SCPR SELECTIONS
FOR THE
"JOHNNIE A. MAIER, JR "THE LOYALTY CLUB"
BOTTOM TO TOP
Sam Ferruccio, Jr
(Democrat - Stark County Board of Elections)
Kody Gonzalez
(Canton Muny chief deputy clerk)
Phil Giavasis
(Canton Muny clerk of courts)
R. Shane Jackson
(Massillon Muny - chief deputy clerk)
Johnnie A. Maier, Jr
(Massillon Muny clerk of courts)
George T. Maier
(SCDP-CC appointed county sheriff)
Rick Campbell
(Stark County recorder)
Randy Gonzalez
(Stark Co. Democratic Party chair)
Eddie Elum
(Judge, Massillon Municipal Court)
Gayle Jackson
(former Stark County commissioner)
Kathy Catzaro-Perry
(Mayor of Massillon)
Deametrious St. John
(Democrat - Stark County Board of Elections
UPDATED & REVISED
IN THE ORIGINAL BLOG THE SCPR ERRONEOUSLY INDICATED THAT THE SELECTION OF A CHAIRMAN WAS BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
THE SELECTION IS MADE BY THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
THE REPORT THANKS READERS FOR BRINGING THE THE ERROR TO THE AUTHOR'S ATTENTION
REVISED BLOG
When Stark Countians want incisive analysis of political moves of the various characters of Stark County politics, they turn to the Stark County Political Report.
THE EMAIL
It is a common occurrence for The Report to get an email like this.
Isn't that impressive?
The former president himself - the man who answer in the Monica Lewinsky case - "that depends on what 'is,' is?" has taken an interest in Stark County politics.
And well he should.
One of his biggest Stark County fans is Massillon clerk of courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. who served as chairman of the "organized" Stark Democrats from 2004 through 2009.
Make no mistake about it, though merely the executive vice president of the Stark Dems nowadays, he is clearly the guy who is "calling the shots" for the folks ensconced at 4220 12th Street, Northwest in Canton.
Although Chairman Randy Gonzalez likes to offer the pretense that he is "the man in charge," there is little doubt to the SCPR that he takes his marching orders from Tuscarawas Township's contribution to Massillon and Stark County politics.
Being the 'totally transparent person, he likes to present himself as being," The Report forwarded the Clinton email to the chairman for comment.
For he whines, whines and whines some more whenever the SCPR features him in a blog. Somehow The Report never gets the chairman as he really is. Hmm?
Sometimes he responds, sometimes he doesn't. Apparently, it depends on whether not he "thinks" he can manipulate the message.
Gonzalez, the SCPR thinks, is a man who sees himself as "smarter than anyone else in the room." In his own mind, it seems, he thinks that he can get folks to do "what they would not otherwise do" if they thought they were doing the will of Randy Gonzalez.
THE ATTACHMENT
But first, let's look at a copy the letter that was attached to the email, to wit:
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January 10, 2014
Enclosed please find a Declaration for Candidacy for Member of the County Central Committee for election in the May 6, 2014 Primary Election.
- Verify that the name and address is correct on the petition.
- SIGN YOUR PETITION on the front. Failure to sign your petition prior to circulation will disqualify the petition.
- Obtain no less than five (5) and no more than fifteen (15) signatures from registered voters in your precinct. Only democrats and non-partisans may sign your petition. A list of the eligible voters to sign your petition is enclosed. Make sure the voter signs their name in pen. Do not print.
- Complete the circulator's statement on the back of the petition after you have obtained the signatures. Print your name, member of the Democratic Party and the total number of signatures. Sign the circulator statement and include your address. Your petition will be Invalidated If you fall to provide this Information.
- Please DO NOT sign your own petition as one of the nominators. Your signature will be invalidated.
- If anyone else circulates the petition, they CANNOT sign that petition page.
- Do not let another person sign someone else's name. For example, a husband cannot sign for his wife and vice versa. Ohio Revised Code 3501.38 (D) prohibits anyone from signing another person's name to a petition. This prohibition includes anyone who holds power of attorney for another.
The filing deadline is February 5, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. However, your petition should be returned by January 31, 2014 to Stark County Democratic Headquarters at P.O. Box 35411, Canton, Ohio 44735 to ensure that the petition is completed correctly. We will check each petition and then file it for you at the Board of Elections. To facilitate your filing, we have enclosed an addressed envelope to return your completed petition.
I urge you to give this matter your immediate attention. If you have any questions regarding your petition, please call the Board of Elections and ask for Jeanette at 330-451 -7002.
Randy Gonzalez Chairman
Stark County Democratic Party C:/DemPty2/Cmtes/Centra!/Ltr to PrecinctCmtepersons----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions:
Did Randy Gonzalez "really" write the letter?
If he did, what is the political import?
The SCPR did ask him the first question posed above, to wit:
The Gonzalez response:
And the SCPR follow up:
And the response back from Gonzalez?
Nada! Nothing!! Zippo!!!
Hmm?
So what is the political import?
In short, that "The Loyalty Club" as pictured above is running scared.
"The Loyalty Club?"
Well, it is only the opinion of the SCPR that Maier, Jr, obsesses about only having around him those who in one fashion or another indicate to his satisfaction that they will take their marching orders from him when an occasion for action is at hand.
And the SCPR believes those pictured above have satisfied Maier, Jr. that the will be loyal foot soldiers.
It had to take Maier, Jr. et al by surprise that they narrowly defeated the non-politician Louis Darrow only 92 to 84 in the February 5th (2013) round of Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee (SCDP-CC) voting between Darrow and Johnnie A. Maier, Jr brother George T. Maier as a replacement for Sheriff-elect Mike McDonald (November, 2012) who could not take office on January 7, 2013 due to a illness that claimed his life on February 22nd.
It had to shake them up some more when 65 SCDP-CC members on December 11th stood tall for Darrow in the face of what is reported to have been a lot of Maier, Jr and friends pressure administered on some of the 84 to switch over to the Maier side when George (having been ousted on November 6th by the Ohio Supreme Court, Swanson v. Maier, quo warranto) had to stand for reappointment.
Hence, it makes sense to the SCPR that Chairman Gonzalez would be part of an effort to shore up the Maier, Jr. loyalists among the SCPR-CC membership.
The Report has spot checked with various voters from the February and December meetings and in the sampling had borne out that only Maier voters (presumably focusing on the December 11th vote) received the purported Gonzalez letter whereas none of the Darrow voters surveyed had.
But the political import of shoring up the Maier, Jr. support among precinct committee persons has nothing to do with the Darrow/George Maier saga.
Maier has gotten by the SCDP-CC and there will be no further need for that, the SCPR thinks.
His main barrier to getting to the November general election will be the Stark County Board of Elections (BOE) meeting of February 17, 2014 wherein the BOE is required to certify whether or not the candidates filing petitions by the February 5th deadline have submitted valid petitions.
But in the case of the sheriff candidates, the SCPR believes that the BOE must make a determination as to whether or not the sheriff filers are qualified under ORC 311.01. That is that statute that Maier failed to qualify under when he was ousted on November 6th.
Rather the import of the precinct committee activity has to do with whom will succeed Randy Gonzalez as chairman.
The Report is told by a Stark County politician close to - if not part of - the Maier, Jr, "loyalty" group that Gonzalez will not seek reelection as chairman and that Phil Giavasis (Canton clerk of courts) is "the pick of the litter" from among Maier, Jr. loyalists to succeed Gonzalez.
However, The Report is told, that Giavasis may be getting "cold feet."
That 84 and 65 precinct committeepersons voted against the Maier, Jr./Gonzalez sheriff candidate might mean that Giavasis or anyone else who as the Maier, Jr. taint on them might be in for "the fight of their political life" come the succession of Randy Gonzalez question which comes up on the SCDP central committee agenda this Spring.
When word spread about the purported Gonzalez letter, reaction was swift.
There is actually a group of party activists (believed to be centered around Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero [a former chairman but more importantly a George T. Maier foe] and unionist David Kirven) who are countering the Maier, Jr. and friends effort on organizing for the election of the "new" SCDP-CC.
The general public could be dismissive of all this political activity as being of no concern to them.
But that would be a mistake.
Central committees are often called upon to "appoint" to office when an officeholder dies or otherwise leaves office.
We in Stark County have been through a lot of travail in recent years - some believe - as a consequence of a person with "eminent" political party qualifications being appointed by the politicos but who - after the fact of appointment - came to be perceived by the voting public to lack the leadership/management skills to get the job done.
The SCPR thinks that the public should beware of Stark County politicians who appear to some of us to obsess about personal loyalty in the political arena.
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