Former YSU leader runs for office

By Harold Gwin

Cochran is running for a Lee County, Fla., Commission seat.

YOUNGSTOWN — Leslie H. Cochran, president of Youngstown State University from 1992 to 2000, is venturing into the world of politics in Lee County, Fla.

Cochran, 69, and his wife, Lin, have been residents of Fort Myers for more than four years. He said Thursday that he has entered the race for a Lee County Commission seat in District 3. He is a Republican, but will run as an independent in the November election.

“I am simply fed up and taxed off,” he said in a campaign statement announcing his candidacy.

Property tax values in Lee County have risen by 244 percent over the last eight years, but the county commissioners have failed to balance spending against possible tax cuts, Cochran said.

Taxes have tripled on some properties, and the commissioners have been able to amass a $1.3 billion budgetary reserve, with $300 million of that undesignated, he added, estimating that property taxes could be cut by 35 percent.

Cochran, who retired from YSU and moved to North Carolina before relocating to Florida, said he has gotten involved in the Lee County tax-and-spend issue over the last several years and has found a lot of encouragement for his candidacy.

He’s vice chairman of the Lee County Local Planning Agency and has been a member of that body for two years.

Up until now, his complaints about local government spending and taxes have been limited to letters to the editor and op-ed pieces he’s written for the local newspaper.

It was a lesson his mother taught him at an early age that prompted him to run for office, he said, recalling that she told him that he can’t complain about something unless he was willing to do something about it.

There are already two Republicans (but no Democrats) in the August primary race for the District 3 seat. Incumbent Ray Judah is being challenged by Anita Cereceda, a Fort Myers Beach businesswoman.

Cochran said he chose to run with no party affiliation, which allows him to bypass the primary and run directly in the general election.

gwin@vindy.com