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Tex Fischer to get Ohio House appointment

YOUNGSTOWN – Tex Fischer, the Mahoning County Republican Party’s first vice chairman, will be appointed today to succeed Al Cutrona in the Ohio House.

Fischer, who is also co-founder and partner of H&F Strategies LLC., a political consulting firm, was among seven candidates who interviewed for the seat.

The state House spot is being vacated today by Cutrona, R-Canfield, who will be appointed to replace Michael Rulli, R-Salem, in the Ohio Senate. Rulli resigned June 12, the day after he was elected to the open 6th Congressional District seat.

The Mahoning County Republican Party had to rush the appointment process because today is the Ohio House’s last day of session for months, party Chairman Tom McCabe said.

The initial plan was to appoint a successor to Cutrona in early July, McCabe said.

Fischer was the clear choice of a 25-member Republican screening committee among the seven candidates interviewed, getting every first-place vote in a ranked-choice process, McCabe said. Overall, 22 of the 25 people in the committee voted, he said.

McCabe said he wanted to be impartial so he didn’t vote.

The party chairmen and secretaries in Mahoning and Columbiana counties, which comprise the new 59th Ohio House District that Fischer will represent through the end of the year, will meet next week to formally select him as the party’s nominee for the Nov. 5 ballot.

Fischer will face Democrat Laura Schaeffer, a Beloit councilwoman and integrated library systems administrator for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, in the Nov. 5 election.

For more on this story, read Friday’s print edition of The Vindicator or online at www.vindy.com.

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