TRUSTEES CHESSLER AND LAUBACHER AT ODDS OVER CAPALDI REPLACEMENT. CANDIDATE GAYLE JACKSON NEEDS TO GET ON THE "HOTLINE" TO POLITICAL FIXER JOHNNIE A. MAIER, JR?

UPDATE:  02/01/2012

Apparently, Gayle Jackson political sponsor and former Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., ran out of political magic to bestow upon Jackson as Perry trustees Lee Laubacher and Craig Chessler chose a non-politician to replace Anna Capaldi who resigned early in January.

Doug Haines, a Fisher Foods employee, who does not have a political resume was the selection yesterday.

The SCPR believes that Chessler's candidate was Jackson. 

Had he not given into Laubacher, he could have faced the possibility that he would have provided a possibility for the avowedly Republican and past trustee candidate Crisiva Varner getting the appointment at the hand of  Stark County Probate Judge Dixie Park (a Republican) who statutorily was in line to make the appointment in the event of a deadlock between Laubacher and Chessler.

ORIGINAL BLOG

Perry township trustees are poised to make an appointment to replace recently resigned Trustee Anna Capaldi, perhaps, at tonight's meeting.  But they could wait until as late as Thursday.

The SCPR has learned that appointing trustees Craig Chessler and Lee Laubacher are at loggerheads as to whom they will appoint.

Chessler reportedly wants former trustee (Perry), Stark County commissioner and Ohio Lottery official Gayle Jackson.  Laubacher?  Anyone but Jackson.

At stake is the political clout of former Stark County chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.  He is a Jackson political ally going back many years.  Maier names Jackson as the all time best commissioner that Stark County has ever had.

As The Report has mused in an earlier blog, it is unbelievable that a politician of Jackson's stature would submit her name unless she had "a wink and nod" assurance that were she to apply, the position would be hers.

One thing Chessler and Laubacher (both Democrats) agree on is that they do not want the appointment to go to Republican Stark County Probate Judge Dixie Park.

So does this mean that the new trustee will come from among the list Chessler and Laubacher published recently?  They are:

• David Ramos, secretary of the Perry Township Zoning Commission,
• Ralph DeChiara Jr., a township firefighter; 
• Doug Haines, a Fisher Foods employee, and
• Attorney Paul Hervey

With only hours remaining until the appointment occurs, one can imagine that there is a political hotline set up between Jackson and Maier as they communicate strategy in an all out effort to bringing Laubacher on board.

Can Maier pull a Jackson appointment off?