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In a chat with Dan Scuiry, president of the Hall of Fame AFL-CIO, shared with the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) his disgust for newly appointed 52nd district state representative Stephen Slesnick.Fortunate for Slesnick, the Stark County Republicans rolled over for him and nominated a nonentity as its candidate (Easterday) in the November election. It is not realistic that in the foreseeable future that the Republicans could come up with a credible candidate (in the sense of having a real chance to win) . More likely, the challenge will come from within. We all remember how Jamey Healy (now Willam J. Healy, II - mayor of Canton) took Mary Cirelli out several years ago. You can bet that Stark County labor organizations will be watching Slesnick very closely over the next two years.What is Scuiry so upset about? Slesnick joining in concert with Republicans Oelslager, Schuring and Hagan at a Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce event at the McKinley Grand to condemn a union initiative to embed in the Ohio Constitution a mandate that employers with 25 or more employees over 7 sick days annually to their employees.Scuiry said that Slesnick comes from a "business-family" and that therefore he is representing the interests of business types and is not looking out for the best interests of everyday Stark Countians/Ohioans.Question: Is Stephen Slesnick the right fit for a largely working class legislative district?
The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) has learned from a number of sources that John Ferrero (Stark County prosecutor and former Stark County Democratic Party chair) express his displeasure (to put it mildly) with current chairman, Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.What was the beef?Maier's treatment of former party chair Roy Gutierrez in dumping Gutierrez from the Stark County Democratic Executive Committee.The Report understands that "the explosion" took place at a recent Amvets located fundraiser for John Boccieri. Ferrero's political base is in Massillon as is Maier's. So this should be an interesting test of Maier's ability to continue his leadership of the Stark County Democratic Party.The Report did contact Ferrero but he was unwilling to go into the specifics of his unhappiness with Maier. Question: Is Maier administering a "political cleansing" and "purification?"Is Johnnie Maier, Jr outsmarting himself with his "divide and conquer" strategy of maintaining control of the Stark County Democratic Party?
Probably not. Nor, for that matter, does the Plain School District (if it chooses to put an issue on for November).Ohioans and Stark Countians are waiting to see what the Strickland administration is going to come out with in his "State of the State" message in January, 2009. In the meantime, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) predicts that no new revenue raising measures will pass in Stark County this year. Voters will be waiting to see what Ohio is going to do in their respective districts.The Report has learned it is a go for the merger between the Lake Senior Center and the Lake Branch of the YMCA. It was thought that the merger would be contingent on the Lake schools passing a $28 million bond issue to secure funds to do major new construction on the main Lake campus (the site of the Lake YMCA) for the merger to happen.But no. The Report understands from a key official on the board of the Senior Center that Lake Township trustee Ellis Erb has taken the position that the bond issue will not pass but that the merger will happen because the new construction which would accommodate the Senior Center will go forward without the schools' money.Question: What do you think? Is The Report correct? If Lake voters, Plain voters, Northwest voters are faced with revenue approval requests in November, are they doomed?
Periodically, The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) checks on efforts by the DeHoff campaign to communicate with constituents.Celeste must be doing a lot of door-to-door because she certainly isn't spending much time on her website. It took her forever (it seemed) to get anything up in the first place. Then it only lasted a few weeks.The Report understands why it was jerked down after a short life. The initial site was worthless. The same can be said for her opponent's (Republican Todd Snitchler). No interactivity; no real news about the ongoings of the campaign. This campaign likely will go down in the annals of Stark County campaigning as one of the most boring on record. The Report ran into Stark County Auditor Kim Perez several weeks ago. Perez was asked if his, then employee, Mike Stevens (who now works for Massillon) was going to be a "write-in" candidate for the 50th District seat.Perez's response was terse. His take: "write-ins" cannot win. He was behind DeHoff because she was the best chance for the Democrats to take control of the Ohio House. This, Perez said, was his top priority.Well, if Perez's wish is to become reality, Stark County Democratic Party chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., Ohio Democratic Party chair Chris Redfern and the Ohio House Democratic caucus better get the DeHoff campaign moving. The 50th is indexed Republican due to gerrymandering. This race is an uphill climb even though Snitchler is such a vanilla candidate (e.g. made an appearance recently at the Uniontown Business Association and never mentioned once that he was a candidate).If DeHoff loses, the blame will be squarely on the shoulders of Maier which will tarnish his image with the Strickland administration.Question: Does it bode well for Ohio House Democrats that Celeste DeHoff is one of their "tipping point" candidates?
A internal poll leak by the Schuring campaign. Is this a sign of Schuring campaign desperation? The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) recalls Hillary Clinton citing an internal poll suggesting she was running neck-and-neck with Obama in the North Carolina Democratic primary. But the real poll, the election itself, showed the internal poll to be a highly flawed poll.It is a truism in politics that an organization never leaks an internal poll except, perhaps, as a desperation measure when the campaign is going poorly, or - in the very last days of a campaign - to show that the leaker campaign is sure to win and voters should get on the bandwagon.Since this is July 15th, (nearly four months until the election) the Schuring leak must be out of desperation. Schuring has been running a stealth campaign so far and media types are beginning to talk about this race being Boccieri's to lose. Last week we had the Schuring people get the aid of a 527 organization with Schuring deploring the "unwanted" assistance (if you can believe him) in the light of the 527 being wrong on which candidate voted which way. Schuring voted to increase Ohio gasoline tax, Boccieri voted no. But the 527 errantly accused Boccieri. We have a name for this tactic these days - it's called "swiftboating."You would think that seasoned politicians would be embarrassed to put out a poll showing 26% undecided. But when you are desperate, you probably pull out all the stops.Again, The Report asks, why doesn't Schuring just be Schuring. He might actually have a real chance to pull this one out if he chucked all the RNCC folks and ran as he has always run in Stark County. And Stark County will be the election will be won or lost.For now The Report is sticking with its 52% - 48% ranging up to 55% - 45% Boccieri over Schuring prediction and the spread could go even higher if Schuring keeps following the RNCC advice.Question: Is it a sign of desperation for 16 District Congressional candidate Kirk Schuring to be putting faith in an internal poll showing 26% of the voters have not yet decided on which candidate they will vote for?
