Thursday, May 21, 2015

BREAKING NEWS!!! CICCHINELLI & BERNABEI "LAWYERED UP" FOR FIGHT TO BE ON NOVEMBER BALLOT AS "INDEPENDENT."

UPDATED:  05/21/2015 at 5:15 p.m.

HEALY PREPARES FOR FIGHT, TOO!

Tom Bernabei retains Allen Schulman to represent him and William J. Healy, II retains Lee Plakas to represent him on the issue of whether or not Bernabei is certifiable as an "independent" candidate for mayor of Canton versus Democrat Healy.

Stark County Board of Elections to meet on June 17, 2015 at 08:30 a.m. to decide the question.


REPUBLICATION:  Originally published Wednesday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m.

UPDATED:  05/21/2015 AT 3:30 p.m.



WHEN IS CATAZARO-PERRY 
GOING TO GET LAWYERED UP?

BOE (MATTHEWS & MULLANE) RESPONSE



CONLEY'S LETTER TO BOARD OF ELECTIONS



The Stark County Political Report spoke former Massillon mayor (24 years) Frank Cicchinelli a couple of days ago about what he has in mind in terms of qualifying for certification on June 17th by the Stark County Board of Elections (SC-BOE) as an "independent" candidate for mayor against the woman (Kathy Catazaro-Perry) who defeated in the Democratic primary election of 2011 then easily defeated Republican Lee Brunckhart in the ensuing November election.

In the 2011 primary election, Cicchinelli did not campaign as he knew he should have.

Catazaro-Perry was then and remains the candidate of the Maier Massillon Political Machine put together by and run by former Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. who is currently the Massillon Municipal Court clerk of courts.

Cicchinelli tells the SCPR that if he makes the ballot which he says he is confident he will, in the 2015 general election his primary opponent and her backers will see a much different Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. than they saw in 2011.

The politics of his getting certified by the BOE may be the toughest part of his fight according to his attorney Craig T. Conley.

Conley a well known civic activist who gave the MMPM fits in their successful fight to get Johnnie's brother George T. Maier on the November, 2014 general election ballot which in won by a narrow margin against Republican Larry Dordea in what was a banner election year for statewide Republicans even in Stark County.

The SCPR has not seen ticket-splitting of the likes of the 2014 general election for many, many of a moon.

Not only did Maier pull a rabbit out of the hat in what should have been a Dordea victory, but so did Democrat Chryssa Hartnett in defeating Kasich's man (in the sense that Republican governor John Kasich appointed him in the first place in 2013 to replace retired Stark Court of Common Pleas judge V. Lee Sinclair [a Republican himself]) Curtis Werren.

Werren's race was markedly closer than Dordea's.  However, with his direct line to the governor who certainly was willing to and did try to help in Stark County proper, Werren's loss (and maybe Dordea's too) how utterly ineffective the organized Stark County Republican Party under the leadership of Board of Elections director Jeff Matthews is.


It is anybody's guess as how the Republican's BOE members Braden and Cline will vote on the Cicchinelli certification question.

Does anyone think that Dems' members Ferruccio and Sherer, Jr. would dare vote for certifying Cicchinelli if it became obvious to them that doing so would be politically incorrect?


In the contesting of certification of George T. Maier to qualify to be on the November, 2014 general election ballot, the MMPM's mantra was "let the voters decide."

Just call the SCPR cynical about the MMPM, but The Report has this sneaking suspicion that Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. et al will not be encouraging Dem BOE members Ferruccio and Sherer, Jr. to vote for Cicchinelli's certification.

Look for the "let the voters decide" refrain to be missing from lips of the Maier faction of the Stark County Democratic Party on the Cicchinelli certification question.

If the Republicans do vote to certify Cicchinelli, it is near certain that Republican secretary of state Jon Husted will break a tie for certification.

Otherwise, Conley will have to win for Cicchinelli on the legal front.

And he says that Cicchinelli has the case law in his favor.

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