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2 more seek party chairmanship
There are now four candidates for chairman.
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown Council President Charles Sammarone and ex-New Middletown Mayor Mike Klim are interested in being the next Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman.
County Democratic precinct committee members will meet at 6:30 p.m. April 27 to elect a chairman.
Sammarone has a lengthy political r sum .
He served six years as Youngstown’s 5th Ward councilman immediately followed by 12 years as council president, a position he left in 2002 to serve as water commissioner under then-Mayor George M. McKelvey.
Sammarone was then elected council president in 2005 and is running for re-election this year.
“I’ve always had an interest over the years in being chairman,” Sammarone said. “I believe I can be helpful to the party as chairman.”
Currently a financial consultant, Klim also served on New Middletown Village council.
Klim, of Poland, is vice president of the South County Democrats, a local political club, and is the group’s past president.
In 2005, Klim unsuccessfully ran for the county auditor position vacated by George Tablack, who is now the county administrator.
“I want to see this county get back on track,” said Klim, adding that as chairman he would bring elected officials together to work for the greater good.
County Treasurer Lisa Antonini resigned April 10 as party chairwoman after nearly seven years at that post.
Those wanting to run for chairman — as well as the vacant position of party treasurer — have until 6 p.m. Tuesday to submit a letter of intent, dated and signed, to acting chairman Kenneth Carano.
Also, each candidate must provide the signatures and addresses of at least five precinct committee members on the letter of intent, a formal petition available from Carano, or a piece of paper by 6 p.m. April 25.
Jaladah Aslam, the party’s vice chairwoman of labor relations, has already turned in her letter of intent, Carano said. She hasn’t provided the committee member signatures yet.
Atty. David Betras also is running for the seat.
Betras has created a Web site — teambetras.com — that includes a seven-page plan for the party’s future. The plan already has been mailed to the party’s precinct committee members.
Featured prominently on his plan and Betras’ Web site is a picture of Dorothy McLaughlin taken in May 2008.
The photo was taken after McLaughlin, a precinct committee member supporting Betras, cast the lone no vote among the state Democratic Party’s executive committee members against symbolically kicking then-Attorney General Marc Dann out of the party.
Dann resigned a short time later. Investigations of the AG’s office under Dann’s watch cited numerous examples of unprofessional behavior by Dann and members of his administration.
Betras, a longtime friend of Dann’s and his former law partner, was heavily involved in Dann’s successful 2006 attorney general campaign and served as treasurer of Dann’s transition organization that came under scrutiny by the Ohio inspector general’s office.
skolnick@vindy.com