Youngstown councilwoman to run for the Ohio House

By David Skolnick | November 9, 2013 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown Councilwoman Janet Tarpley says she will file nominating petitions Tuesday for the 58th Ohio House District seat.

Tarpley, D-6th, first told The Vindicator in February that should would run for the seat in the 2014 Democratic primary. At the time, she said she also had given strong consideration to running for Youngstown mayor.

Tarpley, first elected to represent the 6th Ward on the city’s South Side in 2007, must leave city council at the end of 2015 because of Youngstown’s term-limits law.

The House seat is open in next year’s election because state Rep. Robert F. Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown, cannot seek another term because of Ohio’s term-limits law.

Hagan’s wife, Michele Lepore-Hagan, director of Youngstown State University’s Performing Arts Series, filed nominating petitions Thursday with the Mahoning County Board of Elections for the state House seat.

The filing deadline for the May primary is Feb. 5, 2014.

Other potential candidates for the 2014 Democratic primary for this post include Youngstown Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th; Rachel Hanni, a Youngstown school board member; Michael E. O’Hara of Youngstown, and Cynthia McWilson of Youngstown.

The district, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, includes all of Youngstown, Struthers, Campbell, Lowellville and Coitsville as well as 36 of Austintown’s 40 precincts.