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David Skolnick

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 ...

Ramaswamy’s ad with Acton’s estranged mother crosses the line

During his Oct. 5 endorsement interview with this newspaper, Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy criticized Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent, for how she is conducting her campaign. Ramaswamy said: “I think that she’s the beginning of a new kind of politics of real personalization. She’s running a campaign on identity politics, not in the way that you traditionally may think about, but it’s a different kind of identity politics. Identity politics that – I don’t care to go into this now – actually has skillfully baited the worst instincts about aspects of ...

Observations on Trump’s Youngstown rally

When you attend a Donald Trump rally, there are certain things to expect. You’re going to wait around before anyone speaks, you’re going to wait even longer for the president to deliver his speech, his is not going to be a short speech, it’s going to go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, the crowd is going to eat it up and there’s going to be incidents between Trump’s supporters and those who feel the need to protest inside the building. While there were many people protesting near Youngstown’s Covelli Centre, there were at least four people ...

In-person voting surges while mail balloting lags

People are coming to boards of elections to vote early-in person almost like it’s a presidential election, but those requesting ballots by mail have dropped off. It’s a trend happening all over the state, and the examples of Mahoning and Trumbull counties fit into that narrative. In 2022, the last election for all statewide executive branch seats, the Trumbull County Board of Elections mailed out 17,008 ballots to voters. For this election, it’s 10,837 so far — and that isn’t likely to increase by much. When you look at early in-person votes, Trumbull did 841 on Tuesday, ...

Ciccone appears safe despite controversies

Despite causing numerous problems and great embarrassment to Mahoning County, Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone isn’t going anywhere. When I last wrote a column about Ciccone, a Republican, nearly 10 months ago, the county Republican and Democratic parties were united in an effort to have him ...

Can gas tax holiday boost Ramaswamy’s campaign?

With the price of gas, particularly diesel fuel, out of control, the Republican-controlled state Legislature will meet in special session Wednesday to vote on eliminating Ohio’s gas tax for 90 days. The session came at the urging of Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP nominee for governor. Ramaswamy’s call for a gas holiday came about 6 1/2 hours after Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor, said one was needed. A skeptic could describe what is happening as a political ploy as Ramaswamy and his allies have spent millions of dollars to discredit Acton and he needs something to help ...