CAMPAIGN FINANCE: "CONDE FOR MAYOR - WHO SUPPORTS HIM? IS HE THE QUINTESSENTIAL CANTON - HOMETOWN BOY?

CORRECTION:  05/10/2011

While Jennifer Drlik confirms that she was a contributor to the "Chip" Conde campaign corrects the SCPR to the effect that she is NOT employed by the United Way of Stark County as originally reported.


The Report apologizes for the error.

Original Blog

There is no better politically collected person in all of Stark County than Stark County Commissioner Janet Creighton.  And, A.R. "Chip" Conde is richly blessed to have her in his corner in the race for mayor of Canton that is currently underway.

The first step in Conde's quest to do what appears to be impossible in a 9 to 1 Democratic registration plurality in Canton is easy.  He will, in the opinion of the SCPR, easily defeat Leon Gerig in the Republican May 3rd primary for the right to move on to the general election in November.

Conde's entrance into the Republican primary seemed to be a surprise to Gerig.  Yours truly interviewed him on the eve of the candidacy deadline and he appeared not to know that a "name" Republican (compared to Garig himself) was poised to enter the race.  Without naming the person, Creighton had tipped off the SCPR that there was likely to be someone more formidable than Gerig entering the race.

The Report believes that Creighton, more than any other Republican, is effectively and quietly at work to put Republicans in control of Stark County government including its county seat (Canton).  The Report has learned that she is encouraging a widely talked about possible Republican candidate for county prosecutor to take on Democrat John Ferrero.  Her activity obviously included (though she does not admit to it to The Report) persuading Conde to take on whichever Democrat survives the primary.

One has to believe that there is a desire on her part that Healy be the target.

Conde had served at the very highest level in the Creighton administration.  Commissioner Creighton is very bullish on "Chip" Conde's abilities and will do all she can to see to it that he is elected mayor of Canton.

Conde's second step will be much more difficult than the first (the general election trek) whether the Democratic candidate is Mayor Healy or Councilman at Large Bill Smuckler.

Of course, in either event, there will be a "pay back" quality to the November match up if sort of Creighton proxy Conde is the nominee.  Healy, of course, defeated chief Conde political sponsor Janet Creighton in November 2007 in her quest to be re-elected mayor having defeated Bill Smuckler in 2003 (who had defeated Healy in the Democratic primary).

 
Many Stark County political observers believe that Conde does not have the notoriety needed to take on the well known Healy or Smuckler in the 9 to 1 Democrat enclave.

The SCPR is not among that group.  Why?

Because of Janet Creighton being closely tied to the Conde campaign.

Otherwise, the group think seems to be valid political analysis.

The Report believes that Creighton is still stinging from the 2007 Healy defeat and that her overwhelming win (predicted from the get-go by the SCPR) over Stark County Democrat Steve Meeks (a favorite of Stark Dems Chair Randy Gonzalez) has not abated the intensity of her desire to right the mar on her political success visited on her by Healy by better than 1,200 votes.

In examining Conde's pre-primary campaign finance report, you can see Janet Creighton's influence all over the place.  And, it will become even more evident if Conde becomes the Republican nominee for the general election.  For her own part, Creighton certainly has put her money where her mouth is.

If Healy is the Democrat nominee, one factor that Conde can add to the multiple differences between him and Healy will be that a huge majority of his contributions come from Canton and Stark County whereas Healy's is from out-of-town.

Here is the Conde report:

(VIDEO) CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS FOR MAYOR OF CANTON: PART IV - "CHIP" CONDE ON CANTON'S NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS & THEIR ATTEMPTED POLITICIZATION BY MAYOR HEALY

CORRECTION:  The point at which Canton loses a city council seat is 70,000 and since the population is in excess of 70,000, Canton DOES NOT go from 9 council seats to 8.  (3/15/2011)

ORIGINAL POST

In this fourth of the Stark County Political Report's series on the mayoralty contest underway in Canton, the focus is on Republican candidate A.R. "Chip" Conde's take on what needs to be done to revitalize Canton's neighborhoods.

On Wednesday of this week, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that Canton went from a population of 80,806 to 73,007 resulting in a loss of 7,799 residents.

In the political/governmental realm, the loss means that Canton City Council will be pared down from nine wards to eight wards.  According to state law - so says Canton Law Director Joseph Martuccio - Canton must redistrict not later than March 31, 2012. 

While there will clearly be a lot of political infighting over the next year among the nine councilpersons as to whom "the odd man out" will be,  redistricting is not the most important issue facing Cantonians

Revitalizing Canton's neighborhoods is the "key" issue.  There are 55 active neighborhood associations in the city.  They, according to Republican mayoralty candidate "Chip" Conde, are critically important to the resurrection of Canton.

William J. Healy, II has been mayor of Canton since January 1, 2007.   On February 15, 2011 he decides to for the "Mayor's Neighborhood Commission.  Hmm?  Politically inspired?  So says Candidate Conde.

In the following video, Candidate Conde discusses Canton's neighborhood as being a vital ingredient in Canton's recovery and laces Healy for politicizing and cherry-picking representatives from the neighborhood associations in the context of forming the Mayor's Commission on Neighborhoods.

(VIDEO) A.R. "CHIP" CONDE - FOR MAYOR IN REPUPLICAN PRIMARY : ON THE ISSUES - PART 1

Recently, the SCPR published a two-part video interview of May 3, 2011 Republican mayoral aspirant Leon Gerig.

Today, The Report publishes Part I of an interview conducted with Gerig's opponent A.R. "Chip" Conde.  The Conde interview was about 30 minutes in length and therefore will be published in several parts.

The Report - in questioning Conde -  generally followed the lead of Ed Balint (of The Repository - GOP back in hunt for Canton mayoral post, February 20th) in terms of the question framework of an interview he did of Conde and Gerig.

The focal point of the SCPR interview was to follow-up on the Balint questions for more detail.

But before getting to the interview itself, yours truly takes on a couple of exceptions that Candidate Conde took with The Report to assessments made in the Gerig interview.

One has to do with the assessment that a Healy/Conde race, if the primaries produce such a square off; has the makings of being a "no holds barred campaign."  The specific paragraph from the Gerig piece, to wit:

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.

Conde's point to The Report:  Stephen Mears is Stephen Mears and "Chip" Conde is "Chip" Conde, "I work for Mears, he does not work for me."

Granted.  However, The Report noted to Conde that there has to be a continuing back and forth between himself and Mears on Healy, and that in the view of the SCPR, Conde has to be affected by Mears' especially marked dislike of all things Healy.

Another Conde exception to a SCPR observation made in the Gerig interview has to do with the following language:

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.

First, the "impressiveness" of Gerig devoting his full attention to campaigning.  Why, Conde wanted to know, is it more impressive that one campaigns fulltime than campaigning along with working fulltime employment?

Well, it's hard to argue that it is not a step up in commitment to abandon earning a living for a time to pursue another objective; especially public service.  However, it could be that Gerig is being somewhat disingenuous in making the "sacrificial" point of devoting his fulltime to campaigning inasmuch as such is not one would normally expect, and therefore a implication of self-sacrifice is susceptible of skepticism.

Readers of the SCPR, of course, will have their own take on the Gerig action.  The Report's point was exactly that:  to provoke reader pondering on the matter in the light of human experience both in the context of reality compared to the ideal.

Second, Conde took exception to the SCPR's belief that Conde may be the Stark GOP establishment candidate whereas Gerig may be the more hoi-polloi-esque candidate. Conde's point:  The Report made the assessment without ever having spoken with him.

Good point.  However, The Report like everyone else does make preliminary assessments about what is known about a person/situation and will continue to do so.  What is different about The Report is that space will be provided in the pages of the SCPR for those (such as Mr. Conde) who take exception to The Report's assessment with full opportunity "to beg to differ."

And that is exactly why yours truly has taken the time and effort to present Candidate Conde's exceptions.

While the SCPR asks hard questions and takes positions, yours truly relishes feedback and deals with it publicly in the this blog.  The only exception, is when the differences are obviously ugly personal attacks on yours truly or the subjects of SCPR blogs.

Back to whether or not Conde, in the view of The Report, is more the Stark GOP establishment candidate?

In a largely intuitive sense, that remains The Report's overall point-of-view as of the writing of this blog.  But this assessment is subject to change.

Having the wholehearted support of Janet Creighton and prominent Republicans like her does indicate a more objective basis for The Report's view.  Creighton, obviously not a de jure leader of the Stark County Republican Party, certainly is its de facto and spiritual head. 

What follows is Part I of Candidate Conde's interview.