Article prompted corruption probe

January 31, 2020

The pretrial hearing of ex-Youngstown Finance Director David Bozanich, downtown property developer Dominic Marchionda and 10 of the latter’s affiliated companies, has consumed much of my time lately. But in reality, I’ve been following the issues for more than a decade — and that became evident during the first day of the hearing last week. Ralph E. Cascarilla, Bozanich’s attorney, asked T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director, about a 2009 city council finance committee meeting. During his line of questioning, he asked her if I specifically attended ...

Ryan boasts of endorsement

January 24, 2020

The day after the Trumbull County Democratic Party’s central and executive committees endorsed candidates in the March 17 primary, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan sent an email saying the congressman was “pleased and grateful” to receive the support. “I’ve been fortunate to work closely with one of the strongest and most determined county parties in the state and country, and their support is critical to our success,” said Ryan, D-Howland. There were two things that immediately stood out when I read this. The first was Ryan is running unopposed in the Democratic ...

GOP Reps. facing easy primaries

January 17, 2020

While U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t face a primary election opponent, the two other House members who represent portions of the Mahoning Valley do. Without a challenger, Ryan, D-Howland, is assured of winning his party’s primary. It’s safe to say U.S. Reps. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, and Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, shouldn’t have problems winning their party’s nominations. Johnson is seeking his sixth two-year term representing the 18-county 6th Congressional District, which includes the southern portion of Mahoning and all of Columbiana. Joyce is running for his fifth two-year ...

Write-in deadline goes from ho-hum to hmm

January 10, 2020

Primary election write-in deadlines during even years are typically ho-hum. Many of those who file as write-ins challenge incumbents whose names will be on the ballot - and they almost always lose by a lot. Then there are those who use a little strategy. They run because no one filed by the deadline to get their names on the ballot. In both Mahoning and Trumbull counties, Republicans failed to field candidates in several races. It's particularly noticeable in Trumbull where Republicans failed to get anyone to run for county engineer, sheriff, clerk of courts, recorder, ...

Can a Republican topple Ryan?

January 3, 2020

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan faces a Republican opponent every two years and has never had any problems beating the challenger. Except when he ran for the open seat in 2002, Ryan’s Republican opponents have had no or minimal political experience. While Republican Donald Trump was very competitive in his 2016 presidential bid in the 13th District — losing 51 percent to 45 percent to Democrat Hillary Clinton — Ryan, D-Howland, beat Republican Richard Morckel 68 percent to 32 percent. Ryan outperformed Clinton, who topped the Democratic ticket, 68 percent to 51 percent. Morckel isn’t ...

Tale of two losing candidacies

December 27, 2019

While political eyes are on the March 17 primary and the 2020 general election, let’s look back on last month’s election. Specifically, I’m focused on two races: Youngstown Municipal Court judge and Warren mayor. Why those two? Because a lot of money — almost $200,000 for judicial candidate Martin Hume and close to $120,000 for mayoral candidate Randy Law — went into the campaigns of both of the failed candidates. Hume, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor and a former Youngstown law director, raised $64,045 from donors not named Martin Hume — a respectable amount ...