Endorsement meeting gives hint of things to come in 17th

If the Trumbull County Democratic Party had been the slightest bit interested in hearing from the closest thing to an incumbent that the new 17th Congressional District has, it could have scheduled its endorsement meeting for a Friday. It's no secret that most congressmen are in Washington, D.C., through Thursday when Congress is in session.
But the party clearly wasn't interested in hearing from U.S. Rep. Thomas C. Sawyer of Akron, who now represents the 14th District. It only had eyes for State Rep. Anthony Latell.
And so Thursday night, Democratic precinct committeemen and committeewomen got together and cast their votes for three of the six candidates in the race, giving the endorsement by a comfortable margin to Latell. He got 97 votes while State Sen. Timothy J. Ryan of Niles got 55 and Warren lawyer Maridee Costanzo got 11.
Sawyer and three other candidates got no votes.
The endorsement process provided an interesting insight into Mahoning Valley politics in a new age. The old 17th District, a seat held by James A. Traficant Jr. for 18 years had been a neat political package since the last redistricting. It was essentially Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Now, Trumbull County has about a third of the population of the new district, with the other two thirds split between parts of Mahoning, Portage and Summit counties. The Summit portion contains parts of Akron, where Sawyer had been mayor. Included in the Mahoning portion are the cities of Youngstown, Struthers and Campbell.
Shakeout ahead: No single political entity can claim domination of the new 17th District, and it will be interesting to watch the political shakeout.
Clearly the old Steel Valley -- Warren, Niles, McDonald, Girard, Youngstown, Campbell, Struthers and Lowellville -- could dominate the district numerically. If those Mahoning River communities were unified, they'd be a potent force.
But there's no sign of unification, at least not in these early stages of coming to grips with the realities of the new 17th District. It's a free-for-all between political veterans, neophytes and fringe candidates. There's no central character, no central theme.
Sawyer sent a graciously worded letter to the Trumbull County committee saying that he understood how they'd want to endorse one of their own. He can afford such a magnanimous gesture as long as Trumbull County can't settle on one candidate, much less for Trumbull and Mahoning to agree.
Perhaps it's just as well for the eastern half of the 17th District to waste this first primary election with candidates climbing over each others backs. Regardless of what happens in the primary, but depending very much on what happens in a Cleveland federal courtroom, Traficant could be the wild card in this election.
Traficant, whose home is now in the 6th Congressional District, has said he'll run in the new 17th as an independent.