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Election board rejects protest
The challenger said the prosecutor’s protest was sad.
YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains failed to convince the board of elections that his opponent is a Democrat disguising himself as an independent candidate to challenge him in the November election.
Gains, a Boardman Democrat, said he’s considering taking this matter to a higher authority — the Ohio Supreme Court — but hasn’t made a final decision.
The board unanimously rejected Gains’ argument Monday and certified Atty. Marty Yavorcik, of Boardman, as a prosecutor candidate.
Gains filed a protest May 1 against Yavorcik, who is running as an independent.
Gains’ attorney, Alan Kretzer, contends Yavorcik is actually a Democrat and is committing election fraud.
Yavorcik disagreed, saying he didn’t commit fraud and followed the rules to be an independent.
Kretzer’s questioning, which lasted nearly an hour, included items on Yavorcik’s MySpace.com page such as his television viewing habits and his heroes.
He compared the answers on that page with one named “Yavorcik for Prosecutor,” that the candidate said was designed by a Youngstown State University student who supports him.
Member Clarence Smith, chairman of the county Republican Party, was particularly perturbed by Kretzer. At one point, he asked Kretzer: “What game are you playing?”
Kretzer shot back that he resented that accusation and he was asking questions to challenge Yavorcik’s credibility.
After the hearing, Yavorcik said: “It was sad that the chief law enforcement officer has pulled Web pages rather than [addressing] crime in Mahoning County.”
Kretzer pointed out that the Yavorcik for Prosecutor page describes the candidate as an “Independent Democrat.”
That’s “a violation of election law,” Kretzer said. “... It is misleading and fraudulent.”
The Ohio secretary of state’s office issued an opinion last year, based on a federal case, that if a candidate serves on an executive committee of a political party 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primary after filing as an independent, that person’s “claim of independence was either not made in good faith or is no longer current.”
Yavorcik sent a Feb. 23 letter 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, Yavorcik signed his official statement of candidacy as an independent for prosecutor.
Yavorcik’s term as an executive committee member expired in 2006. After the hearing, Yavorcik said he wasn’t sure if he was a member when he wrote the letter.
Elections board officials say the only important date was March 3, the independent filing deadline.
Yavorcik wasn’t an executive committee member when he filed his petitions. He also didn’t vote in the March 4 primary.
Meanwhile, the board received appeals from two independent candidates it disqualified last week:
UDennis S. Spisak, of Struthers, who was running for the Ohio House 60th District seat, and
UHoward Faison, of Youngstown, among three independent candidates disqualified last week. The two other would-be sheriff candidates haven’t filed appeals.
Spisak wasn’t certified as a candidate because he failed to write “state representative” on six of his 30 nominating petitions. Without the signatures on those six petitions, Spisak doesn’t have enough valid signatures to be a candidate.
Faison, retired as a captain May 1, 2003, on a disability, was disqualified because he didn’t receive required state peace officer training since he left the county sheriff’s office.
Faison cited state law that reads: “A disability benefit recipient shall retain membership status and shall be considered on leave of absence from employment during the first five years following the effective date” of his retirement.
The board will consider both appeals sometime next month.
skolnick@vindy.com