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A political bloodbath this year? Hardly
In the heat of last summer’s battle between Cafaro Co. executives and some Mahoning County government officials, led by Commissioner Anthony Traficanti, over the relocation of the Jobs and Family Services Agency, there was talk of revenge being exacted in this year’s election.
Turns out it was just that — talk.
When the list of candidates for local offices was made public on Jan. 4, it became clear that neither side in the vitriolic legal fight over the county’s plan to move the JFS from the Cafaro-owned McGuffey Mall to the former Southside Medical Center had the stomach for a bloodbath.
How disappointing.
At the very least, Anthony Cafaro, chief executive officer of one of the nation’s largest shopping center development companies and one of the most influential businessmen in the region, should have found a challenger of substance to go after Traficanti.
And, the commissioner, along with his colleague, David Ludt, could have at least made the third commissioner, John McNally, sweat with a challenger with name recognition and political experience.
Instead, Traficanti, who is seeking a third term, faces Eric Ungaro in the March Democratic primary. The winner will confront Republican Christopher J. McCarty.
Ungaro, son of former Youngstown mayor and now Liberty Township Administrator Patrick J. Ungaro, has never held public office. Whether he benefits from his father’s reputation remains to be seen. Eric Ungaro ran unsuccessfully for Youngstown council.
Traficanti led the charge to relocate the JFS agency and made it publicly clear on numerous occasions that neither the financial nor the political power of the Cafaro family would intimidate him.
In end, he and Ludt succeeded in yanking JFS out of its moldy McGuffey Mall location and setting it up in what is now Oakhill Renaissance Place.
McNally, who refused to go along with his colleagues and was shown in court documents to have had numerous dealings with Cafaro Co. officials in the midst of the court proceedings, faces Mary Roby Lyden in the Democratic primary.
Lyden is a political unknown.
But all is not lost.
Treasurer Antonini
County Treasurer Lisa Antonini, who was appointed to the position by the party precinct committeemen and women when John Reardon left to join state government, is being challenged by Atty. John Shultz.
During the JFS battle, Antonini, chairwoman of the Democratic Party, was also shown to have had many contacts with Anthony Cafaro.
Shultz is making that an issue, suggesting that as treasurer her allegiance should have been to the county, rather than to a prominent businessman.
Antonini denies she is in the pocket of the Cafaros and insists she’s only interested in what’s right for the community.
Shultz’s candidacy is intriguing in that he was for many years a law associate of former Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman Don L. Hanni Jr., whose close ties to the Cafaro family go back decades.
Prosecutor Gains
Indeed, Hanni’s daughter, Heidi, is challenging Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains, who handled the county’s case against the Cafaros.
While Heidi Hanni has run unsuccessfully for a state representative seat, she can be expected to go after Gains with a vengeance.
It is noteworthy that her brother, Mark, also a lawyer, has been involved in politics for a long time and has battled the Democratic Party leadership ever since his father was ousted by a grassroots political movement led by Michael Morley.
Heidi Hanni has an uphill battle against Gains, who still generates sympathy from the public because of his being the target of a Mafia contract hit in 1996. But the challenger isn’t likely to pull any punches.
When Hanni ran for state legislative office, she was asked about the negatives associated with the Hanni name. She said at the time that she had nothing to do with what Mark and her other brothers were involved in and offered this observation: Her brothers are proof that the Hanni gene pool has been weakened.