2 newcomers vie for 58th House District seat held by Lepore-Hagan

YOUNGSTOWN — Two freshmen Ohio House members and a veteran legislator appointed to a vacancy last year are running in the general election to continue representing Mahoning and Columbiana counties in the state Legislature.

Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown won a four-person Democratic primary for the 58th Ohio House District seat, held for eight years by her husband Robert F. Hagan, and ran unopposed in the general election two years ago. He couldn’t run in 2014 because of the state’s term-limits law.

This time, Lepore-Hagan has two general election opponents: Republican Corrine Sanderson, a Youngstown school board member, and Andrea Mahone, an independent candidate who is a former Youngstown school board member and currently chief executive officer of her own employment agency and director of a prison ministry.

Sanderson and Mahone criticized Lepore-Hagan for a lack of accomplishments during her first term in the Ohio House, pointing out that none of the bills she sponsored were signed into law.

In response, Lepore-Hagan said she has successfully worked with the Republican majority to get things done. That includes an amendment that provides oversight over the state’s decision to close centers for the developmentally disabled, a $2 million tax exemption for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority that originated with a clerical error, and worked with the Mahoning Valley delegation to get about $24 million for the area from the state’s capital budget.

For the complete story, read Tuesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com