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18 Mahoning County Dems will lose committee seats for voting GOP
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Democratic Party will remove 18 of its precinct committee members for voting Republican in the last primary.
Because they voted Republican, the 18 “are no longer part of the Democratic Party” and will be kicked off the central committee shortly, said Chairman Dave Betras.
“It’s a pretty hefty number of” precinct committee members who switched, he said. “It’s a lot of people. They’re disqualified as committee members because they’re no longer part of the Democratic Party. To be a Democratic precinct committee person, you have to be a Democrat.”
The main reason for the Democratic defections, Betras said, was to vote for or against Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner.
Trump won Mahoning County by 13 percentage points but lost the state by 11 percentage points to Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Ohio is the only state Kasich has won in the Republican presidential election.
“It could be nothing else but the Trump factor,” Betras said. “Am I shocked Democrats voted for Donald Trump? No. I’ll be the first to admit the Donald Trump message resonates in the Mahoning Valley.”
There currently are 242 Democratic committee members, said Joyce Kale-Pesta, the party’s vice chairwoman and secretary.
The 18 being removed are equal to 7.4 percent of all Democratic precinct committee members in the heavily Democratic county.
During the March 15 primary, 6,171 registered Democrats cast Republican ballots. That was 15.1 percent of the 40,958 registered Democrats in the county before the primary.
The 18 Democratic precinct committee positions that soon will be vacant as well as 31 other empty committee spots will be filled in the coming weeks, Betras said.
“As a Democratic precinct committee person, you are the party’s representative in your neighborhood,” he said. “You’re a conduit of the Democratic Party. By registering as Republicans, they took themselves off the committee. We’re going to replace them with loyal Democrats who believe in the Democratic Party’s ideals.”
Democrats vote for precinct committee members every four years. If members resign or are removed or if no one seeks committee seats, the chairman appoints Democrats for those vacancies.
The main responsibilities for committee members are to elect party leadership, endorse candidates, vote for replacements if elected officeholders leave their positions, and be a point-person in their neighborhood for campaigning.
Attempts Thursday and Friday by The Vindicator to reach the 18 Democratic committee members who voted in the Republican primary to comment were unsuccessful.
The wife of Michael Malenic, a precinct committeeman in Youngstown’s 5th Ward, said her husband didn’t vote Republican, but her son with the same name did. Kale-Pesta, the director of the board of elections, said records show the older Malenic changed his party affiliation to Republican. A man who works for Russell Miklos, a committeeman in the city of Canfield who voted Republican, said Miklos wasn’t interested in commenting.