Monday, June 28, 2010

VIDEO: ALAN HAROLD SPEECH AT NAVARRE TEA PARTY: AS A POLITICAL NOVICE CAN HE BEST THE POLITICALLY WILEY KIM PEREZ IN THE COUNTY AUDITOR RACE?




 UPDATE - CORRECTION 06/28/2010 AT 4:00 PM

Candidate Harold telephoned the SCPR and pointed out that The Report erroneously wrote that he is an accountant.

Harold is an accountant with a degree in financing from Mount Union College and an MBA from The Ohio State University.

The base blog has been revised to incorporate the correction.

ORIGINAL BLOG (as revised)

By all accounts, Alan Harold is a class act.

But, it appears, as a politician, he is an outright greenhorn.

He did run as a candidate for the Stark County Educational Service Center Board last November.  And he made a very credible showing. in running for the Stark County Educational Service Center Board in November, 2009.  He lost narrowly to former Perry Township trustee Jim Holmes.


Yesterday, Harold, running to become county auditor, spoke at the Navarre Tea Party along with fellow Republicans James N. Walters (for commissioner), Todd Snitchler (for Ohio House 50th) and Jim Renacci (for the U.S. House - 16th).

The SCPR gives Alan Harold a D on his presentation.

Each candidate was allocated a time period of from 15 to 30 minutes.  None got anywhere near the allocation.  Moreover, Alan Harold was the shortest of all.

Maybe he thinks he is going to ride the troubles at the Stark treasurer's office to victory in his run against incumbent Kim Perez (Democrat).  If he does, then his political naivete is showing through in spades.

Harold's opponent, Kim Perez, is not getting all that much flack from area media types.  Only Pat DeLuca of the DeLuca show on Q92 is calling for Perez's resignation.  And, perhaps, DeLuca has it right.

The SCPR has learned that somewhere along the line Perez made a call to Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor's office telling them that they had a problem at the Stark treasury.

The question that Harold should have raised in Navarre yesterday is this:  if Perez knew there was a problem, why did he take the Treasurer's submission of supporting documentation (i.e. bank statements) at face value.  Apparently, Perez knew that the numbers coming out of the treasurer's office were not meshing.

What Perez should have done was to gather up Zeigler and Frustaci and go with them to the bank and have them direct bank officials to provide exact replicas of the bank statements sent out from the bank.
But he did not.

Such is an articulated basis on which to ask Perez to resign.

Yesterday, Harold spent very little time on Perez, the man he wants to replace.  He talked on and on and on about Zeigler and other county officials.  But minimally about Perez.

Harold is an accountant and did highlight that credential as well as some other biographical details.

He did not identify Perez's faults as auditor.  Nor did he say what should have been done differently at the auditor's office over Perez's tenure to have aided in catching the theft earlier.  

Alan Harold did not distinguish himself yesterday.

The only reasons the SCPR heard as to why Stark Countians should vote for him is:
  • he's an accountant.
  • Kim Perez a part of a gaggle of Democrats who are collectively responsible for what happened at the Stark treasury.
  • He works for Steve Coons (a well known local restorer of old buildings)
Harold has a lot of work to do in becoming a more complete candidate.  For starters he needs to spell out Perez's specific failures and then articulate the corrective action he will implement. 

Then he needs get off the R & D stuff.  The voting public just wants good public servants.  They do not care that much about political party affiliation.

The Report believes that notwithstanding the obvious problems that Democrats have running countywide with the revelations about Frustaci's time at the Stark treasury, Perez will be tough for Harold to defeat.  Perez historically has been the very best vote getter for Democrats in countywide races.

The Report believes that were the election held today, Perez would defeat Harold.

But there is time for Harold to take advantage of Perez's vulnerableness.  Getting a D in this SCPR evaluation should be a wake up call for Mr. Accountant.  If it doesn't get heeded, then Harold will be doing the would have, should have, might have routine come November 2, 2010.

Here is the video of Harold at the Navarre Tea Party event:

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