Massillon City Councilman Tony Townsend (political ally of Stark County Democratic Party chair Johnnie A. Maier) has been appointed to the Stark State College of Technology Board of Trustees by Governor Ted Strickland.A strange appointment indeed from a governor who says that he is an advocate for fixing public school funding and opposes the charter school movement and vouchers.
Politically knowledgeable Stark Countians know that the Stark County Republican Party has only one countywide elected official in place (Jane Vignos) who is not a judge.
The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) has criticized former Stark County Republican Party chair Curt Braden for letting the Stark County Republican Party become non-competitive.
The Report's position is this: Having one political party super-dominate a unit of government is bad for the people. Whether its Canton (Democrats), Massillon (Democrats), Stark County (Democrats) or the state of Ohio (Republican until the elections of 2006), one-party-rule is bad, bad, and badder for the people.
So, The Report has taken it on to chide the Stark County Republican Party leadership for being non-competitive at the county level. Why the county? Because the local Republican Party does have a base within the county to be competitive. But it isn't because of the poor leadership qualities of Curt Braden. There are signs that current chair Jeff Matthews will do better (e.g. getting Richard Hart to run against Stephen Slesnick (Democrat and sitting appointed state represenative). However, the jury is still out on Matthews.
It may not matter what Matthews does. It appears that Matthews' leadership is be usurped by Stark County Democratic chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.
First, Maier has taken on an anti-union stance as evidenced by the Billy Sherer (Democrat and a former ironworker and stalwart union man) non-renewal on the Stark County Board of Elections. Second is his decision to not reappoint Dan Scuiry (president of the Hall of Fame AFL-CIO) and Joe Carbenia (a union firefighter) to the executive committee of the Stark County Democratic Party. Third, Maier's recruitment of longtime Republicans Pat DeOrio (to run for Stark County commissioner) and Celeste DeHoff (to run for state representative [50th].
Now we have Maier weighing in on behalf of charter school advocate Massillon City Councilman Tony Townsend. Townsend has served as principal and vice principal of David Brennan's White Hat Management sponsored Hope Academy. The Canton Professional Educators, the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers will be pleased (being sarcastic here) to see this Republican-esque move by Maier.
Is Johnnie A. Maier, Jr a political Trojan Horse who will restore Republicans to leadership in Stark County?
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