It wasn’t that long ago that if you had the right amount of money in Mahoning County you could get away with crimes.

That was what it was like when James Philomena — who was flashy, arrogant and corrupt — ran the county prosecutor’s office.

Philomena was convicted in 1999 for racketeering and again in 2001 for bribery and perjury for fixing cases during his eight years as prosecutor.

Not only could you buy your way out of a crime at the time, but Philomena was tied to the mob.

That makes what Paul J. Gains did so remarkable.

In 1996, Gains challenged Philomena in the Democratic Party primary for prosecutor. Back then, the Democratic primary was THE election, as we were years away from Republicans competing in Mahoning Valley politics.

“I ran because nobody else would, and believe me, I approached people to run, people that I thought were far more electable than me, and they all said no,” Gains said. “But I felt somebody had to do something, and I would hope that would be my legacy.”

Gains’ larger legacy is organized crime figures were so worried about having an honest person, instead of Philomena, as county prosecutor that they tried to assassinate Gains on Christmas Eve of 1996 to make sure he didn’t take office.

Putting “organized” in front of “crime” for this gang is being generous. The plan was to kill Gains and convince Mahoning Democratic central committee members to replace him with an attorney who was later found guilty of accepting bribes for fixing civil service tests in Campbell so the mob could control police hirings there.

Gains was shot at his home, but his life was spared when the gun used by Mark Batcho, hired to murder the prosecutor-elect, jammed. Batcho panicked and fled the scene while Gains survived.

Several events followed, including a phone call to Gains from the girlfriend of a man involved in the conspiracy to kill him, that led to the downfall of the mob in the Mahoning Valley.

It attracted national attention — it still does to this day — and made Gains one of the most well-known elected officials in the area.

While I’ve covered Valley politics for more than two decades, I don’t have much to do with the offices of the elected prosecutors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. That’s left to our very capable crime and court reporters for each county.

But Gains is someone with whom I often have spoken over the years.

Some of our conversations were about public corruption, others were about politics and some were to help me get a better understanding of the law.

Even if I just had a quick question, he’d frequently be on the phone with me for a long time to explain something while quoting the law and yelling to his assistant to get him some more information.

As for politics, Gains often found himself challenged for his office.

While Gains said he “didn’t run for this position because I wanted to be a powerful politician,” he was an astute one.

In all, Gains was elected to seven four-year terms and he had a challenger for all but one of those elections.

Gains announced last Friday, a little over 26 years after he was first elected, that he was retiring effective Nov. 30.

Organized crime is a memory in the Valley and while political corruption has lessened from the outrageous levels of late 1990s and early 2000s, it is still around.

Gains has his detractors. But we should thank him and those who prosecuted numerous corrupt elected officeholders and public sector employees — as well as attorneys and businessmen who worked with them — for the work they have done.

Whoever replaces Gains surely has big shoes to fill.

The first will be Gina DeGenova, who county commissioners appointed as acting prosecutor, to start Dec. 1. She has a strong chance of getting the county Democratic Party’s central committee vote when it meets Jan. 7 to select the person to fill out Gains’ term, which expires at the end of 2024.

Skolnick covers politics for The Vindicator and the Tribune Chronicle.

dskolnick@vindy.com