This article is the first in a series the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) will be doing in the race for sheriff.
The Report has parsed the Dordea website to decipher what Larry Dordea (former Alliance police chief) is saying about his opponent - Sheriff Tim Swanson.
Dordea's campaign is a "campaign by indirection." In print he says very little, if anything, directly about Swanson's administration. But by implication (i.e. he says what he will do/be as sheriff which by implication means that Swanson doesn't do or isn't as sheriff.)
The Report has asked Dordea for a sit down interview but he is non-responsive. Apparently, Dordea is ticked about an article done by The Report on his position on the 9-1-1 issue in which The Report suggested Dordea might be "too provincial" to be a countywide official.
Look up that article in the search box on The Report. Read the article and read Dordea's comment. In his comment he says "when [The Report] gets to know him." Well, The Report is still waiting. Perhaps, after a sit down, The Report would come to a different point-of-view.
The Report promises readers that between now and November The Report will find Dordea out on the campaign trail and ask him the questions we have. In the meantime, The Report will garner Dordea's criticisms of Swanson from his written (i.e. campaign website) "campaign by indirection."
The Report did sit down with Tim Swanson for over an hour and went over Dodea's criticism point-by-point. Readers can visit the Swanson website here.
The Report will approach a consideration of this campaign issue-by-issue: one per blog.
First, The Report considers the general tenor of the campaign.
A close reading of the Dordea website indicated to The Report that Dordea has over a dozen problems with how Tim Swanson run the sheriff's office.
On the other hand, the only criticism that The Report could gather in the interview with Swanson is that being police chief is not like being sheriff.
Swanson compared the Dordea campaign to one that long time Stark County residents will vividly remember. In a very ugly campaign in November, 1980; Republican Robert C. Berens ran against and unseated long time (13 years) sitting sheriff George Papadopulos.
Berens served one term and Swanson (who was in the department at the time) says Berens did not have a clue. Swanson does distinguish Dordea in that Dordea does have police experience whereas Berens didn't (he was an insurance man). But Sheriff Swanson says Dordea does not have the breath of experience one needs to make a credible criticism of Swanson's overall administration of the sheriff's office.
Otherwise, Swanson is mystified by the Dordea attacks, even if by indirection. Swanson says he feels Dordea was a good police chief of Alliance and that his (Swanson's) office worked with Dordea on a number of occasions (e.g. drug busts) in a harmonious way. Swanson says he will not attack Dordea directly as Dordea is doing to him.
Question: Was Berens v. Papadopulos the equivalent to Dordea v. Swanson? How so/how not?
I must commend Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson for committing to run a clean race. It seems to me that Mr. Dordea's platform is strictly based on disparaging Sheriff Swanson, not on his plan to improve law enforcement protection in Stark County. That would lead me to assume that Mr. Dordea cannot improve anything, thus the incumbent is doing his job!
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