Tuesday, December 15, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
With a Wednesday filing deadline, few incumbents seeking re-election in 2016 in the Mahoning Valley are facing primary challengers.
As of Monday, primary election challengers turned in petitions to run against state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of the 59th Ohio House District, Mahoning County Recorder Noralynn Palermo and Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere. All are Democrats.
Altiere has two challengers – Joe O’Grady, a retired Warren police sergeant, and Howland Police Chief Paul Monroe. The two announced their campaigns after Altiere said in August 2014 that he wouldn’t run for a seventh term in 2016. Altiere said in December 2014 that he would seek another four-year term, but O’Grady and Monroe opted to stay in the race and have filed.
Palermo will face Jim Bertrando, the Struthers tax commissioner, in the Democratic primary.
Lepore-Hagan is being challenged by Michael O’Hara, who finished a distant third to Lepore-Hagan in 2014’s four-candidate Democratic primary for the then-open Ohio House seat.
Also, two U.S. House members who represent the Valley – Reps. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, and David Joyce of Russell, R-14th – will face familiar foes in their party’s March 15 primary.
John Stephen Luchansky, who lost to Ryan by 70 percentage points in the 2014 Democratic primary, filed to run next year. As of Monday, Ryan hadn’t filed, but he will do so before the 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline.
Ex-state Rep. Matt Lynch, who lost by 10 percentage points in last year’s Republican primary to Joyce, filed for a 2016 rematch. Also, retired Judge Alfred Mackey of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court has filed as a Democrat in the 14th District.
Numerous candidates wait until the last day to file, but local election officials say they expect only a few – if any – primary challengers to submit nominating petitions to face incumbents.
In Trumbull County, there will be a Democratic primary for the open 63rd Ohio House District seat. Hubbard Councilman Ben Kyle filed Monday, and McDonald Mayor Glenn Holmes has announced his candidacy.
The 32nd Ohio Senate District seat will be open in this election with Kristen F. Rock, an attorney, already filing. State Rep. Sean O’Brien, D-63rd, and ex-state Rep. Tom Letson, D-64th, say they’re running.
The retirements of Trumbull County Recorder Diana Marchese, a Democrat, and Columbiana County Coroner William A. Graham Jr., a Republican, resulted in candidates’ seeking those positions.
Gwen Logan has filed to succeed Marchese, and Tod Latell plans to turn in petitions. Both are Democrats.
Albert W. Buch and George Scott Wilson have filed in the Republican primary for Graham’s seat.
In Mahoning County, a strong Democratic stronghold, county Republican Party Chairman Mark Munroe said the party will field candidates in the two state representative races as well as those for two county commissioner positions, coroner and recorder.
“I’m confident we’ll file an impressive slate of candidates on Wednesday,” said Munroe, who declined to name the candidates.
Republicans won’t challenge incumbent Democrats for prosecutor, engineer, clerk of courts, sheriff and the 7th District Court of Appeals.
Ralph T. Meacham became the first nonjudicial Republican to be elected to office in 30 years when he defeated incumbent county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, a Democrat under indictment in two counties, in 2014.
Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, appointed last year by the governor, is running as a Republican. She will face Democrat Anthony M. D’Apolito in the general election.
Judge Theresa Dellick of juvenile court, the only other incumbent Republican on the ticket in Mahoning County, will run unopposed in the primary and general elections.