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David Skolnick

Ins, outs of party leadership

Kevin Wyndham said he is resigning Feb. 1 as Trumbull County Republican Party chairman primarily because the job is too demanding. This is the third time a Mahoning Valley political party chairman left the position early in recent years. Mark Munroe retired Feb. 21, 2019, as Mahoning County Republican Party chairman after nine years, saying it “is not an easy job. You make a decision and you make half of your supporters unhappy. Then you make another decision, and you make the other half unhappy.” Soon after, Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras resigned ...

Walters expected to lead Ohio Dems

The Ohio Democratic Party’s executive committee will meet Thursday to select a new leader and will elect the first woman to the position. It’s almost certain Liz Walters, Summit County Council president and former state party executive and political director, has the necessary votes. While there are five other candidates in the race, the only serious challenger to Walters is Antoinette Wilson, a Columbus political consultant with a lot of wins under her belt. The biggest shakeup in the race occurred when Lou Gentile, a former state legislator from Steubenville, withdrew as ...

More money helped GOP victories

One lesson from the recent state legislative races in the Mahoning Valley is Republicans in Ohio are better funded and better organized than their Democratic counterparts. Despite the $1.3 billion nuclear power plants bailout scandal involving the former speaker of the House and four other Republicans that was expected to hurt that political party, voters backed the GOP. Republicans, who already had a super majority, actually picked up seats in the General Assembly. That included a House and a Senate seat in Trumbull County. Republicans nearly grabbed the other House spot in ...

Election losers should move on

Losing is hard — and for some in politics, accepting defeat is impossible. Outgoing President Donald Trump, and many of his supporters, refuse to accept the fact that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump continues to tweet falsehoods (to be polite) to outright lies (to be accurate) about the election such as this Tuesday in all capital letters: “THE DEMOCRATS DUMPED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BALLOTS IN THE SWING STATES LATE IN THE EVENING. IT WAS A RIGGED ELECTION!!” A day later he claimed there was “massive voter fraud,” and “this was the most corrupt election in the ...

Ohio Dems seek new leader

The person who takes over as chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party has a monumental task. Despite claims from some, Ohio is solid purple in many ways. Going back to 1990, Democrats have won statewide executive branch offices in only 2006 and Republicans have a stranglehold on the state Legislature, even picking up seats in the recent election. David Pepper has been Democratic chairman since January 2015, taking over after the 2014 statewide election — an utter disaster for the party. He’s leaving Jan. 1. Pepper was able to eliminate the party’s debt and field a strong slate ...

Big spending brought success

With U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in the political fight of his life, he was able to do something he’s struggled to do his entire time in Congress: Raise a respectable amount of money when it was desperately needed. Ryan, D-Howland, received a remarkable $584,186 between Oct. 1 and Nov. 3 in a race he won by 7.55 percent against Republican Christina Hagan of Marlboro Township for the 13th Congressional District seat. Other members of Congress raised even more money, but it’s been Ryan’s Achilles’ heel his entire political career, which started two decades ago. It’s stunning to see ...