REMEMBER "COINGATE" OF 2016? (LINK)
FOLLOW THE MONEY: STARK OGA MEMBERS
ARE OELSLAGER & SCHURING IN "UP TO THEIR NECKS?"
Could it be that heretofore thought "invulnerable" to electoral defeat Stark County-based Ohio General Assembly delegation Republican members W. Scott Oelslager (running for Ohio House District 48, currently held by Republican J. Kirk Schuring) and Schuring himself (running for Ohio Senate District 29, currently held by W. Scott Oelslager) will be sucked into what is being described in the media as being the "ECOT scandal" and suffer the unthinkable?
Unthinkable?
What does that mean?
Both lose in November, 2018 because of being part of a Republican political culture within the Columbus political beltway that has resulted in Ohio possibly losing $80 million in taxpayer money to an educational "online" entity that was started by the Ohio Legislature in House Bill 770 in its 1997/1998 session?
Like Coingate, the ECOT appears to some to be a "Follow-the-Money" quest.
This quote from a former Republican John Damschroeder (a Voinovich administration official):
In 2005, following the infamous Coingate scandal, Ohio lawmakers ended the sales tax exemption for rare coins but they neglected to close the door on high fee, high risk alternative investments, made possible only because of a change in law pushed by large campaign contributors.Schuring has been a member of the OGA since January 1, 1995 and Oelslager since February 3, 1985.
And both are largely incommunicado with any who disagree with or would question them about their positions on various legislation, to wit: (from a SCPR source)
Despite Speaker Schuring dismissing me over ECOT(4 times he refused to talk to me) now, it appears there will be criminal charges.
What does Schuring have to say about this? Funny, he has yet to return the campaign contributions he took in exchange for trying to block the DOE audit.Schuring used to always take the SCPR's questions, but hasn't for several years because, of course, The Report "cuts-right-to-the-chase." Apparently, he cannot handle incisive questioning.
Since term limits (8 consecutive years) have been the law of Ohio, the two have switched back and forth between the 29th and the 48th (and its predecessor district designation) in order to defeat the will of Ohio voters that we get fresh faces in the OGA periodically.
Even though the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party seem to have given Oleslager and Schuring "a pass" (as in many previous election cycles), circumstances might overcome the political weakness/inexperience of the Democratic candidates nominated on May 8th.
This particular blog is an introduction to a multi-volume-series that The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) is embarking upon which the series will dig deep into the history and progression of support for ECOT on the part of legislators Schuring and Oelslager.
Last evening the SCPR was at North Canton Board of Education's monthly meeting for May in which Superintendent Jeff Wendorf made comments on North Canton's efforts, one district out of the seventeen Stark County school districts, to make inroads on online charter/community school revenue takeaways which across Ohio results in local school districts losing millions upon millions of taxpayer provided dollars to private sector educational entrepreneurs.
North Canton loses about one-half-million dollars ($513,000 last year) per year to the charter/community/online school entreprise provided for by the likes of Schuring and Oelslager and their Republican colleagues in the Ohio Legislature.
Here is a SCPR video on the NC-BOE Digital Learning Center discussion and vote:
It will be interesting to see whether or not the likes of Stark County Democratic Party chairman Phil Giavasis and the party's executive committee will seize what comes to be a prime opportunity to unseat Schuring and Oelslager.
The Report is skeptical that Giavasis et al will do little if anything to defeat Oelslager and Schuring.
Going back many years, there seems to have been a love affair between local elected Democrats who also hold key local party positions and Schuring and Oelslager.
There have been a parade of 48th/29th District candidate "sacrificial lambs" put to "political slaughter" in an act of political appeasement to these seeming fixtures in Stark County governance/politics.
As recent as April 30, 2018, the former Stark County Democratic chairman who is also Jackson Township's elected fiscal officer and appointed economic development director at a meeting with the Stark County commissioners on Jackson "Strip-extended" project was singing the praises of Schuring.
Do not expect Giavasis et al to go all out in support of Friedman (Oelslager) and Wilburn (Schuring).
If one or both pull off an upset, it certainly will be on their own efforts coalescing, perhaps, with a brewing scandal with the Republican supermajority dominated Ohio General Assembly on the ECOT matter.
And they won't be beholden to the likes of politicos Giavasis and Gonzalez.
But will they be sharp enough, politically skilled enough to take advantage?
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