Dems pick candidates for Boccieri seat

Party leaders recommended David Engler, Robert Lidle and Daniel Yemma.

STAFF REPORT

AUSTINTOWN — The Mahoning County Democratic Party’s executive committee has chosen three candidates who want to succeed John Boccieri in the state Senate.

The three selected are ex-Mahoning County Commissioner David Engler; Struthers Councilman-at large Daniel R. Yemma; and Poland Trustee Robert Lidle, said Ken Carano, executive vice chairman of the party and elections committee chairman.

Carano said all eight who showed up to be interviewed Tuesday evening had great answers.

Engler, Yemma and Lidle will be interviewed by the four-member Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus’ leadership team. The candidate selected by those four will then be considered by the full 11-member caucus.

The person chosen will finish the final two years of Boccieri’s unexpired term in the 33rd District. He will resign later this month to serve in Congress.

Local candidates were interviewed at the AFSCME hall on Four Mile Run Road for about two hours.

Mahoning makes up most of the 33rd District, which also includes all of Carroll County and portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

The other county Democratic parties in the district have until Dec. 12 to submit up to three nominees for the job, which pays about $59,000 annually. The caucus’s four-person leadership team will meet with those recommended as early as Dec. 15.