TRUMP II & BIKER? JIM RENACCI FOR GOVERNOR

STARK CO GOP CHAIR JEFF MATTHEWS TO BE OUT FRONT FOR RENACCI?

Right now Republican congressman Jim Renacci (Ohio's 16th congressional district which includes northeast Stark County, a spur into Canton to catch the Timken Co and part of Lake Township) thinks that it is an advantage to run as Donald J. Trump, II in his quest to succeed Trump adversary and current Republican Ohio governor.

Renacci is reportedly one the richest congresspersons in all of the United States Congress.

But like his political idol, he likes to bill himself as the common person's advocate in government.

And to plant that notion more firmly in the public mind, he has taken to donning a biker's motif as a part of his campaign presentation.

Looking to Ohio's, the 16th congressional district and Stark's recent electoral history, the Trump II theme seems to be supported by 2016 exercised voters' preference, to wit:

But with the president's proclivity to shoot himself in the "political" foot, the Trump II Renacci strategy could be absolutely the worst theme come the 2018 Republican primary election,

Even as of May, 2017 Renacci has an uphill fight to "trump" declared fellow Republican candidates as shown in the following graph:

But Renacci can be sure of one thing.

Stark County Republican chairman Jeff Matthews will be squarely in his corner in this fight as he was when Renacci had primary opponents in the 2010 election to determine which Republican was going to take on then-incumbent Democratic congressman John Boccieri.

So why is The Stark County Political Report willing to predict this early on that Stark GOP chairman Jeff Matthews will be out of the gate with Renacci for governor.

For the same reason he weighed-in his attempt to persuade Ashland, Medina and Wayne GOP chairpersons to support Renacci over Miller, Schiffer and Smith.

Matthews wife Heidi had had a cushy political job with former and long time 16th District congressman Ralph Regula and undoubted it was in his self interest and the family finances interest that he work very hard to help Renacci unseat Boccieri.

And the apparent investment by Jeff Matthews in the 2010 campaign of Jim Renacci paid off in spades for the Matthews' family financial fortunes, to wit:

Which political investment seems to have a continuing payoff.

Matthews and wife have to be totally comfortable with Renacci's decision to try to be Trump II as further indicated by his logo "Ohio First" as clearly a take off of Trump's "American First."

When many people were counting Trump out as a potential victor in the 2016 general election, the Matthews were front and center at Trumps 2016 Canton campaign rally.

The "many people" were wrong and now the nation as to deal with "Tweeter Trump."

Another Trump-phile; namely, Jane Timken, a former vice-president of the Stark County GOP and now the Trump backed to take over the top Ohio Republican Party job in a highly competitive race for the chairmanship of the Ohio Republican party, one would think, has to be squarely in Renacci's corner in the race to be the GOP nominee for governor.

Witness this June 2, 2017 tweet by Renacci (is he picking up on Trump's tweet habit?).

In any event, the SCPR for one would not count Jim Renacci out in his quest to be the Republican nominee for governor come next spring's primary election in Ohio.

Maybe, just maybe he will come roaring into Canton/Stark County on his bike for a campaign rally between now and May 8, 2018?

Let's hope.

It would be quite a show, no?

NORTH CANTON COUNCIL IN MIDST OF "SALVAGE OPERATION?"

INSTALLMENT #1

UPDATED:  04:15 PM

As the author of The Stark County Political Report, I have been following "in detail" like no other Stark County media outlet, developments on the 5 year old or so real property abatements to North Ridge Place, Ltd (NRP; a company owned by North Canton developers William Lemmon/Robert DeHoff).

Initially it appears that a 100% real property abatement was granted sometime in 2012 without fanfare and therefore not picked up upon by the general public or, as it now seems—if one believes the denying North Canton public officials (e.g. Mayor David Held and North Canton City Council members or North Canton Board of Education members) suggestions that the abatement was totally and completely the work and only the work of the-then economic development director Eric Bowles.

The North Canton public official denials are in the category of "if you believe that, then I have some swamp land in Florida I want to sell you."

The abatement started being implemented in 2016 to the benefit of NRP.

Last night (June 12, 2017)  at a "Committee of the Whole" meeting, it appeared that North Canton City Council was into a full-blown operation salvage operation to reverse as best it can the loss of several hundreds of thousands of dollars by North Canton City Schools as a consequence of the "quietly" granted abatement to the Lemmon and DeHoff owned company.



It looks like that North Canton Council will be approving very, very soon negotiated agreements with NPR, Ltd and North Canton schools to compensate the schools for 50% of the real property tax abatement received/to be received by the DeHoff/Lemmon enterprise.




To The Stark County Political Report, the North Ridge Place abatement process is a textbook case of how "checks and balances" were not in place in North Canton government to have prevented (or, at the very least to have interested parties have their say) the diversion of sorely needed North Canton City Schools revenues to North Canton economic development projects.

This blog is the first of a number of installments to be published providing North Cantonians and other Stark County communities with the tools to understand how the failure of "checks and balances" failed in North Canton and in so understanding implement measures in their respective communities to ensure that the same does not occur there to the detriment of local education.

Former Repository editor Mike Hanke in 2006 (as referenced by North Canton civic activist Chuck Osborne) put it about as well as it can be in terms of the relative priorities of economic development through real property abatements and critically needed revenues to the schools, to wit:

There are reports that North Canton schools are considering putting on a tax/bond initiative this November.

If those reports are accurate, then not only does the NRP abatement deprive the schools of acutely needed revenues to the tune of nearly one-half-million-dollars, more or less, but seemingly factors into the reported thinking that the schools need to make up the missing one-half-million dollars, more or less.

All because North Canton city government did not have and perhaps continues not to have safeguards in place in the form of "check and balances" so that those North Cantonians who deem adequately education a priority over economic development projects like the Lemmon/DeHoff North Ridge Place endeavor.

OUT OF DESPERATION? - STARK "ORGANIZED" DEMS EMBRACE REDISTRICTING!

VIDEOS

CANTON COUNCIL DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY LEADER

FRANK MORRIS

PASSES OUT REDISTRICTING PETITIONS OF MEMBERS

**************************************

COUNCILMAN MORRIS

ON HIS INVOLVEMENT IN PETITION DRIVE

For quite a few years now, Ohio"organized" Democrats have been thunderstruck, stormed upon and flooded with an avalanche of Republican control of much of—in not most of—Ohio government.

In the local context,  increasingly, Republicans are inching towards achieving domination of  Stark Countywide government.

When I started The Stark County Political Report (March, 2008), Democrats controlled all of Stark County's "non-judicial" countywide "non-judicial" government.

Democratic Party dominance in Stark County (countywide offices) was achieved under the chairmanship of former state Representative Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.

Successor chairmen Randy Gonzalez (currently Jackson Township fiscal officer) and Phil Giavasis (the current chairman and the Canton Municipal Court clerk of courts) have presided over recent years' loses (the county treasurer, the county auditor and control of the county commissioners) on the part of Democrats.

Moreover, the Dems barely hung onto the prosecutor's office and the sheriff's office in recent elections.

So it would be quite a blow to "organized" local Democrats to have to abide political domination from the Statehouse to the County Seat (as a representation of "countywide") should Republicans come to dominate Stark's countywide elective offices.

Republicans narrowly lost the local prosecutors race in 2016 and a close election for county sheriff in 2014.

To sum it all up, it is not a promising political environment for elected/elective-aspiring Democrats these days in Ohio and except for Canton city government, in most of Stark County.

In these days, one of the most used phrases in political analysis is the expression:  political base.

The phrase get heavy use by political pundits who pretty much assess that the only subset of Americans who support the presidency of Donald J. Trump is his core political base (at worst about 34% of voters; at best 46%) which some are beginning to say is itself eroding.

In Stark County, the "organized" Democratic Party's core political base consists of the Canton voting districts.

Not one Republican holds elective office in Canton (non-judicial offices).

Council president and ardent Democrat Allen Schulman over my years of covering Canton City Council has often railed against the impact of Republican supermajority Ohio General Assembly (OGA) legislation which has adversely affected the financial viability of Ohio urban areas in general and Canton city government in particular for some five years now.

Which political party controls the state Legislature has a direct and dramatic effect on the functioning of the cities, villages, townships and school districts which comprise Ohio's political subdivisions.

Accordingly, it is incumbent upon the political players and believers in competitive and thereby likely fair legislative districts to weigh-in on the process by which state House and Senate districts are formulated.

In November, 2015 Ohioans passed an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which sets up a new process by which districts will be composed  However, there will be no new districts at the very earliest the 2022 election for the Ohio legislative.

While there is a record that the Ohio Republican and Democratic political organizations supported the effort, there is no such record on the Stark County Republican and Democratic organizations following the lead of the state level entities.

Nevertheless, the proposed amendment did well in Stark in pretty much mirroring the margin across all of Ohio.

As important as reordering Ohio's state legislative district to be drawn more fairly, equally important is how the districts for the United States House of Representatives are composed.

An organization known as Fair Districts Ohio (FDO) has taken up  a ballot initiative quest to extend fairly drawn districts to Ohio's congressional district.

The Stark County Political Report has begun coverage (LINK to first blog) of the initiation of this ballot measure  which is projected to be on the November, 2018 ballot.

In my first blog on this topic, I wondered who might lead the FDO petition initiative in Stark County.

It appears that the answer is in:  the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party.

The first indication of such came when Council Democratic majority leader Frank Morris, IV marshalled the attention of his fellow council members to hear him out on a political matter, to wit:



Between the end of the council work session and the formal meeting, I talked briefly with Leader Morris about how he came to be involved in the FDO petition effort, to wit:



The most direct and immediate impact on local governments like Canton City Council comes from the actions of the state Legislature but as we have seen with the control of the U.S. Congress and the office of president being with the Republicans there are consequences for lower levels of government and individual citizens as to who sits in the centers of power at the national level.

Some headliner current issues the federal policy on which have a huge impact on state and local governments as well as local citizens include:

• Obamacare versus Trumpcare,
• Immigration,
• Climate matters, and
• the integrity/security of our elections

The most direct connection that day-in, day-out citizens have with the federal government is through the U.S. House of Representatives.

Town Hall meetings are popping up across the nation as a forum in which cveryday citizens get direct and personal with congress-persons who represent their districts.

That House members have to stand for election every two years and represent a much smaller constituency than the Senate members (who run for 6 year terms) and which not filtered by the electoral college structure of the presidential election, makes the U.S. House races the most structurally responsive.

The SCPR applauds the action of the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party and its chairman Phil Giavasis to get involved in getting the FDO generated petition drive to get congressional redistricting on the November, 2018 ballot.

Of course, being a distinctly minority party as between the two mainline political parties, makes it a matter of self interest that the Dems take up this cause.  So one cannot be sure that there much if any civic purpose in the Dems undertaking.

Hopefully, Stark County "organized" Republicans will follow suit.

If the Stark GOP does so it will be evidence that the party cares about the health and vitality of our democratic-republican political system over political party self interest.

For given the political dominance that Republicans have statewide and in congressional district make up, it is clearly in the interest of  local/state Republican Party operatives to sit on their collective hands.

This is a grand opportunity for the Grand Old Party to show it cares more about the overall strength of our political system than on its parochial interest.

CANTON CITIZEN Pete DiGiacomo TAKES ON AT&T & WINS!!!

VIDEO

Citizen Pete DiGiacomo Taking on AT&T

The primary reason I have be writing The Stark County Political Report for going on ten years now is all wrapped up in what Canton citizen Pete DiGiacomo accomplished Monday evening as an individual citizen who took on AT&T and persuaded Canton City Council to deny the gigantic company a "make or break" (being sarcastic, of course) $850 for aiding the Canton community in locating a missing child.

DiGiacomo was so into his cause on at Monday evening's council meeting that right before the roll call vote, he yelled out "Vote No, Vote No."

After it became apparent that council had responded to DiGiacomo's plea, he bellowed out a scream of delight followed by an apology for breaking decorum.

For his effort and phenomenal success, he should be thought of as a political Hall of Fame-esque performing civic activist at a corollary level to those great football athletes who are enshrined in the Canton based Pro Football Hall of Fame.

DiGiacomo was keeping government accountable.

Government accountability: a passion with me for all the years I have been doing this blog.  Keeping government accountable is an obligation that all we citizens have.  But few of us heed the call.

DiGiacomo was stellar in taking on the goliath AT&T in hurling political stones that felled the giant's effort to collect $850 from Canton taxpayers.

What's this "moral ob[ligation]" thing?

Let's flip that around.

What obligation does AT&T have to help out the Canton community in a infinitesimal way ($850 in services) given that Cantonians among millions of Americans over many, many years of doing business with its predecessor have made the communications company a behemoth.

It was not all that many years ago that the United States Department of Justice broke up A&T (1982) because of its monopolistic hold on a sector of American communications.

Here is a snapshot from Wikipedia of the massive wealth that AT&T generate annually to the point that it has assets of nearly one-half-trillion dollars.

As the foregoing numbers show, DiGiacomo was not hyping the size of AT&T in attributing it to be a multi-million dollar company.

The reality is that the communications giant is a "multi-billion dollar company!"

Here is a video of part of DiGiacomo's presentation to council on Monday evening.



Council is commended by the SCPR for heeding DiGiacomo's plea.

Pete DiGiacomo is one of Stark County finest citizen activists and a model for the fearful and timid as to what can be done if one will only take up the obligation to keep an eye on government and how government entities spend our (we taxpayers money).

Does AT&T dare sue Canton government for the $850?

Not likely.

Unless, of course, the colossus is really up against financial hard times and $850 is a make or break situation.

Obviously, such is not the case.

What AT&T ought to do through its public relations arm is to apologize to Canton taxpayers for even submitting a claim that the $850 be paid as a matter of morality.

Thank you Citizen Pete Giacomo for calling AT&T out on its quest and besting this commercial juggernaut.

To The Stark County Political Report,  you a Hall of Famer!

CANTON TO JOIN 175+ U.S. CITIES IN UNDERMINING TRUMP'S DEPARTURE FROM PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD?

CANTON LAW DIRECTOR JOE MARTUCCIO 

IS AT WORK 

CREATING LEGAL DOCUMENTS

ENLISTING CANTON 

IN 

GLOBAL WARMING FIGHT

SEE SCPR "EXCLUSIVE" INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR MARTUCCIO

STARK COUNTIAN & OHIO GOP CHAIR

JANE TIMKEN 

DEFENDS TRUMP'S ACTION

Millions of Americans were horrified when last Friday President Donald J. Trump announced that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement.

In America's past, when our nation's leader announced course of action, those of us not in accord might grumble and mouth muted criticism such is not the case in 2017 America.

In the wake of Trump's announcement more than 175 cities are in the process of combining resources to undermine the president's stance in vowing to implement in their respective cities the goals of the Paris climate agreement which has the United States cutting carbon emissions which most scientists think contribute to global warming which in turn degrades the viability of the world environment to support human life.

It appears that Canton, Ohio city government is preparing to join those 175 cities plus in working towards realizing the Paris climate agreement objectives.

Here is how Canton Law Director Joe Martuccio on Monday evening described to The Stark County Political Report his mission of putting together legislation for Canton City Council to vote on in two weeks or so.

Opposition to the Trump action is not just an urban America versus rural America political fight.  It has widespread support across the nation.

Joining the 175 plus cities are governors, major U.S. based international companies and high profile Americans (e.g Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of NYC) and some 59% of Americans as revealed in a recent Washington Post poll.

Locally, it is to be noted that Stark Countian and Ohio GOP chairperson Jane Timken has come out in robust support of Trump's decision.  (see Wikipedia biography LINK)

From today's online Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Timken talks Paris accord: Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken appeared on a Canton radio station Monday to defend Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement last week.

Timken told WHBC host Gary Rivers the agreement would have cost millions of industrial jobs, which would have particularly harmed Ohio. The media, she said, has "jumped on the bandwagon" with liberal critics of the decision. Pulling out wasn't a repudiation of efforts to fight climate change -- rather, she said, it was a rejection of a deal that was bad for the United States.

The poll cited earlier in this blog shows that there is a highly partisan factor in the mix of who and who does not support the Trump pullout decision:  67% Republicans support, 22% of independents support and 8% Democratic support.

If Canton City Council approves a departure from the Trump stance, such, of course, is indicative "up close and personal" of the great political divide that the climate issue is evidence of and seen on quite a few issues across the American political landscape (e.g. Obama/Trumpcare, the Russia thing and immigration/travel ban).

WHAT DOES OUTLAWING CITIES SETTING $15 HOURLY MINIMUM WAGE HAVE TO DO WITH OUTLAWING BEASTIALITY?

To repeat the blog headliner:  What does outlawing cities setting $15 hourly minimum wage have to do with outlawing beastiality?

According to Judge Richard A. Frye of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, NOTHING! and consequently Frye (on June 2, 2017; the suit having been filed on March 20, 2017) invalidated the minimum wage aspect, as being unconstitutional(re:  the Ohio constitution), in Ohio Senate Bill 331 passed by the "lame-duck" Ohio General Assembly (OGA) on December 7, 2016.

The suit was filed by 50 Ohio cities in defense of the Home Rule provisions of Ohio law (some of whom joined in on the litigation in order to specifically defend enactment of the $15 hourly minimum wage at the city level.  (See this LINK for other Home Rule victories/defeats)

The Ohio legislature in a clear example of "we have met the enemy and it is us" provided the perfect vehicle to the listed cities to challenge the Legislature's attack on Home Rule, in general, and, specifically, Cleveland's legislation setting a $15 hourly minimum wage for the jurisdiction of Cleveland city government by including in S.B. 331 the following diverse and unrelated (for the most part) topics:

From a Google search:

As far as the SCPR can determine, Cleveland is the only Ohio city who has passed $15 hourly minimum wage laws.

Back on November, 2015, Ward 7 councilman John Mariol expressed interest in bringing the legislation to Canton and thereby into the Stark County political mix.

Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown is part of a Democratic Party sponsored policy initiative:   "Raise the Wage Act of 2017" to make the $15 hourly minimum wage "the law of the land."

The objective of the 49 other Ohio cities joining in the Franklin County based lawsuit obviously defending Home Rule.

One of the more disturbing phenomenons of  S.B. 331 being enacted  is summed up succinctly by past Ohio Supreme Court chief justice C. William O'Neill:

Even more unsettling for Stark Countians is that three of Stark County's legislators (i.e. Oelslager, Hagan and Schuring; all Republicans [Democrat Stephen Slesnick voted "no"]) voted for the illegality.

If there is any consolation for the Stark County legislators is that they are but part of a gaggle of lawless legislators in that 20 other Republican senators and 53 other Republican representatives who in Sarah Palin's words "went rogue" in disrespect for the rule of law.

One of the recurring themes of The Stark County Political Report has been that many if not nearly all of our elected officials from the White House down through the local boards of education take initiatives, pass laws and do other official acts that send a message:   "the rule of law" be damned.

At play in Beckley v. Ohio was Article II, Section 15D, to wit:

A primary reason that the likes of Oelslager, Hagan and Schuring love catch-all legislation is that they can vary their reasons for having voted yes or no on a given bill and thereby avoid be held accountable on their respective positions on matters like Home Rule and the $15 hourly minimum wage.

To be perfectly blunt about the effort to hide, Frye's decision in Bexley v. Ohio (see the entire decision embedded in PD article at this LINK) makes those voting for the bill "lawless legislators."

With rank-and-file citizens going more and more often rogue and lawless when they find it "inconvenient" to their personal interest to comply with this or that law, it is unacceptably hypocritical for the likes of Oelslager, Hagan and Schuring and their colleagues and indeed all similar acting officials (e.g. Stark County probate court judge Dixie Park being overturned on constitutional grounds by the Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals, Judge Frank Forchione in ordering fine money diverted from the Stark County treasury to a Massachusetts civic effort [later changed his mind]) to expect the respect for and compliance for the "rule of law" when it suits them.

The SCPR recognizes that there is certainly is a legitimate difference of opinion whether a given government official's act is lawful or not.

However, when such officials are determined to have acted unlawfully; acknowledgment and very "public" apologies and a commitment to re-direct actions in a lawful manner are in order going forward.

Moreover, in an egregious context (e.g. the Dixie Park situation), the offending official should resign.

How often does even one of the four of the foregoing repentances happen?

And to the degree that acknowledgment, apology and re-direction or resignation does not occur; make no mistake about it, these government officials make themselves by virtue of their lawless political example a key part of growing lawlessness in America!

Another example of:  "we have met the enemy [to our democratic-republican system of government] and it is us," no?

.....................................................................

UPDATED:  06/03/2017

NOV, 2015 - OHIOANS VOTED FOR "FAIR" REDISTRICTING

 OF 

OHIO HOUSE/SENATE DISTRICTS

...............................................................................................

NOV, 2018 - WILL OHIOANS FOLLOW SUIT ON U.S. HOUSE SEATS?

IS THERE A STARK COUNTY
CIVIC MINDED PERSON
WHO WILL HELP MAKE OHIO/STARK CO. ELECTIONS
MORE COMPETITIVE?

Because the Ohio General Assembly (OGA) controlled by supermajority Republicans have via the process known as gerrymandering  (see this LINK for a history of gerrymandering) created (in the wake of the 2010 U.S. census) an assembly even more lopsided Republican than before, some Ohio citizens and civic activist groups took the matter of trying to get to the democratic/republican ideal of "one person, one vote" into their hands and did the necessary ballot initiative work to present the question fairness to Ohio voters in November, 2015.

The result?

A result pretty much mirrored by Stark Countians.

Would districts be fairer if Democrats were in commanding control of the Ohio legislature?

Not at all!

Digging deep into my past associations with Stark County Democratic politicians, I come up with one name that I think is representative of what supermajority control Democrats would do if the control factor was reversed.  

Name please:  Johnnie A. Maier, Jr, currently the clerk of the Massillon Municipal Court and formerly one of the top guns in the Democratic controlled OGA during the Speaker Vern Riffe era. (1975-1995)

The public interest be damned?

Maier seemed to me to be always beside himself as to which political party controlled the Ohio Apportionment Board which is a body, which up until the the passage of Issue 1 (now incorporated into the Ohio Constitution) in November, 2015, that allowed the majority party to dictate redistricting.

My take on Maier, Jr is that he is a power politician who bullies his way (not that unlike Donald Trump) through to realize his political objectives (e.g. making his brother George T. Maier, sheriff of Stark County) in order to achieve his personal self-interest by way of  commanding de facto if not de jure control of local Democratic Party organizations.

Maier himself had the benefit of running in a gerrymandered house district which included Democratic Massillon.  Massillon now, for the most part, is included in Canton Democrat Tom West's 49th Ohio House District.

I can't think of one legislative accomplishment that Maier had during his ten years or so as a Stark County-based legislator in the Ohio House.

While the Ohio Republican Party (in July) and the Ohio Democratic Party (in September) did endorse the November, 2015 initiative, it was touch-and-go as to whether or not the statewide Dems would do so.

Neither the "organized" Stark County GOP nor the Stark County Democrats endorse the initiative, local political parties from other counties did.

The Issue 1 change towards "fairer" state level legislative districts will not happen until 2021 and the conducting of the every 10 years census (i.e. the 2020 U.S. census).

As I write, there are 66 Republicans in the Ohio House (mostly suburban, rural districts) to 33 Democrats (mostly inner city and urban;  e.g. Thomas West of Canton).

In the Senate, Republicans control 24 to 9.

See this LINK to see the list of Democrats and Republicans who currently hold legislative office in Ohio.

Ohio voter registration is not 2/3rds Republican and 1/3rd Democrat.

As of May 17, 2017, there are 7.89 million Ohioans registered to vote.

Of that number:

• Democrats - 16.41%
• Republicans - 25.78%
• Non-Affiliated -  57.81%

So depending on whether Republicans or Democrats control the district apportioning process, either 16% or 26% of Ohio voter registration population is catered two.

A "fair" apportioning process would focus on the 58% who are non-affiliated.

Here are the numbers for Stark County:

• Democrats - 16,74%
• Republicans - 28.70%
• Non-Affiliated - 54.56%

Again, the focus should be in terms of fairness the 54.56%; not the 28.70% and the 16.74%, the way that "organized" Republicans and Democrats have done with redistricting over the years.

Here is a Ballotpedia summary (an extract thereof) of Issue 1 provisions added to Article 10 of the Ohio Constitution as a consequence of voter approval in November, 2015:

Issue 1

End the partisan process for drawing Ohio House and Senate districts, and replace it with a bipartisan process with the goal of having district boundaries that are more compact and politically competitive.

Ensure a transparent process by requiring public meetings, public displays of maps, and a public letter explaining any plan the Commission adopts by a simple majority vote.

Establish the bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission, composed of 7 members including the Governor, the Auditor of State, the Secretary of State, and 4 members appointed by the majority and minority leaders of the General Assembly.

Require a bipartisan majority of 4 members in order to adopt any final district plan, and prevent deadlock by limiting the length of time any plan adopted without bipartisan support is effective.

If passed, the amendment will become effective immediately.

News broke within the past week that a group working on drawing fairer Ohio congressional districts has received necessary ballot language approvals and will today (June 2, 2017) start circulating petitions.  

I was overjoyed to see this development.

However, I am disappointed that no Stark County person/location is listed as being a place to pick up petitions to circulate.

Please spread the word that Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio (FCDO) is in need of someone/some organization to facilitate circulation of the petitions in Stark County.

Statewide 305,591 valid voter signatures are needed from a minimum of 44 of Ohio's 88 counties.

As I write this blog, the closest pick up point for petitions is Summit County and at that the locale is Hudson which is located in northern Summit County.

Here is an e-mail contact link for a civic minded Stark Countian  to get in touch with FDCO and make arrangement to do a terrific public service for Stark County, Ohio, and, indeed the nation.

The Stark County Political Report will be pushing for the success of the FCDO effort with numerous updating blogs between today and the November, 2018 general election which is the election that it is anticipated that Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio drive will show up on the ballot.

If passed, here is what Article X of the Ohio Constitution will look like (language will cover both redistricting for the Ohio House of Representative, the Ohio Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Going forward, likely on a weekly basis, I will publish blogs that thoroughly evidence why for the sake of a viable and vibrant Ohio and national democratic-republican system of to thrive, Stark County voters need to follow up the resounding November, 2015 vote on state of Ohio redistricting will the same formula for making Ohio's congressional districts more competitive.