Laura Ellsworth, a Republican candidate for governor, works a station Monday at Du-Co Ceramics in Saxonburg while taking a tour.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Laura Ellsworth tried her hand at an extruding machine Monday, during a tour of Du-Co Ceramics as part of her campaign visit to two of the county's women-owned businesses.

Ellsworth, who will vie with two men in the May 15 primary for a spot on the general election ticket, chatted with Du-Co owner Lora Cooper Rothen before donning a pair of safety glasses to walk the plant and learn about the products churned out each day.

Ellsworth told Rothen that she decided to run because she can no longer tolerate the “noise, posturing and pandering and negative ads” seen in each election.

“The voters are tired of it,” Ellsworth said. “They just want someone who can get things done.”

She explained that her father was a doctor who made curing a specific childhood cancer his life's work and flew children to New York for treatment.

Many of their families lived at her family's home until her mother created a residence in Harlem that served as the model for the current Ronald McDonald Houses.

Ellsworth said instead of waiting for someone else to treat children with cancer or create a residence for their worried parents, her folks took steps to make it happen.

That penchant for getting things done, she said, rubbed off on her and has been her main goal during several years as an attorney who ran the Pittsburgh office of a large international law firm.

“That's what I do,” Ellsworth said. “I take complicated problems and find solutions.”

She is visiting industries across the state to listen and learn from the owners, managers and workers there. Those experts in their respective fields should work together to improve and increase industry across the state, Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth on Monday also visited Butler Technologies on West Wayne Street, which is a woman-owned business.

Read the full story in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.