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Republicans won’t lose US Senate

CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten said something interesting last week. He said Republicans have a stubborn habit of outperforming their September polling in the states that decide control of the Senate. He is right, and reiterated a point I have been making for some time that leads me to believe all might not be lost for the GOP in the Senate. In the major 2024 races, Republicans outran their September polls by 9 points in Iowa, by 6 in Ohio, and by 5 in Michigan. A skeptic will say that was 2024, with President Donald Trump on the ballot. As Harry noted, go back to 2018, the first ...

Mike Hovis by a nose in Trumbull County commissioner race

Most candidates from opposing political parties running for the same post struggle to find common ground with flashlights and maps. Republican Michael Hovis and Democrat Kristen Rock — vying for a Trumbull County Commissioners seat — actually have some. Both told our editorial board in their separate endorsement interviews that the commissioners — as currently constituted — are moving too slowly on some of the issues facing the county. In other words, Trumbull County could benefit from a little less conversation and a little more action, with apologies to Elvis ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To art students in Youngstown State University’s Community Engagement Internship program and to the management of Blooming Crazy Flowers and Gifts in Boardman for their collaboration that resulted in a massive and colorful public art mural for all to enjoy in the heavy-traffic Market Street area of Boardman. The mural serves as a supersized gift to the township to mark the shop’s roots in the Mahoning Valley and its 50th anniversary in business. The YSU students also received talented help from a large contingent of Boardman schools students and residents. Like the many ...

Commit to cut trend of rising cycle carnage

Over the past two months, roadways in the Mahoning Valley have fast become concrete killing fields for motorcyclists. The proof is in the data: Since August no fewer than six individuals have lost their lives while riding motorcycles in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. The fatalities included a 64-year-old Salem man traversing state Route 45 in Lordstown, a 42-year-old Cortland woman who struck horses along state Route 46 in Bazetta, an 18-year-old Youngstown man struck by a vehicle turning into an East Side apartment complex and a 61-year-old Lisbon man hit by a turning ...

The tsunami of campaign ads

You can’t escape them unless you turn off the TV. One after another with barely enough time for commercials hawking adult diapers and a cure for toe fungus they come. They are repetitious and annoying. One candidate promises to lower gas and grocery prices and criticizes the incumbent for not doing so (as if politicians can control the market). Another candidate sits on a toilet, and the ad calls for his socialist opponent to be “flushed.” Still another speaks of improving education. We are already spending record amounts on education so what’s the point? None of the ads I’ve ...

If Hegseth wants to strip military of weirdos, he should resign

Where did this guy come from? How did a TV personality end up leading America’s defense department, especially in a time of war? Donald Trump put Pete Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense. It’s now officially called the War Department, but I’m not ready to go there. In one of his stranger announcements, Hegseth vowed to rid the U.S. military of “weirdos” and “beardos.” Sure enough, Hegseth does not have a beard, unlike the “beardo” Ulysses S. Grant or his Confederate opponent, Robert E. Lee. As for the weirdo part, well ... the jury’s out for ...