Hagan wins mayoral primary, but with less than a mandate

In a race in which he outspent all six of his opponents combined, Robert Hagan managed a narrow victory in the battle for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Youngstown.
Hagan got to celebrate his victory last night, but the celebration had to be tempered by the realization that the vote was no mandate, and he is as vulnerable to a strong challenge in November as any Democratic nominee has ever been in the city.
He comes by his vulnerability the old fashioned way -- he earned it.
When Hagan announced his candidacy barely three months ago, he promised a campaign that would be about "making tough decisions in tough times ... about promise and hope and pulling together ... about honesty."
Barely three in 10 Youngstown voters Tuesday recognized toughness and pulling together and honesty in Hagan's campaign. Count us among the nearly seven in 10 who missed it.
We are convinced that Hagan's slavish devotion to labor unions -- to the unions that provided him with many of the thousands of dollars that allowed him to overwhelm his opponents -- makes him a poor choice for leading the city of Youngstown, a city that will need a mayor truly capable of making tough choices.
It is certainly no secret that Hagan and this newspaper have had a falling out during the five months that one of the four unions representing employees at The Vindicator have been on strike. But our misgivings are not about Hagan's refusal to meet with the editorial board or about his last minute cancellation of an appearance at a television debate because one of the panelists was a Vindicator management employee .
It is about what those actions say about Hagan's ability to reach across boundaries, about his ability to work with people who are not in lock-step with him.
In touting his candidacy, Hagan said Youngstown "deserves a leader who can reach out to everyone, who cares as much about what is said on the front porches in the neighborhoods as he does about what is said on shop floors and in boardrooms."
The problem is that Hagan cares nothing about what is said in boardrooms.
Hagan was the only candidate who rejected the idea of rolling back Youngstown's income tax -- the highest municipal income tax in the state -- saying that he'd first have to attract new industry to the city and then talk about cutting the tax.
Great plan.
Somehow we don't see captains of industry lining up at Boardman and Phelps streets waiting to talk to a mayor who couldn't bring himself to sit in the same room with a management employee of a local business that is continuing to operate during a strike by a minority of its employees. When the best that mayor can offer is his plan to use the jobs they would bring to the city to maybe reduce the sky-high income tax, boardroom-types will run, not walk, for the city limits.
As to honesty, Hagan said he signed a pledge not to meet with Vindicator reporters until the strike by the guild is over. But just a week earlier, Hagan participated in a debate that was moderated by Bertram de Souza, the same editorial writer Hagan later rebuffed. (For the record, de Souza is not the writer of this editorial.)
In response to our earlier questions about Hagan's ability to function as the manager of a major municipal corporation, he assured television reporters he would be up to the task.
Of course he'd cross a picket line if city employees struck, he said. It was a statement made with the conviction of someone who knows he'll never have to make that decision. He knows that under his command, no union will ever strike this city because he is constitutionally unequipped to stand up to a union.
Hagan talks about the future, but he lives in the past.
We can only hope that the debates between now and November reveal a candidate who is capable making difficult choices, of standing up as solidly for the working men and women who continue to come to work as for those who choose not to. We'll be looking for a candidate who actually has a vision for the future of this city, not for one who just likes to say he does.