It appears to the Stark County Political Report that Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II is playing Executive Editor Jeff Gauger of The Repository like a banjo.
According to a Repository report, Healy objects to the Republican candidates being a part of the debate format.
The Report suspects that Healy fears a person-to-person contrast with Republicans Leon Gerig, A.R. "Chip" Conde and Democrat Bill Smuckler and has used The Rep's "cast in concrete" rules to duck out of a Repository scheduled debate set for April 5th at Canton's Palace Theater.
In the public interest, The Rep should set up two debates (Republican candidates; Democratic candidates). This year's election could be the most important in Canton's history. The public need to see the candidates side-by-side in the primaries and in the general election.
Why Gauger would allow Healy the opportunity to duck out on a seemingly minor point (one debate format as opposed to a two debate format) should be a question that Cantonians should be flooding The Rep executive editor with.
It appears to The Report that the bigs at The Rep have this machismo problem of seeming to be in control. Cantonians/Stark Countians have seen this before in a prior debate in which whether or not editorial board member Gayle Beck was going to be the moderator of a debate. The Rep's insistence on "one big debate" is silly and is not serving of the public interest in seeing a direct contrast of the candidates.
In an interview with Healy's Democratic opponent Bill Smuckler yesterday, Smuckler tells The Report that he believes that The Repository is being unfair with him.
Moving on to other takes by the SCPR in the interview, in this Part I video Smuckler recounts his experience in Canton City government since 1984 and delves (today - on safety force levels) into his four pronged campaign approach:
- restoring Canton's safety forces to higher levels
- refashioning Canton's economic development effort
- reformulating neighborhood revitalization, and
- making government more efficient by making Canton a major player in government services consolidations
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