Source: Associated Press
     Published: September 13, 1999 

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) -- Congressional candidates in Youngstown 
are facing the issue of whether to submit to a lie detector test 
about their ties to organized crime. 

The suggestion was made Sunday by a political columnist for 
The Vindicator of Youngstown and backed Monday by one candidate, 
State Sen. Robert Hagan. 

Rep. James Traficant, who was acquitted of taking bribes from 
mobsters before being elected, refused to take the test and 
Mahoning County Auditor George Tablack said he would consider it. 

Asked if he thinks Traficant has some tie to organized crime, 
Hagan said, ``I don't know if there is one now, but I'm 
suspicious of the congressman's actions in the past.'' 

Traficant was elected to Congress in 1985 after he was 
acquitted of taking bribes from mobsters in 1983 when he 
was Mahoning County sheriff. The county includes Youngstown, 
where Mafia families from Cleveland and Pittsburgh long 
fought for control, breeding crime and corruption. 

His spokesman, Paul Marcone, said the congressman does not 
intend to take a test. 

``He took a lie detector test back in the early 1980s before 
his trial and he does not intend to take another one,'' 
Marcone said.