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Righetti ousts Ludt as county commissioner
By Peter H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County’s voters ousted the 12-year incumbent county commissioner, David N. Ludt, and re-elected the five-year incumbent county auditor, Michael V. Sciortino, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Ludt, of Poland, a three-term county commissioner, was successfully challenged by Carol Rimedio-Righetti, who is in her second term as Youngstown’s 4th Ward city councilwoman.
The margin of victory for Rimedio-Righetti was 56 to 44 percent. For Sciortino, it was 63 to 37 percent.
“Thank you. God bless you, and we’re not done. The fight is not over,” Rimedio-Righetti told her supporters, referring to the November election.
When Rimedio-Righetti declared her victory shortly before 10 p.m. at Democratic Party headquarters in Mahoning Plaza, Atty. David Betras, party chairman, led the crowd at party headquarters in chanting “Carol! Carol! Carol!”
“I attribute my victory to people in the valley wanting a change in government, a change in leadership,” she said. Her goal, if she wins in November, will be “to relieve all the gridlock” in county government and “bring everybody to the table together so that we can create a plan together that will help Mahoning County move into the 21st century.”
“I think it was anti-incumbent, and I think this is happening nationwide,” Ludt said of his defeat. “Special interests had a lot to do with this,” he said, declining to elaborate.
“I’m proud of my record and all the infrastructure we’ve done in the last 12 years. My record speaks for itself,” Ludt said. “I wish Carol well.”
In his election campaign, Ludt listed his priorities as completion of Oakhill Renaissance Place as a one-stop shop for government services, renewal of the sales tax, keeping the county jail functioning and obtaining more federal and state funds.
Rimedio-Righetti, who received the Democratic Party endorsement, said her priorities would be establishing a comprehensive five-year economic development plan and of a county grant-application writing department and offering retirement incentives to county employees.
In the auditor’s race, Sciortino, of Austintown, who became auditor in 2005 and received the Democratic Party endorsement for re-election this year, was challenged by Andrew D’Apolito, of Canfield, who retired last year as superintendent of operations at the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department.
Dr. William Binning, professor emeritus of political science at Youngstown State University, attributed Sciortino’s victory to his advantage of incumbency, his having been endorsed by the Democratic Party, and a minimal campaign run by D’Apolito.
“I’m very happy that every endorsed Democrat from the Mahoning County Democratic Party won,” Betras said.
Sciortino continues to work under a cloud of an extended grand jury investigating potential conflicts of interest concerning the dispute over the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.
Sciortino refused to issue the $75,000 check for the purchase of Oakhill until a judge ordered him to do so at the end of a trial, in which the Cafaro Co., former landlord of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, unsuccessfully tried to rescind the county’s purchase of Oakhill.
JFS moved to Oakhill from Cafaro’s Garland Plaza on the city’s East Side. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
In June 2007, D’Apolito was suspended three days without pay, stripped of his personnel management responsibilities and reassigned from headquarters to a sewage treatment plant office, where he spent the final two years of his 36-year career with the sanitary engineer’s department.
Backed by a resolution from the county commissioners, Sanitary Engineer Joseph V. Warino suspended D’Apolito for failing to document absences, willful disregard of county policies and “threatening, intimidating, coercing or interfering with” another employee.
This was the only disciplinary action against D’Apolito during his sanitary engineering department career.