Columbus lawyer to run for governor
Columbus lawyer Constance Gadell-Newton wants to offer Ohioans a difference — and a choice — as she runs for governor in 2018 as a Green Party candidate.
Vowing to stand up to the “corrupt two-party system,” Gadell-Newton said she is “committed to promoting the wellbeing of all Ohioans, no matter what happens in Washington, D.C.” She also pledges to “stand up to keep families together in the face of recent changes in U.S. immigration policy.”
Gadell-Newton is a cochair of the Ohio Green Party and a law partner with perennial Green Party candidate Bob Fitrakis. She ran unsuccessfully last year for the Ohio House seat held by Columbus Democrat Kristin Boggs, receiving 7 percent of the vote.
“There’s a lot of momentum behind progressive politics,” Gadell-Newton said Wednesday.
“I think people are willing to consider something new. People are tired of the same old things they are getting with the two-party system.”
Gadell-Newton, 37, said she supports universal health care, free college education and a living wage and wage equality for women and minorities. She is a proponent of decriminalizing drug possession, saying that addiction should be treated as a health condition rather than a criminal offense. She said she also will support steps to protect the environment and encourage the development of alternative energy sources.
She received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and women’s studies from Ohio State University and her legal degree from Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law.
In her online biography, Gadell-Newton said she is an “avid cyclist and trapeze performer,” plays both acoustic and electric guitar and is fluent in French.
Physician Jill Stein was the Green Party’s presidential nominee last year, receiving about 46,000 votes in Ohio, or 0.8 percent of the total.
Gadell-Newton said she will work to obtain at least 3 percent of the vote in the 2018 election, the level needed to preserve Ohio’s recognition of the Green Party.