Gains wants challenger off ballot

By David Skolnick

The Ohio Democratic Party is supporting the prosecutor.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to remove Martin Yavorcik, his challenger in the November general election, from the ballot.

Gains, a Boardman Democrat, is receiving support for his effort from the Ohio Democratic Party.

In a letter to Gains, Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern wrote the party will file legal papers with the Supreme Court supporting the prosecutor’s case.

After the county board of elections rejected Gains’ complaint on May 12 to not certify the candidacy of Yavorcik, the prosecutor was undecided as to whether he should take the case to the state’s highest court.

“It took a lot of thought and consideration,” Gains said. The support of the state party “certainly was part of the decision” to file.

Gains asserts Yavorcik, of Boardman, is a Democrat attempting to disguise himself as an independent candidate to challenge him in the November election rather than the March primary.

Yavorcik is a registered Democrat who sent a letter Feb. 23 to county Democratic Chairwoman Lisa Antonini resigning as a member of the party’s executive committee and “disaffiliating myself from the Democratic Party.” A day earlier, he signed his official statement of candidacy as an independent for prosecutor.

It turns out Yavorcik hasn’t been a Democratic executive committee member since 2006.

Gains called Yavorcik’s “disaffiliation” a “sham.”

The Ohio Secretary of State’s office issued an opinion last year, based on a federal case, on independent candidates.

If a candidate serves on a political party’s executive committee or votes in a partisan primary after filing as an independent, that person’s “claim of independence was either not made in good faith or is no longer current.”

The elections board determined that Yavorcik was an independent because he wasn’t an executive committee member and didn’t vote in a partisan party primary on March 4, the day after he filed petitions to run for prosecutor.

“It is unfortunate that [Gains] is doing everything possible to avoid being held accountable by the voters, the very people he has sworn to protect and serve, for his actions,” Yavorcik said.

Yavorcik also said he’s confident the court will reject Gains’ “desperate attempt to thwart the democratic process.”

Gains contends his opponent was a Democrat when he signed his official statement of candidacy as an independent Feb. 22. Also, Yavorcik describes himself as an “independent Democrat” on his MySpace.com page.

skolnick@vindy.com