The politcis of personal attack and character assination have been widespread this year in the primary election campaign for the position of Mahoning County Prosecutor. Charges of bias and racism have been used in order to attempt to gain re-election to the office.
      We have known the current Mahoning County Prosecutor for a long time, not personally, but largely from a distance. He is a genuinely free-wheeling, nice man, known to drive antique cars and a motorcyle, who worked his way up, first becoming a Youngstown police officer, where he also served as a union president; and while still an officer attending school and earning his law degree. From a law enforcement and legal perspective, the current prosecutor has seen it all; and experienced it all. He once escaped an almost certain death when a criminal broke into his home and shot him. Legend has it, one bullet, designed to put him away for good, jammed in the chamber, as the gunman fled.
      He stands out as an independent, who when the current Mahoning County Demcorat Chairman first assumed office, complained about the lack of party support, particularly financial, at a meeting of the South County Democrats.
      The prosecutor has long been rumored to keep his ‘notes’ on many people in the Mahoning Valley, somewhat reminiscent of the lists and notes former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once kept.
      It can’t go without notice, his tactics in his current run for re-election mirror many campaigns directed by a former Democrat chairman out of the ‘Bull Moose stable.’
      That suggests, like the stable, it smells!
      During the current campaign, and before, we have had the opportunity to meet the current Youngstown City Prosecutor, as well as his wife, also an attorney.
      Seemingly the campaign against this man has almost solely been based upon allegations of racism within the city prosecutor’s office. Indeed, a court record suggests there was racism displayed. A crude e-mail, some suggest nothing more than an exercise in free speech, has apparently led one Muslim attorney to gain a large settlement from the city of Youngstown. A city court clerk, a black woman, is now claimed to be playing her own race card, of course, seeking money.
      The television shows the Muslim attorney stills works for the city and its prosecutor. Forgotten in the issue is the fact it first raised its head under Youngstown’s former mayor, who, if the racism cards are being played, should be identified as a black man, and a pretty uplifting city mayor at that! He kept his city prosecutor.
      So that’s the big issue the current prosecutor has raised. Rumors abound that the current Youngstown mayor is considering firing his prosecutor, and even perjury charges are being considered.
      For the sake of kindness and priority, we offer the following:
      In brief conversions and meetings, the city prosecutor seems like a nice man, and a good, and knowledgeable lawyer too; despite the wild claims made against him. He has been more than forthcoming on any legal issues we have discussed with him. And his wife, is as sharp as a tack!
      Sometimes kindness and good words shine through the dark clouds of the storm.