Financial consultant to challenge Gerberry

This would be the Boardman resident’s first political bid.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

BOARDMAN — A Boardman financial consultant announced he will run as the Republican candidate for the Ohio House seat currently held by Democrat Ronald Gerberry.

This will be the first political bid for Dick McCarthy, who works for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense in Ohio.

A 2006 Georgetown University graduate, McCarthy said he’s running for the House seat “because the Mahoning Valley is at a turning point and we’re moving in the right direction.” McCarthy, 24, said he can help get the area moving forward quicker than Gerberry.

“Ron Gerberry has done nothing in office,” McCarthy said. “He’s done more harm than good.”

When asked to explain, McCarthy said Gerberry was the House Education Committee chairman when the state’s educational system was determined to be unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.

But, as Gerberry accurately points out, his last year as the committee’s chairman was 1994, the same year Republicans took over the House. The court found the system to be unconstitutional in 1997 with Republicans in charge and Gerberry as the ranking Democrat on the committee.

“If he’s going to talk about my record, he should know it,” Gerberry said. “... I don’t want to mud-sling. I’ll run on my record of public service.”

Gerberry, of Austintown, 54, also said during his 19 years in the House, he sponsored 32 bills that became law.

Gerberry resigned as Mahoning County recorder after being appointed to the House position May 1. He left the House at the end of 2000 because of the state’s term-limits law.

The filing deadline for the March 4, 2008, primary for Ohio House seats is Jan. 4. No other Republican is expected to file for the seat, said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican vice chairman.

The district includes Berlin, Boardman, Canfield, Craig Beach, Ellsworth, Jackson, Milton, Poland and most of Austintown.

skolnick@vindy.com