Candidates fund for themselves

February 4, 2022

Asking people for money is rarely fun. It’s probably more challenging if you’re wealthy but still are asking for campaign contributions. Several of the wealthiest Ohio Republican candidates for U.S. Senate are skipping those awkward discussions and writing their own checks, self-funding campaigns or at least coming as close as possible. If you didn’t know better, you’d think several of these Republican candidates are trying to buy the seat. Of course, we do know better. But the candidates have money to spend — with plenty left over — so that’s what they’re ...

New district maps still unfair

January 28, 2022

The second effort to pass state legislative maps went about as well as the first. Republicans, who make up five of the seven members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, voted for maps that seem to disproportionately favor that political party over the objections of Democrats, and the matter is again before the Ohio Supreme Court to decide its constitutionality. On the surface the maps look like an improvement from those rejected 4-3 by the court Jan. 12. The initial maps gave Republicans the advantage in 65 of 99 House districts and in 23 of 33 Senate districts. The court ...

DeWine: Any of GOP will do

January 21, 2022

During a recent hour-plus interview with Gov. Mike DeWine, he said: “I’m a pragmatist. I take this world as I find it.” While he was talking about a different issue, it applies to how he answered a question I asked about supporting a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs this year. DeWine is a longtime Republican officeholder and one of the most familiar political names in Ohio. He’s seeking re-election to a second four-year term as governor this year. But because of how he initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with curfews, closing businesses and face ...

New mapmaking draws skepticism

January 14, 2022

Now that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Republican-drawn state legislative maps are unconstitutional, the question is: How will the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which approved the gerrymandered maps, react? Based on the questionable methods it used to draw the rejected maps, Ohioans should ...

Johnson win virtually assured

January 7, 2022

It was going to be very difficult for a Democrat to beat U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson in the 6th Congressional District race. But now that Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti of Poland has chosen not to challenge him, it's going to be nearly impossible for a Democrat to unseat the ...

Sean O’Brien reinforces judge run

December 31, 2021

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, ...