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Dems must stop limiting candidacy

Like those in the Ohio Democratic party who often have been criticized for hand-picking political candidates for statewide races, Trumbull County Democrats must stop bowing to pressure and let the voters – not the party – decide their candidacy.

Trumbull County Democratic party leadership gathered Jan. 14 to select the local candidates they would back in the upcoming primary election.

Among the races decided, Democratic Central Committee members voted to endorse local bank assistant vice president Tod Latell in his bid for Trumbull County recorder. That seat is coming open because longtime officeholder Democrat Diana Marchese is retiring at the end of her term.

Latell, son of former Trumbull County Commissioner and former State Senator Anthony Latell Jr., was facing Trumbull County’s Chief Executive Dog Warden Gwen Logan and Warren City Councilwoman Helen Rucker in the three-way race.

The party gave Latell the nod by an 80 to 66 vote in a runoff after Logan and Latell had beaten Rucker in the first round of voting.

Then just last week Logan announced she was removing herself from the race.

“For the good of our local Democratic Party, and to show party unity and solidarity, I feel it best now to withdraw my candidacy,” Logan said Thursday.

But isn’t it the constituents – not the party leaders – who ultimately should decide who represents them in public office?

In a separate race, even the candidate who won the local Democratic Party’s support in the Trumbull County sheriff’s race, Paul Monroe, admitted he never wanted to run against existing Sheriff Thomas Altiere. Rather, he had planned to wait patiently for his turn until the 23-year incumbent decided to retire. Monroe said he announced his candidacy only after Altiere had told him he didn’t plan to seek re-election.

This attitude is not new for the local and statewide Dems, and we have long objected to it.

This year, Ohio’s Democratic voters also will decide their nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Rob Portman. Last summer – at least eight months before the upcoming March 15 primary – statewide Democratic party leadership decided former Governor Ted Strickland was their man, despite the fact that Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld also had declared his candidacy.

At that time, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper told us openly that the statewide party simply believed Strickland was the best candidate. Pepper followed up by being publicly critical of Sittenfeld and crime in Cincinnati.

It’s likely Ohio Democratic leadership believed that Sittenfeld simply hadn’t waited for his turn. The young councilman continues to rebuke pressure to step out of the U.S. Senate race, and he will appear on the statewide ballot in March. Good for him!

The party took similar action in the 2014 governor’s race by handpicking Ed FitzGerald long before the Democratic primary. That decision exploded when FitzGerald’s campaign fell apart following the revelation of his driving record and questionable activities with a woman who was not his wife.

It might just be this way of thinking that also has led the Democrats to offer up such limited and questionable choices in this year’s presidential race.

Democrats on all levels must realize the value of allowing all candidates to throw their hats in the ring, put their best feet forward and let the voters make their own decisions.

It’s choice, after all, that makes America great.

editorial@tribtoday.com

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