The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Published Monday, Feb. 28, 2000

17TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Traficant faces serious challenge
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Trio of Dems take oncongressman
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REPUBLICANS HAVE ALBERTY, WILLIAMS TO CHOOSE FROM

By Erin Remai
Herald Staff Writer

Against a backdrop of presidential politics on Super Tuesday March 7, U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, Poland, D-17th District, is facing primary challenges from within his party and a pair of Republicans are competing for their party’s nomination.

The winners of each contest will face each other in November and for the first time in more than a decade, one of them might not be Traficant.

Christopher C. Doutt of Warren, Ohio state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown and Mahoning County Auditor George J. Tablack of Youngstown all appear alongside Traficant on the Democratic ticket and are giving the incumbent a run for his money.

Traficant, 58, has served as the 17th District U.S. Representative for 16 years. He previously served as Mahoning County Sheriff.

During his time in Congress, Traficant said he has funded every major road, bridge and building project, changed the Internal Revenue Service law, passed search and seizure laws and was selected as one of the top 50 legislators in the nation. During his term, he said the unemployment rate in the district has dropped from 22 percent to 5.7 percent.

Recently Traficant has faced criticism over his employment of Charles Onesti, an aide who pled guilty in an ongoing federal investigation into political corruption in Ohio.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office from the Northern District of Ohio issued three subpoenas to the General Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives for some of Traficant’s office phone, rent and payroll records.

Traficant, serving as his own attorney in the case, has said he has “nothing to hide” and has not done anything wrong.

Tablack, a C.P.A. who had worked for the former Yurchyk, Davis & Tablack Accounting Firm, Boardman, and also taught at Mount Union College, is Mahoning County’s elected auditor. Tablack said he chose to run for office in response to people leaving the valley, and his desire to change all of that.

“I’d like to provide tax credits to small businesses; and we need to help the senior citizens of this valley with better prescription and health care coverage,” Tablack said.

Hagan, 50, has served the 33rd Senate district, which covers Mahoning, Carroll and a small portion of Stark County, since 1997. Before he was elected to the Senate, Hagan served in the Ohio House of Representatives for 10 years. A graduate of Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Hagan worked for 15 years as a locomotive engineer for CSX Transportation, Inc.

“There are two reasons why I’m running,” Hagan said. “One, the time has come to replace the congressman. Second, it’s because it’s the right thing to do. Hagan, who has won the endorsement of the Ohio United Auto Workers and other unions over the incumbent Traficant, said he is going to work on economic development, protecting social security, finding a plan to lower the cost of prescription drugs and helping to educate children. “Those are the issues we should be talking about instead of corruption in government,” he said.

On the Republican ballot, Poland resident Paul H. Alberty faces Lyle Williams, Warren, who held the 17th District seat from 1979 to 1985.

Williams, 57, is the executive vice president of International Capital Strategies, Inc., a business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. While in Congress, Williams served on the small business committee and was one of only eight members to travel to Vietnam to negotiate the plight of boat people fleeing the country.

He sponsored and co-sponsored legislation related o high unemployment and played a role in bills designed to educate displaced workers and to provide job training. Before he was elected to Congress, Williams served as chairman of the Trumbull County board of commissioners and on the North Bloomfield board of education.

Williams said his number one goal is to be a voice that sends a clear message to all that the 17th district is not corrupt and is not an area to avoid.

“The economic recovery that has swept this nation has passed us by here in the 17th district,” he said. “I held this high office and have worked as an advocate for corporate America in Washington since 1979. I can without a doubt lay most of the blame at the feet of the congressman. As even he said publicly, he is truly the only voice that represents our area’s character and needs to government legislators and federal agencies as well as corporate America.”

To achieve his goal, Williams said he would “get out of everyone’s face with cute TV sound bit rhetoric,” promote funding for education to let schools build programs to support industrial and technological growth, make health care available to everyone funded by federal surpluses and send the message that local political entities are ready to use local development incentives such as tax abatement and business tax structure.

Williams said he recently attracted a new industry, Anglo-American Inc. of London, to build a Gun-Safe manufacturing facility at the old Ohio works using those strategies.

“The factory will cost $1 million and employ people who will be paid union wages and benefits — real jobs — not $7 or $8 an hour jobs, so it can be done,” he said.

Alberty, 42, a graduate of the University of Fullerton in California, provided a serious challenge two years ago against Traficant. He is an advanced technology consultant for

Actium@Modis Solutions in Pittsburgh and has 18 years of experience in the technological field. Before running for Congress, Alberty served on the Poland Village council for six years. Alberty said the main focus of his campaign is on creating opportunities through technology and “restoring the pride that we once had in our community.”

“I was disappointed in the opportunities that are facing my children and all children in the community,” Alberty said. “In the community I had a vision of bringing in technology, education and resources from the state and federal governments so that we can attract technological based manufacturing companies to our community.”

Alberty said he believes his experience in technology would help to move the community forward. “We will address the image that we have a cloud of corruption that hangs over our community versus our current congressman who adds to that image,” he said.

Doutt, who did not return phone calls made to his home for this story, is a school teacher. In a recent debate he said the core of his campaign was fighting abortion, protecting American jobs and standardizing divorce laws.

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