Michael O'Brien wins easily; now comes the hard part

The easiest part of being mayor of Warren for Michael J. O'Brien may turn out to be winning a primary election that many thought would be close.
In a five-way race in which each candidate had a natural support base of one kind or another, O'Brien ended up running away with the Democratic nomination. With 3,556 votes, he almost captured a majority. His closest challenger was Frederick Harris, with 1,337. Manuel Michelakis got 1,298, followed by former Treasurer Patricia Leon-Games. James L. Nutt garnered only 362 votes.
The results gave O'Brien, a former ward councilman and councilman-at-large who is now serving as a Trumbull county commissioner, 46 percent of the vote.
In November, O'Brien will face three independents and Republican Randy Law, a perennial candidate running in a city that hasn't elected a Republican mayor since Arthur J. Richards won his second term in 1975.
Clearly, O'Brien has the momentum.
But Warren has something of a momentum problem. Much like almost every city in Ohio these days, it has financial problems. Costs continue to go up while revenue has been going down. It's a problem that won't be going away soon.
There are fewer private sector jobs in Warren today than at any time during O'Brien's 21 years in elective office -- he was first elected to city council when he was just 26.
Looking ahead
In victory last night, he repeated a theme from his campaign: "Our city is in need of repair of not just our streets, but repair of positive attitude." That is easier said than done.
Still, O'Brien does have a record of success on which to draw. As we noted when we endorsed him two Sundays ago, during 10 years as a county commissioner he has shown he can lead and that he can work with disparate groups. He was instrumental in bringing some consistency in employment practices to the county's various departments -- something that has defied Mahoning County officeholders.
He has pledged to work with city council and city department heads to control costs, improve services and seek economic development.
He faces a particularly vexing problem in mending fences between the police department and the city's minority community, and he must do so with a police chief who continues to deny that there is any problem.
That's an issue that has defied Mayor Hank Angelo's best efforts, but can't be allowed to fester.
O'Brien, a criminal justice graduate of Youngstown State University and a 10-year member of city council, should be able to call on his training and experience to find a solution.
Not that it will be easy. Not that much of what O'Brien is going to have to do will be easy.