DOES STARK GOP REMAIN A PARTY DIVIDED OVER TRUMP CANDIDACY?

UPDATE

(COLLAGE EXTRACT FROM HEAVY.COM VIDEO OF EVEN:   LINK)

UPDATED AT:  10:12 AM

Janet Creighton ...  Today at 9:57 AM

To:  Martin Olson

Martin:

I want to set the record straight since you like to speculate about my support of Donald Trump.

I could not attend the event at the Civic Center.  I put a personal and long time friendship above politics.  My friend, Chip Conde, was honored for his leadership in the Hall of Fame Festival and it is tradition that he be awarded his green jacket.  As a member of that same "fraternity" I chose to attend and had made my commitment 2 months ago.  It was an easy decision given my 50 year friendship with him and his wife.

I am in full support of Donald Trump and my relationship with the Governor remains strong.  

As the Women for Trump chair in Stark County,  I will work to elect him as our next President.

I know you like the facts.

Thanks,

Janet Creighton

ORIGINAL BLOG

A Stark County Political Report focus on the Donald J. Trump presidential campaign is how the campaign in playing in Stark County among office seeking/holding local Republicans.

It appears from taking in the video from last night's event that despite Trump having the best of times in Ohio (up by five points over Clinton in yesterday's Bloomberg poll) is not fully embraced by Stark County Republicans.

Especially among those (e.g. Janet Creighton, Kirk Schuring, Scott Oelslager) tied to Republican governor John Kasich who ran against Trump in the Republican primary.  

From the national perspective, Stark County connected congressmen Renacci (the 16th) and Gibbs (the 7th) were missing.  However, is told that both Renacci and Gibbs had representatives present.  A source give as a reason given for their absence that Congress in now in session.

The most supportive of Trump of the above-exampled group has been Republican Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton.

On Tuesday, Creighton told The Report that she had a prior scheduled commitment an likely would not be able to make to the Canton Memorial Civic Center for last night's event.

Notwithstanding that Creighton is a loyal Kasich (who continues to refuse to endorse Trump) supporter, she has done a number of things for the maverick (in the sense of traditional conservative Republicanism) Trump.

She chairs Trump for Women and recently was out to the NRA-Canton "open-house" event in which the NRA placed a field office in Canton to support Trump and other NRA friendly candidates in the upcoming election.

Also missing was Stark County auditor Alan Harold.  It could be that he was at the same event that kept Creighton from attending.

Republican Stark County commissioner Richard Regula was highly pleased for Trump's spending a significant amount of time talking about defining his America First theme in terms of the critical need to rebuild America's infrastructure.

Regula told The Report that before last night he was having a hard time warming up to Trump.

And, he said, he thinks Trump's night in Canton will go a long way in getting local Republicans "off their duffs" (the SCPR's characterization; not Regula's) and out on the campaign hustings for Trump.

As far as the SCPR is concerned, the move to include infrastructure in defining his America First campaign theme is a welcome expansion as to what the phrase means in terms of specifics.

Trump had been in Flint, Michigan earlier in the day yesterday and was treated with coldness and in fact chastised when he ventured into a political attack on Hillary Clinton.

The event was billed as information gathering and not a political pow-wow.

In Canton, he commiserated with the misfortunes of folks living in Flint.

The passage of campaign time could show that the Flint thing was a political-photo op and nothing more.

If so, he will have heightened the growing cynicism that many of us have on the sincerity of politicians national, state and local.

All-in-all it appears that Donald J. Trump helped himself in his Canton gig and, perhaps, breathed life into what before Wednesday appeared to be pretty much lifeless effort by the Stark GOP on behalf of Donald J. Trump.

Time will tell!