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Former congressman and state lawmaker Boccieri is favored in battle for Gerberry’s House seat
On the side
There’s a new political group in Mahoning County with formation of the 224 Corridor Democratic Club.
The group primarily focuses on Democrats in Boardman, Canfield and Poland – the largest townships in the county along U.S. Route 224 – but is open to anyone.
“We want to mobilize voters in Boardman, Poland, Canfield, Berlin Center and out to the Portage County line,” said AJ Caraballo, the club’s interim president. “We’re trying to tap into the heart of the county along the 224 corridor. But we’re also branching and may endorse in the Austintown trustee race.”
The group will meet at 6 p.m. Sept. 8 at Los Gallos Banquet Hall, 685 Boardman Canfield Road in Boardman.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper will be the guest speaker. The club will elect officers at a meeting in October.
Who will replace Democrat Ronald V. Gerberry as the 59th Ohio House District representative is becoming more clear with one of the leading candidates committed to seeking the appointment and another frontrunner out of the race.
The Ohio House Democratic Caucus will make that decision so the conversation on Gerberry’s successor is solely focused on Democrats.
Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he is not going to seek the seat while John Boccieri – a former congressman, state representative and state senator – says he definitely wants the appointment.
“I would have won the position with no problem,” Traficanti said. “But I feel I could best serve the community if I stayed a commissioner. Mahoning County needs stability, and it’s best for me to stay where I’m at. I’d go down [to the Ohio House] and be in the minority. I don’t know how effective I’d be in the minority.”
Republicans control the state House 64-33 with two vacancies.
Traficanti of Poland said he’ll run next year for his fourth four-year term as commissioner.
Traficanti, who used to work for years for James A. Traficant Jr. when he was a congressman, has also publicly considered running for the U.S. House a couple of times.
While Traficanti is out, Boccieri of Poland said, “I intend to seek the appointment. I’d be honored to serve as a state rep. The opportunity has come up and I plan to seek” the appointment.
Based on his years of elected experience in the General Assembly and the U.S. House, that he’s served with some of the current House Democrats, and has a history of raising a lot of money, Boccieri is a heavy favorite to get the appointment.
There are a number of other Democrats interested in the seat.
They include: John Landers, a Boardman school board member; Poland Trustee Robert Lidle; Austintown Trustee Jim Davis; former Boardman Trustee Robyn Gallitto; David Green, former head of United Auto Workers Local 1714; and Tom Lyden, an attorney.
The Mahoning County Democratic Party will meet, likely after Labor Day, to recommend three candidates to the caucus, said David Betras, its chairman. The caucus wants to start on Sept. 14 interviewing the candidates to replace Gerberry in the 59th Ohio House District seat. The caucus will have a screening committee that will meet with the finalists and make a recommendation to the caucus for a vote on Gerberry’s successor. The goal is to have someone in place by Oct. 1.
The vacancy is the result of the resignation last week of Gerberry, an Austintown Democrat found guilty of unlawful compensation of a public official. Gerberry admitted he hid campaign money from the caucus by giving it to a vendor to make it appear he spent money from his political campaign and then had it returned. By doing so, he didn’t have to pay as much money to the caucus, which uses those funds to help Democrats get elected to the House.
Gerberry, who was the most-senior House member before his resignation, amazingly said after his sentencing: “I was not aware this was an improper transaction.”
Before he was sentenced, Gerberry’s wife, Kathryn, handed me a three-page list titled “Gerberry laws enacted,” and it included bills he sponsored that were enacted into law.
I recognized it as essentially the same list given to me in 2002 when Gerberry – who was Mahoning County recorder at the time after being term-limited out of the state House – was looking to run for state Senate. That Senate seat was potentially going to be open as then-incumbent Robert F. Hagan was considering a congressional run. Hagan opted not to run for the U.S. House and was re-elected to the state Senate that year.
The only difference between the 2002 list, with 32 of his bills signed into law, and the one given to me last week that included Gerberry’s bills for his recent eight-year stint in the state House, isn’t much.
Between 2007 and 2015, Gerberry-sponsored bills enacted into law, according to the list, were:
Naming state Route 680 in Mahoning County the “Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway.”
Revising township authority to remove certain nuisances.
Allowing horse-racing tracks to have video slot machines. [He co-sponsored that bill with then-House Speaker Pro Tempore Louis Blessing Jr., a Cincinnati Republican.]
Revised various provisions of the Ohio Revised Code for county recorders.