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The Trumbull County Democratic Party's central and executive committees will vote Jan. 16 on endorsements in the party's three contested primaries.
The party will meet 5:30 p.m. at its headquarters in McKinley Heights to hear from the four Democratic candidates seeking the endorsement for the Trumbull County commissioner's Jan. 1, 2025, term, as well as two candidates each vying for the party's backing in the races for a seat on the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court's general division, term starting Jan. 3, 2025, and for a domestic relations / juvenile court judicial position, term starting Jan. 1, 2025.
Candidates will have three minutes to address the party and then voting will be done by paper ballot, said Chairman Mark Alberini and Vice Chairwoman Kathy DiCristofaro.
Candidates need at least 50% of the vote plus one to get the endorsement, so with four candidates seeking the party's backing for county commissioner, that could take more than one vote, Alberini and DiCristofaro said. If that occurs, the person with the lowest vote total is removed and a second round of voting is held, DiCristofaro said. Also, if two candidates get zero votes in the first round, those two are taken off the ballot for a second round, DiCristofaro said.
If after a second round of voting, no one captures a majority and there are three candidates remaining, the person with the lowest vote total is removed and the endorsement between the top two would be settled with a third round.
The four candidates running for the commissioner seat are John Brown, Warren City Council president and a former councilman at-Large who also served in the 2nd and 3rd Wards; Daniel Polivka, a former 16-year county commissioner who lost to Republican Niki Frenchko by 4.6% in 2020 and is an ex-county Democratic Party chairman; Howland Trustee James J. LaPolla; and Michele Garman, a Mathews school board member.
The winner of the Democratic primary would face the winner of the Republican primary -- both primaries are March 19. Frenchko, seeking her second four-year term, is being challenged in her party's primary by Hubbard Trustee Rick Hernandez.
The county Republican Party doesn't endorse in primaries.
But the party's officers formally censured Frenchko on Oct. 25, which included banning her and her campaign literature from its headquarters. The party officers also decided Frenchko won't be mentioned on party slate cards or on any party campaign literature or advertising should she win the nomination. Frenchko disputes the officers have the authority to censure her and said she isn't concerned about the ban.
Seeking the Democratic endorsement in the common pleas court general division's judicial primary are Christopher D. Becker, who has worked at the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office since December 2000 and has served as first assistant prosecuting attorney since 2010, and Thomas R. Wright, who spent 12 years as a member of the 11th District Court of Appeals before losing reelection in 2022.
The seat is open because incumbent Andrew D. Logan, a Democrat, could not run for reelection due to the state's age limit on judges.
The winner of the March 19 Democratic primary will face Republican Sarah Thomas Kovoor, who has unsuccessfully run for three judicial seats.
The other endorsement from the party will go to either Jack Pico or Kara Leonard Stanford, who are seeking a seat on the county's domestic / juvenile court bench.
Pico, who lost the 2018 Democratic primary for the other domestic relations / juvenile court seat, has been a family court magistrate since 2016. He was also a family court magistrate from 1997 to 2006.
Stanford has been a family court magistrate since 2019.
Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood, a Democrat, could not run for reelection because of the state's judicial age limits law.