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‘Like a tornado,’ Dem chief Betras looks to cover a lot of ground fast
The new county chairman wants the party to endorse a U.S. Senate candidate in June.
YOUNGSTOWN — New Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras isn’t wasting any time implementing changes to the political party.
The party’s precinct committee members elected the Canfield attorney as its chairman Monday. A day later, he was working on several fronts to overhaul party operations.
By early Tuesday, Betras had telephoned Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern and Gov. Ted Strickland, the party’s top elected official in the state.
Talking at a breakneck speed, Betras jumped from point to point in a Tuesday interview with The Vindicator.
By Friday, or Monday at the latest, Betras said he wants to:
USchedule meetings with Redfern and Strickland.
USend letters to every Democratic official elected in a partisan race as well as party leaders, inviting them to join the party’s executive committee.
UEstablish a meeting time for an executive committee meeting.
“I’m moving fast,” Betras said. “I’m like a tornado.”
Betras, who acknowledges he sometimes has a “larger-than-life personality,” replaced county Treasurer Lisa Antonini, a relatively quiet person in public.
Antonini resigned April 10 as party chairwoman after nearly seven years on the job.
“My enthusiasm and energy level strikes people sometimes as being standoffish and arrogant,” Betras said. “Once you get to know me, you see that’s not me.”
When asked about Betras’ personality, state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, who supports the new chairman, said he can be “flamboyant, sometimes obnoxious, sometimes funny — all good personality traits for someone to control a bunch of egotistical politicians.”
Hagan said Betras will have a positive impact on the party and raise its profile locally and on the state level.
Betras said he has big plans for the party.
He wants to unify the local party. He called the party fractured with “warring factions.”
The lack of unity is what led to poor turnout for President Barack Obama in Mahoning County in the November 2008 election. Obama received about 60 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic county.
“We can’t underperform like that again,” Betras said. “Uniting the party won’t happen overnight, and there will be distractions, but we’ll make it work.”
County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti of Poland, a Betras supporter and precinct committeeman, said he’s pleased to hear the new chairman say he’ll “cut out the backstabbing and unite the party. There are different fractions that need to be united.”
The county party brought back endorsements in 2006 after about a decade without them. But the endorsements were used in only two races: attorney general and governor in 2006.
Betras doesn’t want to waste any time with endorsements and plans to have the party vote to support a 2010 U.S. Senate candidate in June.
The two leading Democratic candidates for that seat are Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
The party will endorse in county and statewide elections in 2010, he said.
Betras said he also wants to create a finance committee that would create a five-year financial plan, increase the party’s base of contributors and solicit more contributions.
He also plans to move the party headquarters from 103 E. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown.
The new headquarters will remain in the city’s downtown, but to a location with more space for meetings, phone banks and computers, Betras said.
Also, the party will update its Web site as well as use Internet social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, he said.
skolnick@vindy.com