Walter should practice what he preaches

Randy Walter preaches restoring pride and integrity in the Mahoning Valley, and is outspoken when it comes to political corruption.
Even television commercials for RDW Co., a real estate development company he owns, focus on restoring pride to this area.
So it's rather interesting that some people who circulated nominating petitions to get Walter on the ballot as an independent candidate for the 17th Congressional District seat are being investigated for election falsification.
Two Walter petition circulators "incriminated themselves," according to Craig Bonar, a Trumbull County Board of Elections member. One admitted to not soliciting signatures even though that person signed a petition as circulator. Another admitted to falsifying signatures.
Also, two RDW officials who circulated petitions for Walter recently declined to answer questions from the elections board about irregularities with the documents they circulated for the candidate.
Those close to the investigation say two others who circulated petitions for Walter -- including his mother-in-law, Grace Hreno -- have admitted to not circulating petitions.
Despite the dark cloud hanging over Walter's candidacy, the Trumbull elections board is expected to certify him as a congressional candidate when it meets July 11.
Walter of Canfield hasn't been implicated in the election falsification investigation. But shouldn't someone practice what they preach?
If Walter is all about integrity and restoring pride in the Valley and strongly opposes political corruption, shouldn't he withdraw from the race?
Walter ran in 2000 as an independent candidate in the 17th District primarily because he objected to the questionable ethics of then-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., a Poland Democrat.
Walter was dead-on with his assessment of Traficant, a federal prisoner since 2002 convicted of bribery, extortion and tax evasion. But that didn't help Walter in the 2000 campaign as he spent about $350,000 of his own money to finish in third place.
With Traficant on trial at the time, Walter filed nominating petitions in 2002 to run in the Democratic primary for the seat. Walter withdrew as a candidate saying there were others with strong political ethics in the primary, and a crowded field could adversely impact the race.
Among those omitted from Walter's list of candidates in that race with strong political ethics was Tim Ryan of Niles, a state senator at the time. Ryan won the 2002 Democratic primary and then the general election and is seeking his third term in the U.S. House in November.
Articles in The Vindicator leading up to the 2002 primary detailed how Ryan had violated federal elections law by having his former high school basketball coach co-sign a $50,000 loan for his campaign.
The federal government works at its own pace and it wasn't until December 2004 that the Federal Election Commission had Ryan pay a $10,000 fine for the elections violation.
In 2004, Walter submitted nominating petitions as an independent to challenge Ryan. Walter needed 1,844 valid signatures to be on the ballot as an independent. He submitted petitions with 1,943 signatures, but about 38 percent were ruled invalid, and Walter failed to make the ballot.
Walter said he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. He still needs 1,844 valid signatures this time around, and submitted petitions with 3,469 signatures.
Walter made sure he had enough signatures. What he failed to do was make sure they were legitimate signatures and that his circulators followed elections laws.
As of Thursday afternoon, 1,132 names were disqualified leaving Walter with 2,328 signatures. That number could decrease as the investigation continues. Some of the disqualified signatures were for wrong addresses, wrong counties, printed names and people who aren't registered voters.
Others were tossed because the signatures were forged.
The chance that Walter would beat Ryan in the general election is slim. [Republican Don Manning of Cortland is also on the ballot and even Bonar says he doesn't think it's possible for Ryan to lose this year.]
If Walter is sincere about his fight against political corruption, he should seriously rethink his decision to run.