Governor-elect Ted Stickland announced today that he is appointing John Martin to be the Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Mr. Martin was a speaker at the 2003 Emergency Campaign to Protect Ohio's Future April 9 Rally that drew nearly 5,000 people to the statehouse to protest budget cuts included in the Taft administration's proposed budget. Fortunately, with the help of Mr. Martin and others, we were able to defeat many of those cuts. It's great to see advocates who were willing in the past to step up and be counted, being brought into state government.