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By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Dan Yemma can remove “interim” from his title of Mahoning County interim treasurer.
County Democratic precinct committee members voted overwhelmingly Monday in favor of having Yemma fill the unexpired treasurer term.
Yemma received 142 votes to 70 for Kenneth A. Carano, a former state legislator and former Mahoning Valley regional director for Gov. Ted Strickland.
Paul J. Canter, a certified public accountant, who repeatedly called himself a “political novice” in his speech to the committee members, received five votes.
“I think the people just realized that my qualification for the job were superior to the other candidates,” Yemma said.
Yemma served four years as chief deputy treasurer to Lisa Antonini.
She resigned from the job May 16 after being charged by the federal government with taking and failing to report a $3,000 cash contribution for her 2008 campaign. She pleaded guilty to the felony Friday.
Yemma will fill the remainder of Antonini’s term, which expires in September 2013. Yemma said he will run for a full four-year term in 2012.
Yemma angered Democratic Chairman David Betras when he filed a complaint Thursday with the Ohio secretary of state’s office over Betras’ decision to use hand-held electronic voting units rather than paper ballots. Betras found out about the complaint from a Vindicator reporter.
Yemma repeated his concerns before Monday’s meeting, saying the devices aren’t certified by the secretary of state’s office, and there is no paper trail. The secretary of state didn’t rule on his complaint before the meeting.
On Thursday, Betras said: “Once again, Dan Yemma is a cowboy doing it his way and not for the betterment of the party. I’m very upset. He’s trying to make press for himself because he feels like he’s going to lose this election.”
Also Thursday, Betras called Yemma the “worst public official in Mahoning County.”
Yemma angered Betras before the May Democratic primary by supporting a nonendorsed candidate in Struthers against a candidate endorsed by the party.
Because of that, Betras removed Yemma from the party’s executive committee.
But after Monday’s vote, the two agreed to work together.
“One thing we do as Democrats is fight,” Betras said after the results.
“I will support Dan Yemma as the incumbent. He has the full weight and support of the party, and he’ll be back on the executive committee I assure you.”
Yemma said of the voting dispute: “We had a big argument there. We had a big disagreement, but we’re all Democrats. We have to bury the hatchet and move forward. I’m willing to do that, and so is he. We’ve talked about it.”
Betras said Yemma’s huge win is not a sign from party precinct committee members that they’re dissatisfied with the job he’s doing as chairman.
“There is no one more shocked that [Yemma] won than him,” Betras said.
After the vote, Yemma said he was “surprised at the margin” of victory, “but I worked very hard” for the votes.
Even a letter of support from Strickland, still a very popular figure among Mahoning Democrats, didn’t sway enough precinct committee members to vote for Carano.
Carano is also the party’s executive vice chairman, parliamentarian and head of its elections committee.
“The surprise is the total vote,” said Carano, also a former state House representative and ex-Austintown Township trustee. “This is basically my last hurrah. I’ve enjoyed a nice long political career.”
Also Monday, Struthers precinct committee members voted 13-1 to appoint Carol Crytzer, a Democratic precinct committee member, over William J. Basista to Yemma’s unexpired term as Struthers council-at-large.
For Yemma to serve as interim treasurer, a position county commissioners appointed him to on May 23, he had to resign his Struthers council seat.