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David Skolnick

Ryan still has political bug

By his own account, Tim Ryan, a Democrat who represented the Mahoning Valley in the U.S. House for 20 years, has achieved his ideal professional-personal life balance. “I am so happy right now,” Ryan told me. “This is the happiest I’ve been personally and professionally in a long time so it’s hard to kind of change course.” Yet he still hears the siren call of politics. Ryan is making more money than he ever did as a lobbyist and working for a technology firm, gets to go on national television and write opinion pieces for Newsweek about his thoughts on politics. He has ...

US Reps. Rulli, Joyce roll in campaign dough

It was a foregone conclusion that Dave Joyce and Michael Rulli, the two Republican congressmen who represent the Mahoning Valley, were going to win reelection. The only questions were: By what margin and how much money would they raise? The quick answer to both is: a lot. Joyce, R-Bainbridge, will start serving his seventh two-year term representing the 14th Congressional District next month. The district, which includes all of Trumbull County, had a 9.7% Republican advantage based on statewide partisan voting results during the previous decade. That number will definitely increase ...

In spite of great successes, unity eludes Trumbull Republicans

Despite a lack of unity, Republicans in Trumbull County are riding a historic wave of success. Now the party is looking for stability and that may prove to be a bigger challenge than beating Democrats. The disharmony was evident during Tuesday’s central committee meeting to choose its third leader in 30 months, not including two interim chairs. The election was between Marleah Campbell, a powerful party insider who serves as its secretary, and Julia Shutt, who moved to the county four years ago and decided only the day before the vote to run for chair. There are supposed to be ...

Trumbull GOP seeks leader again

Remarkably, the Trumbull Republican Party – which can boast of gaining nearly complete control over the executive branch of county government and is making inroads in the judicial branch – is looking for a new chair for the third time in 30 months. If you count two interim chairs, the ...

DeWine to pick Vance successor

Gov. Mike DeWine has a big decision to make: Who will he select to replace U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance who will resign to be sworn in as vice president of the United States? Vance’s political career has skyrocketed in a short time. After getting the coveted endorsement from Donald Trump before ...

Mahoning Valley turns deeper shade of red after Tuesday’s election

Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Tom McCabe said that years ago he and Mark Munroe, a former party chairman, would routinely get calls from GOP leaders asking if it was possible for a statewide candidate to possibly do better than 35% in the county. “If we got 36% for a candidate, ...