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Crossing the aisle didn’t help Wilson
On the side
Out of the race: Lou Leonelli, an independent candidate for Youngstown City Council’s 5th Ward seat, has withdrawn from the race.
Leonelli of South Schenley Avenue was a long-shot to capture the position, and didn’t provide Mahoning County Board of Elections employees with a reason for quitting.
With Leonelli out of the race, there are two candidates left — incumbent Paul Drennen, a Democrat who lives on Normandy Drive, and Republican Plato Kalfas of Kiowa Drive.
Drennen won a six-man Democratic primary in May to the party’s nominee in the general election.
Paper ballots: The board of elections will meet at 8 a.m. Tuesday at its new location at Oakhill Renaissance Place to award a contract to a company to provide its paper ballots for the Nov. 8 general election.
After nine years of electronic touch-screen voting, the county is returning to a paper-ballot system beginning with the general election.
State Sen. Jason Wilson of Columbiana, D-30th, is known to cross the aisle and vote with the Republican majority in the Ohio Senate, probably more than any other Democrat.
He was the lone Democrat to vote Tuesday in favor of a bill that changes the process of judicial bypass for minors seeking abortions.
He was also the lone Democrat supporting a ban on late-term abortions in July.
He was the lone Democrat in June to cast a vote in favor of a resolution supporting the repeal of the federal health-care reform.
And yet the Republican-controlled Ohio Apportionment Board’s redistricting of state House and Senate seats would require Wilson to move from his home county of Columbiana if he wants to run to keep his position in next year’s election.
The board took his home county and put it with Mahoning County to create a new 33rd Senate District with the new boundaries taking effect in January 2013.
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, will be the senator for the new district under state law because he was the last person elected to the district.
I doubt Wilson would challenge Schiavoni. But even if he wanted to Wilson would have to wait until the 2014 election.
Wilson and his wife, who, along with their three children, moved to the village of Columbiana in July 2006 for personal and not political reasons.
Wilson’s current district includes all of four counties — including Columbiana — and portions of a fifth, Tuscarawas.
The new 30th District will include all of nine counties and a portion of Vinton County.
Wilson has lived in Belmont County, which is both the current and new 30th District, and works there at his family furniture store.
The 30th was drawn by Republicans for Wilson, if he’s willing to move. There are no current state senators living in the new 30th, and the district leans Democratic.
“I don’t have a for-sale sign in my yard,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to make any rash decisions.”
But Wilson needs to make a decision fast. He’d have to move to the new 30th by Nov. 6 because state law requires legislative candidates live in their district for at least one year before Election Day.
If Wilson doesn’t run for the state Senate, he could challenge state Rep. Craig Newbold of Columbiana, R-1st, next year.
Columbiana County will remain a one-county district though its number will change from 1st to 5th in January 2013.
If Wilson’s father, ex-U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, doesn’t run for the 6th Congressional District next year, Jason could seek that seat held by Bill Johnson of Marietta, a freshman Republican.
He could also just walk away from politics.
“I haven’t ruled out anything,” Wilson said.
Despite the redistricting, Wilson doesn’t blame anyone.
“It would be easy to be bitter or to point a finger,” he said. “But the dynamics of the population shifts caused the boundaries to move. It’s just the circumstances that happened.”
Those circumstances could come back to bite Republicans if Wilson decides to challenge a sitting GOP officeholder because of redistricting.