Can a Republican topple Ryan?

January 3, 2020

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan faces a Republican opponent every two years and has never had any problems beating the challenger. Except when he ran for the open seat in 2002, Ryan’s Republican opponents have had no or minimal political experience. While Republican Donald Trump was very competitive in his 2016 presidential bid in the 13th District — losing 51 percent to 45 percent to Democrat Hillary Clinton — Ryan, D-Howland, beat Republican Richard Morckel 68 percent to 32 percent. Ryan outperformed Clinton, who topped the Democratic ticket, 68 percent to 51 percent. Morckel isn’t ...

Tale of two cities’ losing candidates

December 27, 2019

While political eyes are on the March 17 primary and the 2020 general election, let’s look back on last month’s election. Specifically, I’m focused on two races: Youngstown Municipal Court judge and Warren mayor. Why those two? Because a lot of money — almost $200,000 for judicial candidate Martin Hume and close to $120,000 for mayoral candidate Randy Law — went into the campaigns of both of the failed candidates. Hume, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor and a former Youngstown law director, raised $64,045 from donors not named Martin Hume — a respectable amount ...

Intriguing primaries in Trumbull

December 20, 2019

There are some intriguing primaries in Trumbull County and incredibly, no primaries for any Mahoning County executive or judicial branch position. And the Trumbull County Democratic primary for county engineer especially fascinates me. David DeChristofaro, who was forced to leave the job in 2011 on criminal convictions that have since been expunged, is challenging incumbent Randy Smith, who succeeded him. While engineer isn’t the most exciting position in politics, each candidate has an obvious dislike for the other. The primary should be a doozy. Commissioner Dan Polivka ...

Few primaries expected in Mahoning while several anticipated in Trumbull

December 13, 2019

Wednesday is the filing deadline for the March 17 primary, and it looks like there will only be a few — or possibly no — contested primaries for offices in Mahoning County. It’s a different story in Trumbull County where there should be a number of primaries. As of Thursday, no one has filed to challenge any of the incumbents — Democrats or Republicans — in Mahoning County. That will change by the filing deadline, but don’t be surprised if there are no contested primaries in March for county positions. Several of the incumbents have been there for a long time and few ...

Republicans to challenge Ryan

December 6, 2019

The number of Republican candidates interested in taking on U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan next year is quite remarkable. So far, four have pulled nominating petitions from the board of elections in Summit County, the most populous county in the 13th Congressional District, with one filing — and at least two more are campaigning and almost certainly will file by the Dec. 18 deadline. There’s obviously a great deal of dissatisfaction among Republicans with Ryan, D-Howland, who was first elected to Congress in 2002. But a jam-packed primary in which the candidates will have to use the ...

Ready on stand-your-ground bill

November 29, 2019

Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, in the Mahoning Valley earlier this week, left me with the impression that a stand-your-ground law is probably going to move quicker in the General Assembly than the governor's gun reform plan. Obhof, R-Medina, didn't come right out and say that, but when I asked about both issues, he seemed much more interested in stand-your-ground. "I'm a co-sponsor of a bill to change our rules on duty to retreat," he said. "That would put us in line with a large majority of the states now. Not always a reliable source, but if you go to Wikipedia and take a look ...