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Gains spent $92K in last 3 weeks before primary, reports show
YOUNGSTOWN
During the final three weeks leading to his 651-vote Democratic primary win, Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains spent $92,666.
Nearly all of the money was spent on buying commercial time and paying consulting fees to Rubenstein Associates of Liberty.
In the closest primary race last month in the Mahoning Valley, Gains raised $38,000 between Feb. 16 and March 6, the date of the primary, including lending $5,100 to his campaign shortly before the primary.
He also took $3,000 loans each from Linette Stratford and Nicholas Modarelli, two of his top assistants.
In comparison, Jay Macejko, his Democratic primary challenger, spent $47,773 between Feb. 16 and March 6. Most of the money went for advertising.
Macejko raised $18,477, including lending $378.50 to his campaign just before the primary, during the same time frame, according to post-primary reports filed with the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
After the primary loss, Macejko, endorsed by the county Democratic Party, saw his career spiral.
Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone fired Macejko as city prosecutor April 5, followed by two assistant city prosecutors also fired. The mayor cited poor management skills for getting rid of the three.
Also playing a factor in the firing of Macejko — and likely his close defeat — was a controversial text message he supposedly sent three years ago that was at the center of the prosecutor’s race.
Overall, Macejko raised $112,176 while Gains raised $128,351 for the primary. Gains doesn’t face a candidate in the November general election.
In the race to replace outgoing county Commissioner John McNally IV, Austintown Trustee David Ditzler, who won the six-man Democratic primary, raised $75,072, and as of April 16, had $26,200 in outstanding loans.
Walter Pishkur, who finished a distant second, raised $89,215 with $50,000 of it coming from a loan he gave his campaign.
Joe Louis Teague, who finished in third place, spent $39. Patrick Chrystal, who did no campaigning and finished fourth, never filed a campaign finance report.
Domenic DelMonte, who finished fifth, raised $3,633, and Richard Oz Ouzounian, who finished last, raised $7,996 with $5,975 of it coming from loans he gave the campaign.
Meanwhile, in Trumbull County, Thomas Altiere increased his spending in the final weeks of his campaign to retain his job as Trumbull County sheriff. He won the Democratic nomination in the March 6 primary over his former chief of detectives, Jim Phillips.
Altiere spent $13,767 between Feb. 16 and April 6, compared with $3,461 from Jan. 1 to Feb. 15. He spent $9,729 between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, according to campaign finance reports he filed with the Trumbull County Board of Elections.
Altiere reported paying $12,917 to Rubenstein Associates of Liberty in the last week of February. Altiere lent his campaign $4,151 on Feb. 28 and had $1,000 contributions from Eric Rebhan of Vienna and Ted Bloom of Warren. Altiere’s chief deputy, Don Guarino, provided in-kind contributions of $1,500.
Phillips spent $9,632 during the second half of 2011 and $37,341 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15. Phillips’ campaign is still making revisions to its post-primary report and hasn’t turned in final numbers yet, the board of elections said Tuesday.
Phillips lent his campaign $30,000 during the early months of this year.
Altiere has no opponent in November.
Contributor: Ed Runyan