 election. Republican Sally Conway Kilbane, who held the seat for eight years, was prevented from seeking re-election by term limits.

Baker, 52, is the first to announce as a candidate for the seat, which represents Bay Village, Fairview Park, North Olmsted, Rocky River and Westlake. She said she hopes making an early announcement will give her campaign momentum.

Already she has strong support in the local Republican Party. Her honorary campaign co-chairs are Conway Kilbane and Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough.

Baker already has the endorsements of Republican mayors Debbie Sutherland of Bay Village and Pam Bobst of Rocky River. Her early announcement could also ward off other contenders and allow the Republicans to avoid a divisive primary race.

“You always try to avoid a primary,” Baker said. However she said she’s in the race regardless.

Baker said she had not always been interested in politics. However, she developed a passion for political issues when she was elected to the Westlake Board of Education in 1995.

After serving on the school board for four years, Baker has represented Westlake’s Ward 6 since 2000.

Baker said she intends to campaign for lower taxes for residents and businesses. Ohio is ranked as being fifth-highest nationally in terms of taxes, Baker said, a status she called “unacceptable.”

“Even though everyone says ‘I’m going to lower your taxes,’ I do think that they need representation that goes in with the thought of lowering your taxes, or at least containing them and finding ways to lower them,” Baker told West Life.

Reforming school funding to rely less on property taxes is Baker’s second priority.

“Eighty percent of what’s being paid to the schools is coming from property taxes,” Baker said in regard to the Westshore public school districts. “And that’s just too much of a tax burden. That needs to be changed.”

Baker acknowledged she does not have the solution to the issue, but does not support a proposed constitutional amendment supported by the Ohio PTA that would determine the cost of a public education and address ways to fund it.

Baker fears that, under the amendment, either taxes will be raised or districts like those on the Westshore will get shortchanged.

Baker appeared to be on guard against the Westshore taking a disproportionate hit in state finances.

“We tend to be tagged as ‘the wealthy district,’” Baker said. “That is really, I think, unfair. And what I will try to strive when I get there, if I get there, is that these five cities are hardworking people that for the most part are double income. They value education, their houses are mortgaged, their cars are usually financed, and their kids have student loans. These aren’t wealthy people. These are just hardworking people that believe in community, believe in involvement in their schools, believe in education.”

Baker owns Cricket Yard Equipment on Center Ridge Road with her husband of 32 years, Craig. The couple has three adult children.