A native of Youngstown, Thomas Suddes joined The Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1982; the next year, he transferred to the newspaper’s Columbus bureau, where for 17 years he covered the Ohio General Assembly and the state budget. While at the Statehouse, Suddes was elected president of the century-old Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association. His Plain Dealer column on Ohio government and politics, which appears on Sundays, began in the 1980s. Late in 2000, Suddes left the newspaper’s staff for graduate study at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism; he graduated in 2009 with a Ph.D. in mass communication. Suddes returned to The Plain Dealer in 2007 as a part-time editorial writer covering state affairs
