Thomas A. Raga (born 1965) is the President of AES Ohio, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation, and also the Executive Director of the AES Ohio Foundation. Raga is a former politician of the Republican Party who represented the 67th district ( Warren County) in the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

. In February 2006, he was named by

Ken Blackwell John Kenneth Blackwell (born February 28, 1948) is an American politician, author, and Conservatism in the United States, conservative activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio (1979–1980), the Ohio State Treasurer (1994–1999), and ...

as his running mate in the May 2, 2006, primary for

governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

. Blackwell and Raga won the Republican nomination, but lost the November general election to Ted Strickland and

Lee Fisher Lee Irwin Fisher (born August 7, 1951) is an American attorney, politician, and academic. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th lieutenant governor of Ohio under governor Ted Strickland from 2007 until 2011. Fisher previously ...

60-36%.

Political career

A native of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, Raga graduated from Moeller High School and from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

received a B.S. in agricultural economics. Raga moved to

Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio Deerfield Township is one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a feder ...

in October 1995. Raga's first elective office was as a trustee of Deerfield Township, elected on November 4, 1997, by defeating long-time incumbent Bob Carter. In the three-way race for two seats, the results were 2,338 (33.65%) for Raga, 2,480 (35.69%) for Larry Backus, and 2,130 (30.66%) for Carter. He served from January 1, 1998, to his resignation in December 2000. (Barbara Wilkens Reed was appointed his successor.) On March 7, 2000, he won a three-way primary against attorney and former Mason mayor Betty Davis and Clearcreek Township trustee Ed Wade to replace Republican state representative George E. Terwilleger, who was forced to retire because of Ohio's term limits. Both Davis and Wade had lost the 1992 Republican primary to Terwilleger for the open seat. Raga wrote in the ''

Dayton Daily News The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employee ...

'' he was running because

We all know the issues affecting our daily lives, including: education dilemmas with inequitable and insufficient funding, meaningful achievement standards and learning in an environment free from fear; health-care issues affecting the affordability, accessibility and quality of care; and controlled and balanced growth issues involving expansion of infrastructure while maintaining green space and our own unique community standards and way of life.

The ''

'' wrote "Mr. Raga, a Deerfield Township trustee, calls for lower taxes and putting families first on Ohio's agenda. He favors local control of schools and basic education. But he is short on details about how he, as a state representative, would accomplish those goals" and endorsed Davis. Davis had the backing of former Warren County representative Corwin M. Nixon, Terwilleger's predecessor and Republican leader in the Ohio House for years. Raga campaigned hard in northern Warren County and had the support of the Warren County Right-to-life organization. Raga spent $50,000 on the primary. The results were 11,875 votes (45.32%) for Raga, 9,432 (35.99%) for Davis, and 4,898 (18.69%) for Wade. On November 7, 2000, he was elected State Representative for the Second District, which comprised all of Warren County. In the general election, Raga faced landscaper Richard J. Inskeep, 42, of Mason. Inskeep had previously lost races for the Mason city council and the Seventh Senate District, losing to Richard H. Finan. Inskeep told ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, altho ...

'' "I'm not looking at beating Tom Raga. I'm looking at putting the issues out on the table that I think are important." The ''

'' endorsed Raga, saying "He is a more proven quantity", unlike Inskeep, who "has no experience in government and little in community leadership." Raga easily defeated Inskeep in the heavily Republican county 48,498 (75.39%) to 15,833 (24.61%). Raga raised over $120,000 for his 2000 campaign. After redistricting, Warren County was split into two districts. Raga's district became the Sixty-seventh and comprised about two-thirds of Warren County including all of Franklin, Clearcreek, and Turtlecreek Townships, and the western part of Deerfield Township, plus all of the cities of Franklin and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

; the Warren County portions of the cities of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

, Springboro,

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

and Middletown; and most of the city of Mason. Since his election in 2000, Raga has been re-elected without opposition in every primary and general election.

Business career

After leaving political office, Raga continued his public service at Sinclair Community College as Senior Director of Regional Strategy and Development where he worked in the president's office on college-wide policy, tactics and its expansion to a Warren County Learning Center. In 2008 Raga was promoted to Vice President of Advancement, where he led the college staff focused on relationships and resources. The division includes the offices of foundation, grants, alumni affairs, public policy and entrepreneurial investments. In 2010, Raga joined The Dayton Power and Light Company as director of government relations. Raga also worked as vice president of external relations before being named president and CEO in 2015. As president, Raga oversaw Dayton Power and Light's transition to a regulated electric transmission and distribution company. The process included state and federal regulatory decisions addressing the separation of DP&L's generation assets to a subsidiary and the filing of DP&L's third electric security plan (ESP). In 2018, Raga was named vice president of DPL Inc. whose principal subsidiaries include The Dayton Power and Light Company, Miami Valley Lighting, Inc. and AES Ohio Generation, LLC. Raga also serves as executive director of The Dayton Power and Light Company Foundation.

Personal

Raga is married to Jean M. Raga, a real estate agent and Team Lead with Xp Realty-Main Street. They have two children.

References

*Kevin Aldridge. "Statehouse race poses uphill battle for Democrat Inskeep." ''

''. March 19, 2000. B5. *Lawrence Budd. "Raga Unapologetic About War Chest: Campaign coffer in state race tops $120,000." ''

''. October 27, 2000. 1B. *"Betty Davis Best Choice in 2nd House District." (Editorial). ''

''. February 17, 2000. 16A. *Tom Raga. "2nd Ohio House District: GOP." ''

''. February 17, 2000. 16A. *"Raga Best Choice for 2nd District." (Editorial) ''

''. October 26, 2000. 16A. *Richelle Thompson. "2nd District up for grabs." ''

''. January 8, 2000. B1. *Howard Wilkinson. "Blackwell picks Raga: State representative from Mason joins campaign for governor." ''

''. February 6, 2006. C1.

External links

Official websiteOfficial Blackwell for Governor site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raga, Tom 1965 births Living people Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Republican Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Ohio General Assembly Politicians from Cincinnati People from Warren County, Ohio Moeller High School alumni