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Tom Letson announces run for state senator to replace Capri Cafaro in 2016
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Less than a week after prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor housing-code charge against him, former state Rep. Thomas Letson announced Monday he will run in 2016 for state senator for the 32nd District.
Letson, a Democrat, says he hopes to replace Capri Cafaro of Liberty, who was elected to the seat two times and is not able to run again because of term limits.
Letson, of Warren, served eight years as state representative for the 64th District but was not able to run again last year because of term limits. Michael O’Brien, former Warren mayor, was elected to fill the seat.
Letson, an attorney, was facing a housing-code violation filed in 2013 relating to a sober house being operated out of a home he owns on Foster Street Northeast.
He was accused of violating the single-family zoning in effect for the house and neighborhood. But Greg Hicks, Warren law director, said prosecutors agreed to dismiss the case Wednesday after Letson registered the house with the city as a nonoccupant-owned dwelling.
He also agreed “not to violate any applicable laws or city ordinances pertaining to the residence,” according to Hicks and the motion the city filed with Judge Barbara Watson, a visiting judge from Ravenna handling the case. Judge Watson has not yet ruled on the motion.
Last year, Hicks said federal law allows recovering alcoholics to live in a sober house in a home zoned for single-family occupancy as long as the facility operates under a set of rules. At the time, however, the sober house had not given the city any indication it was operating under any written rules.
Hicks said the last thing left is for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine whether the facility is being operated there qualifies as a place for people with disabilities. If it does, it will be allowed to continue to operate, he said.
If it operates as a “party house,” as was alleged at the time the charges were filed, it can’t continue to operate, Hicks said.
Cafaro, who also served two years as state senator by appointment to replace Marc Dann, said Monday she has no plans to run for any elected position in 2016 but said she is committed to “serving the community in some way, shape or form.”
With her background in health care policy and social-services delivery, she believes she’ll find a position where she can continue to serve, she said.
Letson, meanwhile, said he has “learned how to get my constituents’ needs before the Legislature” during his time in the Ohio House.
“More of what I’ve introduced has become law than 90 percent of all other legislators during my tenure as a state representative,” he said.
“In a time where Democrats hold only 10 of 33 seats in the Senate, we know how important it is to be able to work well with other people with whom you serve,” he said.