By Miles Jung-Kilbreath
Record-Courier staff writer
STREETSBORO " Twenty-one-year-old resident Brett McClafferty wants to take another shot at running for a citywide office, and says he's willing to fight the city's age limit requirement in doing so.
McClafferty announced in a Jan. 3 news release he plans to run for an at-large City Council seat in the May primary election.
However, a charter amendment passed by residents during the November 2007 election requires anyone holding office to be at least 23 years old. McClafferty said if his candidacy is denied, he will file a legal complaint in federal court to get the charter amendment declared unconstitutional.
"The age requirement is not only arbitrary, but it is in complete contradiction to the message the nation is trying to send to our youth to become involved. It promotes apathy, and is extremely offensive to young individuals risking their lives overseas serving in the armed forces," McClafferty stated in the press release.
McClafferty lost the May 2007 prirmary mayoral election by a single vote to former planning director Linda Kovacs.
The three at-large council seats are held by Art Scott, Pete Buczkowski and Julie Sanders. If more than five residents file with the Portage County Board of Elections to run for the seats, there will be a May primary. The top five vote getters in the primary would then move on to the November general elections.
The Portage County Board of Elections said that no one has yet filed for the at-large council seats. The deadline for candidates to file petitions is Feb. 19.
McClafferty said he is Chairman of Young Citizens for a Better Ohio, a non-partisan political action committee of more than 150 members, and is in a law undergraduate program at Cleveland State University majoring in Urban Studies.
"The arbitrary limitation on political candidacy based on post-18 age requirements is an unreasonably restrictive device which violates the Constitution of the United States. What possible reasonable governmental interest can be advanced by the limitation?" said McClafferty's attorney Avery Friedman.
Mayor Tom Wagner said he would wait to see if McClafferty files any legal complaint before the city decides how to proceed. He said the city "has to follow the charter" and not allow McClafferty to run for council.
"We can't make any special exceptions," Wagner said.