Nesbit facing Democratic challenger
Republican state Rep. Tedd Nesbit is running for his third term in office, but is being challenged by Democratic candidate Lisa Boeving-Learned, a U.S. Army veteran and retired police sergeant from Mercer County.
They are vying to represent the the 8th Legislative District in the state House, which includes parts of Butler and Mercer counties.
Nesbit, a lawyer and a former assistant district attorney in Mercer County who lives in Grove City, said economic development and education are the most important issues facing the district.
“Economic development is one of the keys and education, they kind of dovetail together,” Nesbit said. “We need to make sure we have a competitive environment, improve infrastructure and try to train the work force so they have skills employers are looking for.”
He said bipartisan cooperation is the way to get things done in Harrisburg.
“I think we need to work in a bipartisan manner to benefit the area. We've managed to pass budgets without across-the-board tax increases. I managed to get three bills passed this term and I helped work to get three others passed,” Nesbit said.
One of the bills, which Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law last week, requires prescriptions for opioids to be submitted electronically to keep the drugs out of the hands of people who aren't supposed to have them, he said.
Another of the bills, which also has become law, makes it easier to sell land containing manufactured homes with out-of-state titles. He said he also worked on bills addressing the Post Conviction Relief Act, DNA testing and civil arbitration.
Nesbit serves on the children and youth, gaming oversight, insurance and judiciary committees.
Boeving-Learned said she supports revising the state legislative district map to provide residents with better representation and to better address people's concerns.
“State House seats are the most important because they're the ones drawing the maps. Butler County is ground zero. There are six legislative districts in Butler,” Boeving-Learned said.
Slippery Rock Township is the only municipality in the county in the 10th District, she said, adding that the rest of the district is in Mercer County.“How much representation is Slippery Rock getting?” Boeving-Learned said. “I would vote in a heartbeat for a truly independent citizen-run redistricting process. I trust citizens instead of elected officials who are influenced by self-interests.”After a new map is created, she said, the legislature would be better able to address issues that residents support, but have been ignored for many years such as raising the minimum wage, providing rural communities with broadband Internet service, tax reform and making health care insurance available to all state residents.Addressing those issues “never happens due to gerrymandering,” she said.Boeving-Learned is from Warren, Ohio, but was raised near Pittsburgh. She worked in military intelligence during her four years in the Army before joining the Tampa, Fla., police department where she served for 25 years.She said she worked as a sex crimes detective, but spent her last 10 years on the job as a patrol sergeant. Her experience working in supervisory positions, she said, taught her to think on her feet.
