State Representative Tom Brinkman stood up for parents rights at a news conference that took place on the steps of the Hamilton County Courthouse calling on Cincinnati Children’s Hospital transgender clinic to “stop experimenting on our children.” Brinkman joined Citizens for Community Values’ Executive Director Aaron Baer and others to draw attention to the issue which affects families all across Ohio.
State Rep. Tom Brinkman said at the news conference that parental rights are under attack. He intends to introduce legislation “to make sure this never happens again….This is big business for somebody,” said Brinkman, a Republican from Mount Lookout. “Their concern is whether they can make more money – not whether it’s in the child’s interest.”
State Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mt. Lookout, spoke at a news conference Monday, in the wake of a juvenile court judge’s decision in the case of a Cincinnati-area transgender teen.(Photo: Enquirer/Kevin Grasha)
“I am honored to be selected to serve as Vice Chairman of the House Insurance Committee and look forward to bringing my lifelong experience with insurance of all types into crafting legislation for Ohioans,” Rep. Brinkman said.
The committee hears bills on a variety of issues related to insurance topics in Ohio, such as workers’ compensation, health insurance policies and insurance claims. Rep. Brinkman continues to serve on the Commerce and Labor Committee and the Public Utilities Committee.
Rep. Tom Brinkman is currently serving his first term as state representative, after serving as a member of the Ohio House for four 2-year terms from 2001 to 2008. An experienced life insurance salesman and a life-long resident of Cincinnati, Representative Brinkman is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1979), with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science. He represents the 27th Ohio House District, which includes portions of eastern Hamilton County.
Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. eked out a win over former supporter Heidi Huber in a battle over who loathed nationwide Common Core standards more.
Brinkman, of Mount Lookout, won by just 359 votes — 1.5 percent of those cast — in unofficial results that don’t include about 1,000 provisional ballots that will be counted in the next 10 days. That’s just outside the 0.5 percent margin needed to trigger an automatic recount. Candidates who lose tight races can request a recount at their own expense, but Huber said she won’t.
“I don’t know if it changes the ultimate outcome,” Huber said. “I think he’ll prevail.”
Huber and Brinkman waged a competitive, and at times bitter, battle for the House seat in eastern Hamilton County over how to best kill Common Core educational standards. Huber accused Brinkman of not doing enough to eliminate the much-maligned nationwide standards. Brinkman shot back that he was just one man in a legislature of 132 members — many of whom aren’t too upset about Common Core. Ohio was one of the first states to adopt Common Core standards in 2010 and very few students opt out of state tests, which had been tied to state money for schools.
“While we complain a lot, it is hard to move other legislators when you only have 2 percent actually being against it enough to opt out,” Brinkman said. “The legislators are not moved because they haven’t seen the groundswell.”
A proposal from Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, to eliminate and replace Common Core went nowhere in the GOP-controlled House, and Gov. John Kasich supports the standards. Still, Brinkman said he hasn’t given up. “We just have to attack it a little different way,” he said.
But Huber sees it differently. Brinkman broke a promise he made to eliminate these standards and challenge GOP leadership in Columbus. Instead, he joined the Columbus political machine, she said.
“He is not going to be able to do anything that isn’t approved by the speaker,” Huber said. “That’s exactly why I was running. We want our representative government back.”
Huber beat Brinkman in her native Anderson Township, but Brinkman won areas like Mariemont, Mount Lookout and Indian Hill. Turnout was high with more than 23,725 votes cast — up significantly from about 9,300 cast in the competitive 2014 primary between Brinkman and incumbent Peter Stautberg. Brinkman attributed the closeness of Tuesday’s race to Huber’s vindictive, negative campaign.
“It was kind of like a rising flood,” Brinkman said. “You didn’t know how serious it was going to be.”
Hamilton County Republican Chairman Alex Triantafilou gave Huber credit for keeping it close, calling her a smart, relentless candidate. “She has huge energy and a strong base of support,” he added
Brinkman faces Democrat Joe Otis in November. Otis challenged Brinkman in 2014, but lost the heavily Republican district with just 32.3 percent of the vote.
The following opinion piece appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Friday, March 13, 2015.
Halt Eastern Corridor Project to Protect History
Kenneth Barnett Tankersley is an archaeological geologist at the University of Cincinnati and an enrolled member of the Piqua Shawnee tribe.
I applaud state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr.’s sponsored legislation, which will use funding from the last phase of the Eastern Corridor project to replace and repair decaying road infrastructures such as the Western Hills Viaduct in Hamilton County. At the same time, the Mount Lookout Republican’s legislation will ensure that internationally and nationally significant historic and prehistoric sites in the villages of Mariemont, Newtown and Anderson Township will be preserved for many future generations of American citizens.
I applaud state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr.’s sponsored legislation, which will use funding from the last phase of the Eastern Corridor project
Mary Emery built the village of Mariemont upon the foundation of historic preservation. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark District, which extends from the banks of the Little Miami River to its boarders with Madison Place, Fairfax and Plainville. Within Mariemont are the American Indian Embankment and Village sites, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A similar situation exists in the village of Newtown, which includes the William Edwards Farmhouse, an American Indian burial mound in Odd Fellows Cemetery, and the American Indian Perin Village site, all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On Newtown’s southern border is the Hahn Field Archaeological District in Anderson Township. All of these locations are federally recognized as significant historic and prehistoric sites and they are currently threatened with destruction from the Eastern Corridor.
To further complicate this issue, new archaeological discoveries have been made in the past few weeks in Mariemont and Newtown including two previously unreported American Indian burial sites and three American Indian habitation sites. Four of these sites were discovered in Mariemont’s Lower 80 Park and the other was serendipitously found in Newtown while putting in a buried fiber-optic cable. All of them are currently in the direct path of the Eastern Corridor. These sites are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the significant historic and prehistoric sites, which are buried beneath the surface in the Little Miami River valley.
When Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune said, “I am grateful to the Southwest Ohio House delegation that came together in response to a threat to the program and gave it new life and a way to cut through the red tape,” he is asking American citizens to ignore federal historic preservation and environmental protection laws. Highway projects such as the Eastern Corridor are required to work in compliance of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the much more powerful National Environmental Policy Act.
The purpose of NEPA is to protect our environment. In addition to protecting endangered species and historic and prehistoric sites, it also protects the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil we use to grow food. NEPA requires government agencies, such as the Ohio Department Of Transportation, to give proper consideration to the impact highways have on our cultural and natural environment. Currently, ODOT is trying to write in language that would allow them to take over the NEPA process for the completion of the Eastern Corridor. As a fellow concerned citizen recently said, this situation would allow the fox to guard the henhouse.
Say what you will about Tom Brinkman, but dollar for dollar he’s a great conservative investment!
“Although dishonest, ORP’s portrayal of the more conservative candidate [Brinkman] in the 27th House District primary as a secret Democrat could at least be explained as part of the typical incumbency protection racket.”
Tom Brinkman recently signed Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge. This pledge reaffirms Brinkman’s longstanding commitment to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
