Candidate criticizes opponents

The Democratic nominee said he won't engage in negative campaigning.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Maggy Lorenzi, an independent mayoral candidate, said two of her opponents are out of touch with what is truly needed to improve the city.
Lorenzi said state Sen. Robert F. Hagan, the Democratic mayoral nominee, and Jay Williams, an independent candidate, are more concerned with getting air time on local television news shows than addressing the city's core issues. Among those issues, Lorenzi said, are crime reduction, stabilizing business, improving the city's education system, removing blight, cutting the city's 2.75-percent income tax rate and providing leadership.
There are six candidates running in the Nov. 8 general election for mayor. Lorenzi didn't discuss the other candidates: Republican Robert Korchnak and independent candidates Brendan Gilmartin and Joe Louis Teague.
Lorenzi held the press conference Tuesday outside Hagan's campaign headquarters on the corner of Wick Avenue and East Federal Street with Hagan volunteers watching, including one who took notes while she spoke.
"If our present situation is a reflection of their leadership skills, the future frightens me," she said.
Response
In response, Hagan said the issues cited by Lorenzi are important to him, and his mayoral administration would address them.
"I'm not going to attack any individuals," he said. "I'm not going to participate in negative campaigning."
Lorenzi accused Williams, the city's former Community Development Agency director, of dereliction of duty and said the agency was repeatedly found in noncompliance on state audit reports under his watch.
Williams said when he took over the CDA in October 2000, there were numerous problems he identified and asked the state to conduct an audit.
"The CDA was a much stronger agency when I left it [in April] than when I got there," he said. "The public should be very concerned about any candidate who is long on criticism and short on solutions. She's looking for her 15 minutes of fame."
Also Monday, local radio talk show host Louie Free dressed in a chicken suit and walked outside Hagan's campaign headquarters. Free said he was making the point that Hagan is "too chicken" to appear on his show to debate the other mayoral candidates.
"Talk radio is very competitive; he's trying to get his listening audience over 20 [people]," Hagan quipped.
skolnick@vindy.com