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David Skolnick

Sean O’Brien pulls in reinforcements for judge campaign

Open judicial seats in the Mahoning Valley don’t come around that often. When they do, there’s usually competition for the job, and we’ll see that next year among Democrats in Trumbull County. W. Wyatt McKay, a common pleas judge since 1987, can’t run in 2022 for re-election because of the state’s age limit on judges. Republicans are still searching for a candidate while two Democrats have announced plans to succeed McKay, who is Trumbull’s longest-serving common pleas court judge. The two Democrats are Sean O’Brien, a former state legislator, and Dawn Cantalamessa, ...

Get set for hot county commissioner races in 2022

Voters in Mahoning and Trumbull counties will see compelling races for commissioner next year. They should be the most hotly contested local races in both counties. For Mahoning County, it will be the first competitive commissioner’s race since Carol Rimedio-Righetti beat incumbent David Ludt in the 2010 Democratic primary. It is expected to be the first time in decades that a Republican has a shot at winning a commissioner’s seat in Mahoning. In Trumbull, two 2020 commissioner races were close. Niki Frenchko became the first Republican in several years elected commissioner ...

Dems likely to struggle next year

The House Bill 6 bribery scheme to provide a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout of two failed nuclear power plants in exchange for an alleged $60 million bribe has tentacles that could touch many prominent Ohio Republicans. With 2022 statewide elections approaching, an important political question is: Can Democrats capitalize on it as they did with Coingate in 2006? In July 2020, Larry Householder, then the Ohio House speaker, and four other Republicans — including former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges — were indicted on racketeering conspiracy charges by federal authorities related ...

Redistricting lawsuit largely targets wrong people

The lawsuit filed by two Youngstown residents against the Ohio Redistricting Commission, its five Republican members and Attorney General Dave Yost claiming the new congressional and state Senate districts as well as countywide voting in Mahoning violate the federal Voting Rights Act seems to target largely the wrong people. The commission voted 5-2 Sept. 15 in favor of state Senate districts, including one that keeps Mahoning and Columbiana counties together and adds Carroll County to it. “The black residents of Youngstown and Warren are also a sufficiently large and ...

Leftover morsels from US Rep. Johnson

Mmm, leftovers. It’s one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. Sometimes they also come from news interviews. Here are some leftover things I discussed with U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson that didn’t make it into last Sunday’s article. Because of congressional redistricting, Johnson, R-Marietta, will run for re-election next year in a new 6th District that will include all of Mahoning and Trumbull counties — assuming the Ohio Supreme Court upholds the Republican-drawn map. Johnson first was elected to the U.S. House in 2010 and has represented portions of Mahoning County since ...

Valley Dems look for Johnson challenger in 2022 Congress race

All of the Mahoning Valley is in a congressional district that clearly favors Republicans. But between the map and 2022 looking like a good year for Republicans, several top Democrats in the new 6th Congressional District, which has Mahoning and Trumbull as its two most-populous counties, aren’t planning to challenge six-term incumbent Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, for the seat. Even though the two counties, which were once reliable Democratic areas, make up about 55 percent of the new 6th District’s population, Johnson has a clear advantage against any Valley Democrat. This is ...