43
Yavorcik to stay in prosecutor race
The prosecutor won’t pursue other legal attempts to get his opponent disqualified.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Ohio Supreme Court rejected Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains’ request to remove his opponent from the Nov. 4 ballot.
In a brief decision Thursday, the court dismissed Gains’ filing. The decision states Gains “has or had adequate remedy at law by way of an action for a prohibitory injunction.” That would have been through the county common pleas court.
“I’m disappointed the court didn’t address the merits” of the case, Gains said.
Gains, a Democrat from Boardman, said he wouldn’t pursue the matter further and looks forward to the campaign against Martin Yavorcik, his independent challenger.
“With the time constraints now, I don’t see how the courts would be able to rule in time,” he said.
Gains filed the legal action June 11 claiming Yavorcik is a Democrat attempting to disguise himself as an independent to challenge him in the November general election rather than the May primary.
“In this ruling, the Supreme Court struck a resounding blow for both democracy and accountability,” said Yavorcik of Boardman. “Mr. Gains’ suit was nothing more or less than a cynical and transparent attempt to avoid being held accountable by the voters.”
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.
But Yavorcik said he neither circulated petitions as a Democrat nor did anything that would make people believe he is a Democrat.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections ruled May 12 that Yavorcik was an independent based on Ohio secretary of state guidelines on the issue.
skolnick@vindy.com