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A 16-year Youngstown school board member files as a write-in
and Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
After finishing his 16th year as a Youngstown Board of Education member at the end of December, Lock P. Beachum Sr. planned to retire.
He didn’t file as a candidate for re-election by the Aug. 7 deadline.
Five candidates, none of whom is an incumbent, filed for the three seats. Since then, one has been disqualified.
“I’m concerned” about the quality of the candidates who filed, said Beachum, who acknowledged he knows only one of them: Jackie Adair.
“Youngs-town is at a critical point, and I’ve been on the board for 16 years,” Beachum said. “The superintendent is going to need all the support he can get. I want to make sure he has the necessary people on the board to fulfill his obligations. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll lose the district and it will be taken over by the state.”
Running as a write-in, Beachum said, is “certainly a challenge. I’ll do what I can.”
Also, two candidates filed by Monday’s write-in deadline for Youngstown mayor.
One is Claudette Moore and the other is Cecil Monroe.
The latter withdrew as an independent candidate May 28 before the board could disqualify him.
Monroe was to be removed because he voted in the Democratic primary May 7, the day after he filed petitions to run as an independent. That’s an automatic disqualification under state election rules.
Because he withdrew before being disqualified, he is permitted to run as a write-in.
Monroe also tried to have the Mahoning County Board of Elections dis- qualify retired Police Chief Jimmy Hughes and DeMaine Kitchen, the mayor’s chief of staff/ secretary, as Youngstown mayoral candidates contending the two — who filed as independents — were actually Democrats. The board denied Monroe’s requests after having hearings.
In Trumbull County, Liberty and McDonald won’t have any printed names on the ballot for open seats on their boards of education, but they will have plenty of write-in candidates available for those slots.
Three people filed by the deadline to run for three open seats on the Liberty Board of Education — Carmen P. Faustino, Calvin L. Jones and Gloria H. Lang.
James W. Jones Jr. filed petitions and would have had his name on the ballot, but the Trumbull elections board ruled his candidacy invalid for having too few valid signatures on his petitions. He’s not eligible to run as a write-in.
In the race for the McDonald Board of Education, voters will have five write-in choices for two open seats — Brian D. Fisher, Valerie S. Helco, Robert L. Jones Jr., Joseph J. Krumpak Jr. and Regan L. Stitt.
David Wilson filed to run as a write-in candidate for the 3rd Ward of Newton Falls Village Council. Caleb A. Roth filed as a write-in for Warren Township trustee, and Tyler Wolfe filed to be a write-in for the Maplewood Board of Education.