IF A.R. "CHIP" CONDE IS TO BECOME MAYOR OF CANTON, HE NEEDS TO GET MOVIN!

As the Stark County Political Report sees the upcoming November Canton mayoralty race, it is Mayor Healy's to lose.  And he may just do that if Republican "Chip" Conde can put together "the perfect campaign."

The Report is skeptical that Conde can do so.  Having said that, the SCPR hopes that Conde can prove the skepticism to be ill-founded.  For Mayor Healy has demonstrated to The Report that Canton is going nowhere except perhaps towards further decline with the programs, policies and administrative skills (or, better said - "the lack thereof") manifested in Healy's first term.

Why is the SCPR "down-in-the-mouth" about a possible Conde victory come November?

A number of reasons:

First, in order for Conde to defeat incumbent Healy he will have to take the gloves off and hammer the mayor loudly and repeatedly.  

While Healy has a veneer about him that suggests that a "high road" type candidate, do not believe it.  The Stark County Political Report has steadfastly maintained that Healy is ethically challenged and The Report has seen nothing of recent vintage to dispel this take.

Conde, on the other hand, has a believable and authentic class about himself.  The SCPR thinks that Mayor Healy will correctly size Conde up this way and will attempt to use this quality against the challenger.

In a strange and bizarre way, if Conde buys into a formal Healy overture (thereby seizing the high ground) on campaign ethics, he helps rehabilitate Healy's tarnished ethical issues.

Conde appears to have an impeccable ethical record and merely needs to recite the fact of the matter and make it clear - that any Healy proposal on campaign ethics is a "thou protestest too much" maneuver.

In short, Conde's position ought to be:  Just forget agreements to be ethical and high minded.  Just conduct yourself that way (while pointing out specifics of Healy's past questionable ethical slips):  Mayor Healy!

Second, Conde must advantage himself on the "open door issues" that Healy and his administrative members provide him.  And he must do so as the doors are opened.

An example.

The Healy administration largely under the cover of Safety Director Tom Ream (a man who appears to the SCPR to be cut of the same cloth as Mayor Healy) have scuttled Canton's participation in rehabbing what has been termed as being a broken 9-1-1 countywide emergency services system.  However, both Ream and Healy have failed to articulate why Canton's participation is bad for Canton.

The Report thinks Conde should have done his homework on 9-1-1 by now (a key supporter is 9-1-1 project manager Tom Concatto) and he needs to step forward NOW with his analysis and what his position will be a mayor of Canton.

And there are other issues that Healy has opened the door on and banging it right into the knee of candidate Conde, to wit:  crime in Canton and Healy's claim that zero-tolerance is working (e.g. the shocking Sherrick Rd incident,  repeated anecdotal complaints to Canton City Council, et cetera); the faux quality of economic development efforts by the Healy administration and Healy's foot dragging on efficiencies of Stark County/City of Canton duplicative governmental services among others.

Here it is the eve of June 1, 2011 and the SCPR is pushing Conde to go full barrel on his campaign.

Absolutely!

Why?

Because Conde has so many barriers to overcome to become mayor, it is imperative that he start a very public campaign now rather than the traditional Labor Day kickoff dates that many politicians use.

Barriers?  What barriers?  Okay, here is the list:

• running against an incumbent for one.  As mayor, Healy will get built in opportunities to campaign while not being tabbed as doing such for, after all, he is mayor of Canton with official duties.  Moreover, he uses the power of office (via use of executive orders, board appointment powers, et cetera) to further his political agenda while appearing to some as being mayor-esque.

• competing with a master political fundraiser in Healy.  "Money is said to be the mother's milk of politics."  It is hard to see how Conde can out-fundraise Healy (with his bevy of well-heeled out-of-town supporters), but he needs to raise enough money that is essential to getting his message out clearly and frequently.

Third, having a party registration deficit of 9 to 1 in favor of the Democratic candidate.  Moreover, Conde has the prospect of Richard Hart (a former Republican Canton councilman) and John Miller (former Canton Police Patrolmen's Association president and arch-foe of the Creighton administration in which Conde served) also running.  Big time advantage Healy. 

So it may seem that five months is a long way off.  But its not in Conde's case.  Given the hand that he has been dealt, he will need every hour, every minute and every second to accomplish what appears to the SCPR to be an impossible task.

Observers will be able to tell early on (by the end of July) whether or not Conde has the proverbial "snowball's chance in Hell of winning."

As The Report told Republican Stark County Commissioner Janet Creighton a few weeks back:  Conde can win this race in the face of overwhelming odds against him.

The question is whether or not A.R."Chip" Conde is made of "the right stuff" to pull out a truly stunning victory?

(VIDEO) CANDIDATE INTERVIEW FOR MAYOR: PART V - "CHIP" CONDE SPEAKS ABOUT ROLE OF EDUCATION IN CANTON'S RECOVER & HIS SPECIFIC QUALIFICATIONS TO BE MAYOR

Today, the SCPR wraps up this particular video series (in five parts) on Republican "Chip" Conde's candidacy to be the party's nominee for mayor of Canton coming out of the May primary.

However, between now and May 3rd, The Report will be continuing its in depth coverage of the race from both sides of the isle supported by video in which candidates have their say "in their own words" provided, of course, that they have the courage to take the questions of the SCPR.

On the Democratic side, there is a developing flap between Mayor Healy and Councilman Bill Smuckler on the 9-1-1 emergency services issue.  At last Tuesday's monthly meeting on Canton's city finances instituted by Healy (no public input, thank you) Smuckler embarrassed Healy by bringing out in the meeting that the Healy administration was sitting on a "letter of intent" regarding Canton's support of and participation in the countywide rework of 9-1-1 which could save Canton $400,000.

On Monday, the SCPR will have an incisive blog on that Democratic side to the developing mayoral contest story.

In today's video, "Chip" Conde provides his view on the role of education in Canton's economic recovery plan and he lists his impressive set of accomplishments during his service as finance director and chief of staff in the Creighton administration which immediately preceded the Healy administration.

(VIDEO) CONDE FOR MAYOR INTERVIEW - PART III - CUTTING CITY EXPENDITURES. DO TAXES NEED TO BE RAISED?

From the SCPR's interview of Canton mayoral candidate A.R. "Chip" Conde, it appears that he thinks he can get Canton back into good financial shape via consolidation of government operations and thought-out cuts.

Although he talks about the need for additional revenues, he does not mean by the call for generating additional revenues to include an increase in Canton's income tax rate.

The Report posed to Conde a claim made by a Stark County-based Republican elected official that Canton could save about $1 million if it got out of the garbage collection business.  Conde did not respond in depth as to whether or not such a move was viable.  It will be interesting to see, as the campaign progresses, whether or not he will study the matter in some detail and, in response to a SCPR follow up, be willing to provide a more in depth and definitive answer on the claim.

While economic development with it concomitant job growth and increased income tax collections from new jobs coming to Canton, there seems to be very little on the horizon on the economic development front to suggest that there is about to be some sort of break-through in this vein.

An interesting aspect to this Part III of The Report interview of Conde on March 2nd is the revelation that he is still in touch with Canton city department heads that were in place when he served in the Creighton administration.

His ability to be in communication with the folks that are the "nuts and bolts" governors of Canton should put him in a position as the campaign season moves along to provide more specifics as to what ails Canton, and what resources the department heads say need to turn Canton around, and whether not as Canton's top administrator (i.e. being mayor) he will be able to lead the way to making those resources available.

Here is Conde "in his own words" on Canton's finances and his assessment of Mayor Healy's monthly
forums on city finances.

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(VIDEO) CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS FOR MAYOR OF CANTON: PART II - "CHIP" CONDE ON "CRIME IN CANTON."

Today the SCPR presents Part II of a series on an interview (March 2nd) with Canton Republican mayoral candidate A.R. "Chip" Conde.

In Part I, The Report covered the issue of getting jobs for Canton with Conde.

In the video which follows at the end of this blog, SCPR readers will see Conde diss current Mayor William J. Healy, II not on the idea of having "zero tolerance" of crime in Canton, but on the campaign sloganeering quality of the phrase which Healy used, perhaps effective, in his campaign to unseat incumbent Republican  Mayor Janet Creighton in November, 2007.

More importantly, Conde - and properly, in the view of The Report, focuses on the role that crime plays in a city's ability to attract new employers to a given area.

The Report believes that should Conde become the GOP nominee and Healy the Democratic nominee, there will be some back and forth on Healy's claim that his law enforcement policies have made Canton a safer city in a statistical sense of "safer."

The real issue is, as far as the SCPR is concerned, is there a perception on the part of the public that Canton is safer?  Is Canton seen as a place that entrepreneurs are willing to bring their businesses and jobs and not be concerned with the need to have a private security force to protect their facilities and their employees as they move between the physical locale of the business to - let's say - the parking lot.

If Canton is perceived "not to be safe," - they (new businesses) - are not likely to come; at least to "inner city" Canton.

Here is Conde in Part II.

(VIDEO) CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS: FOR MAYOR OF CANTON - REPUBLICAN LEON GERIG - PART 2 OF 2

The SCPR's take on the Republican primary for mayor of Canton is that Leon Gerig (a former Canton councilman and Republican primary mayoralty candidate) is NOT the Republican Party establishment's choice to run against either current Mayor and Democrat William J. Healy, II or his challenger in the Democratic primary Bill Smuckler (a long time city councilman).

In a conversation with former Canton Mayor and Republican Janet Creighton (now Commissioner Creighton) about a week before the filing deadline in early February, Creighton hinted to yours truly that there would be another entry on the Republican side, other than Leon Gerig.

And now we know who that other person is, to wit:  A.R. "Chip" Conde.  He served Creighton as her finance director and chief of staff.

The SCPR reads into Creighton's hint that she was actively involved in persuading Conde to run.  It increasingly appears to The Report that Creighton may be the master planner of the Stark County Republican Party in terms of making the Stark GOP, once again, the predominant party in Stark County.

Conde works for the highly active Republican Stephen Mears (behind the scenes) of StrategyOne, Inc. Mears may be Canton/Stark County's most virulent anti-Healy activist.  Accordingly, if Conde becomes the Republican nominee and Healy survives the Democratic primary, then Cantonians should expect a raucous, "no holds barred" type of general election campaign.

Should Bill Smuckler win the Democratic primary, Conde's approach to campaigning will be much different.

In May the Republicans have a choice to make.  The "establishment" candidate "Chip" Conde or a man who seems much more people oriented:  Leon Gerig.

It is impressive that Gerig has left fulltime employment to devote his full time and attention to securing the Republican nomination.

A Gerig-Healy/Smuckler match up would be much more of a "let the voters choose an approach to solving Canton's problems" type campaign.

In the accompanying video, it is noteworthy to hear Gerig say that Stark GOP Chairman Jeff Matthews told Gerig that Gerig is somebody he can work with.  Reading between the lines of Matthews' comment, it is obvious that Gerig is not Matthews' and the Republican establishment's first choice.

Here is the SCPR's interview (part II) of candidate Gerig.