DEMOCRATS FOR DORDEA COMING TOGETHER?

UPDATED & REVISED AT 11:00 A.M.

Former sheriff Tim Swanson and current prosecutor John Ferrero remain - the SCPR thinks - the top two local Democrats, in terms of political appeal, to Stark Countians.

Each has rolled up large majorities in the elections that they have run for re-election.

Swanson has retired (again), but Ferrero is still Stark County's top-profile Democratic officeholder.

So it was one the biggest political mistakes that former Stark County Democratic Party (SCDP) chairman Randy Gonzalez made during his term as chair when he demeaned Ferrero in front of the 177 voting SCDP precinct committeepersons when the Dems met to appoint a successor to 2012 sheriff-elect Mike McDonald.



In the foregoing video, Ferrero said that he would support the Stark County Democratic Party appointee, whomever that might be.

And, the SCPR's recollection is that Tim Swanson has said the same thing.

But since those statements were made, "a lot of water has flowed over the dam."

The SCPR believes that the animosities between Ferrero/Swanson and many other Democratic precinct committeepersons (present and past) and appointee George T. Maier that a significant number of registered Democrats who nearly always, if not always, vote exclusively for Democratic candidates will make an exception on November 4, 2014 and vote for Republican Larry Dordea.

Recently (August 22nd), Dordea campaign officials stopped by former sheriff Tim Swanson's home and obtained a "photo-op" of Swanson family members Tim Swanson (the former sheriff's son and grandson) wearing a Dordea for Sheriff campaign shirts.

While Swanson himself was not in the photo, guess who snapped the picture?

You've got it!

Tim Swanson!!

What do you think the odds are that Swanson will follow through on his declaration that he would support the Democratic candidate, whomever it might be.

The SCPR has been told by Dordea supporters that efforts are underway to get Swanson and Ferrero to publicly endorse Dordea.

There is little doubt in the mind of The Report that both Swanson and Ferrero are privately telling all their "over the years" political supporters that they should vote for Dordea.

And that is a "thin" layer of "icing on the cake" in what the SCPR thinks is going to be a Larry Dordea victory in November because the Democratic "top of the ticket" gubernatorial candidate (Clevelander Ed FitzGerald) is going down big-time and he is likely to drag all the "down-ticket" candidates including George T. Maier down with him

FitzGerald, the SCPR thinks, will beat expectations if he get 35% of the vote.  If he should get 40%, he will think he won.

The biggest problem for Maier and all those Democrats running "down-ticket" is that registered Democrats (very likely to vote a de facto "straight-Democratic-ticket") will stay home in droves.

The "thin" icing on the cake that the SCPR thinks Dordea is benefiting from among Democrats who take their political marching orders from the likes of Swanson and Ferrero could become "thick and overwhelming" if the Dordea supporters can convince Swanson and Ferrero to make public statements of support.

Do not look for that to happen.

While the campaign button pictured at the beginning of this blog may not actually go into production, the Swanson photo session indicates that political wounds within the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party are about as fresh as they were on December 11, 2013 when the Dems under the guidance of then chairman Gonzalez did an "in-your-face" routine on the anti-Maier forces within the central committee.

The SCPR thinks Maier will do better than FitzGerald in Stark County.

And, if he had a solid SCDP structure behind him, The Report thinks he might win notwithstanding FitzGerald.

But he doesn't!

Accordingly, it is hard for the SCPR to see George T. Maier, the SCDP appointed sheriff he is, serving beyond December 31, 2014.