43
A new candidate for Struthers mayor steps forward
STRUTHERS
Danny Thomas Jr., a former council president and 1st Ward councilman, says he’s going to run for Struthers mayor, and that likely means another potential candidate won’t.
Thomas, who also spent about four years as administrative assistant to then Mayor Daniel Mamula, said he had rejected recent requests from city residents asking him to seek the mayoral position in the Democratic primary.
But after a Jan. 16 column in The Vindicator about the criminal backgrounds of Ronald A. Carcelli, who turned in nominating petitions to get on the ballot, and Tony Cabuno, considering a mayoral run, Thomas said Monday he changed his mind.
“After that column, it got crazy with people saying, ‘You need to run,’” he said. “The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it.”
With Thomas in the race, Cabuno said Monday he is 90 percent sure he won’t enter the race.
“I had asked Danny Thomas and others if they were running, and they told me no,” Cabuno said. “No one else had stepped up,” so I was going to run for mayor.
Like Carcelli and Cabuno, Thomas has a criminal conviction in his past — and like Carcelli, his record was wiped clean.
Thomas was convicted in August 1987 by a federal judge of illegal use of a communication facility (a telephone) to distribute cocaine, a felony.
Thomas won the 1st Ward council race in November 1997. But he was removed in June 1, 1998, when the 7th District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, who argued that as a convicted felon, Thomas wasn’t permitted to serve in that elected office.
A day after the court of appeals decision, Judge Charles J. Bannon of county common pleas court sealed Thomas’ record, and on July 11, 1998, the five Struthers 1st Ward Democratic precinct committee members, one of which was Thomas, voted to have him fill the vacancy.
Gains still objected because the seal didn’t come from a federal judge for a federal crime, but the court of appeals didn’t rule on the issue again. Thomas received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton on Dec. 23, 1999, about a month after winning a second term on council.
Thomas was elected council president in 2001, beating nine-term incumbent Michael Orenic, and lost a 2003 re-election bid to Carcelli’s brother, Robert.
Thomas then went to work for Mamula until the latter lost the 2007 mayoral race to Terry Stocker, who isn’t running this year for re-election. Since then, Thomas has worked on numerous campaigns as a field director for various Democratic candidates and issues.
Ronald Carcelli was indicted in June 2002 on felony charges of theft in office, bribery and theft related to his time as the city’s street department foreman.
In 2005, he was found guilty of a misdemeanor count of unlawful interest in a public contract. He was ordered to pay $5,000 restitution to the city and a $1,000 fine. An indictment alleged Carcelli got about $5,000 in bribes and the city was improperly billed for about $8,000 for asphalt that wasn’t used.
In September 2012, Judge Lou D’Apolito sealed Carcelli’s record.
When asked the difference between his and Carcelli’s convictions, Thomas said, “Two differences: I never denied it; I did it. He stole from the city. He ripped the city off.”
Carcelli couldn’t be reached Monday by The Vindicator to comment.
Cabuno was convicted in August 2007 of a misdemeanor count of passing a bad check, reduced from a felony. Cabuno also has a couple of open cases filed by the Ohio Department of Taxation for failure to pay sales tax, and a number of foreclosures.
When asked why he considered seeking the mayoral seat, Cabuno said, “My main thing was Mr. Carcelli running for mayor.” But he added that Carcelli’s legal issue was something he didn’t “really care about. I think Struthers needs a leader, somebody younger.”
Feb. 4 is the filing deadline for the May primary.