DISCUSSION: WHY WAS GOVERNOR STRICKLAND A "NO SHOW" IN LOUISVILLE ON SATURDAY?

On Thursday, in The Repository, was an announcement. "Governor Strickand, DeHoff to visit Louisville."

Susan Faber of Tuscarawas Township thought this would be a grand opportunity to meet with the governor on a pressing issue to the Faber family. The firing of her husband (a Local 92 Teamster) by the Tuscarawas Township Board of Trustees.

As Faber sees it, Trustee Celeste DeHoff was the initiator of the firing (October, 2006).

The issue has wound itself through various legal proceedings and now is before the State Employment Relations Board (SERB) for a determination of whether or not the matter will be ordered to arbitration.

Faber tells the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) she has been seeking an audience with the governor for some time now. She thought she had one in the works for December 4, 2007. But the proposed meeting fell apart. Why?

Faber had asked for the meeting in a face-to-face encounter with Strickland when the governor was in Stark County at a political event. He agreed to meet with her and set forces in motion at the hand of his Region 9 Director - Steven Meeks (former Jackson Township trustee).

Who refused the meeting? Susan Faber. Why? Because the meeting was to include Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. and Meeks himself.

Faber's beef is with DeHoff (who is Maier's handpicked candidate in Ohio 50th House District) and her position is that such a meeting would not be one-on-one with the governor but one which included the governor and two DeHoff supporters (Maier and Meeks).

How does Steve Meeks get into this as a direct DeHoff supporter? (other than being a Stark County Democrat) Faber says that Meeks was the driving force in his days as Jackson trustee to get DeHoff appointed a Jackson's assistant law director. (probably at the behest of Maier)

So this winding route explains why Faber was in Louisville on Saturday looking for the governor.

Her efforts proved futile. Faber believes the word somehow got out that she and her supporters would be showing up at the announced Louisville event. Other than the Faber entourage, only a DeHoff campaign volunteer, Stark County commissioner Todd Bosley and maybe another person or so showed up.

Faber says she was excitedly greeted by the volunteer and was told that yes the governor was coming. Faber noted that the volunteer made a number of cell phone calls were made and after a bit of time elapsed announced that the governor would not be in Louisville after all.

Where did the governor indeed show up in Stark County? St. George's Center off Applegrove in North Canton. Faber did not crash the "ticketed" event but she did make sure Louisville (which is in the 50th House District) voters knew about DeHoff's part in her husband's firing by parading a sign in the downtown area.

Undoubtedly, the governor's real reason for coming to Stark County was the "Cornhole" tournament. Maier saw this as an opportunity to piggyback a DeHoff event onto Strickland's being in the area. Obviously, the governor did not want to be associated with DeHoff in a controversial setting. So The Report surmises that his handlers had him bypass Louisville.

Question: Has the governor learned anything from this "hide 'n' seek" venture? Will his advisers be looking several times at a Johnnie A. Maier, Jr request to appear with Celeste DeHoff anywhere in Stark County?