Opinion

Mahoning, Trumbull are pivotal to statewide candidates

For decades, Mahoning and Trumbull were reliable Democratic counties. If Democratic candidates didn’t get at least 60% of the vote in Mahoning and at least 55% support in Trumbull, they stood no chance of winning Ohio. Even with those vote totals, Democrats sometimes would be disappointed in the results from the two counties. I recall during a post-2000 presidential election forum that an Ohio Democratic Party official specifically criticized the results in Mahoning and Trumbull as being a key reason why Democrat Al Gore lost the state to Republican George W. Bush by 3.51%. Gore ...

LaRose was right: Voter fraud is rare in Ohio

Despite repeated attempts by others to instill fear that Ohio’s elections are riddled with fraud, interference and illegal ballots cast, the public official best equipped to accurately assess the situation, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, has said, “voter fraud is rare in Ohio.” An analysis of data from the Ohio Crime Statistics Dashboard by the Ohio Capital Journal bears that out. Since taking office in 2019, LaRose has referred for investigation 1,200 voting/election-related cases. According to the crime statistics dashboard, only 16 resulted in felony convictions — nine ...

As mayor, I never lost faith in free and fair elections

For 18 years, I held elected office in Youngstown, Ohio, as a school board member, a city councilman, president of council, and then as mayor. Being mayor was the best job I ever had. I had a chance to shine a light on the kind of people we are and the kind of community we can be when we all come together to help each other. I never lost faith in that, and I still haven’t. As mayor, you are also never too far from the people — they remind you every day that their needs come first, whether it is housing, education, clean streets, or public safety. My job was to make sure I heard ...

They aim to conquer

The West would do well to remember King Solomon's most famous ruling. Last weekend, France erupted in widespread rioting. One French official put the number involved in protests at 550,000. Of those, more than 100,000 were in Paris, including on Paris' famous Champs-Elysees Avenue. The marauders vandalized at least 3,000 shops. They stole from high-end stores like Apple and Louis Vuitton. And they turned cars and government buildings into bonfires. The most dramatic was the burning of the town hall of Limoges, France. The 143-year-old building had survived the Nazis, but not this ...

10-28-26 cartoon

When a political ad backfires

Vivek Ramaswamy's desperation is showing. That was my immediate reaction to the cringeworthy ad his campaign posted on social media and then ran on television on behalf of the Republican's campaign for Ohio governor. Early last week, as the campaign entered its homestretch, the ad thrust viewers into an old, painful scandal from his Democratic opponent Amy Acton's childhood. The 60-second video features Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter "a liar," which later prompted Acton's brother to accuse Ramaswamy of turning childhood rape "into a political talking ...