Tuesday, January 7, 2014

NORTH CANTON BATTLE CONTINUES: FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF IT!




Whether one agrees with the legal positions of Jamie McCleaster and Hillary Mueller or not, they should be admired for pursuing vindication of their respective campaigns for North Canton City Council this past November.



They did lose on ethics violation complaints filed with the Ohio Elections Commission (LINK to prior SCPR blog) days before the November 5th general election.

For a full refresher on the gist of the Snyder and Kiesling complaints go to this SCPR blog LINK.

The two offending pieces (from the Kiesling and Snyder perspective of campaign literature  were these:


The two highlighted areas of the above-graphics zero in on the core of the Kiesling/Snyder complaints in terms of the allegation of their falsity.

McCleaster ran against Councilwoman at Large Marcia Kiesling and Mueller took on Ward 4 councilman and president of council Jon Snyder.

As if losing the ethics complaint were not enough, both McCleaster and Mueller lost in the election to their respective opponents.


While the Elections Commission decision was made by the commission on November 4th, the actual orders were not issued until December 19th.

Here is an extract of the order made in McCleaster's case:


On Monday, Warren Price ("Of Counsel":  Allen Schulman and Associates) filed on a pro bono (the SCPR is told) basis an appeal of both the McCleaster and Mueller decisions.

Focusing on once again on McCleaster (so far as the SCPR can determine, a identical filing was done in the Mueller case), here is a copy of the Notice of Appeal (Note:  Source of document is the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas website):


Interesting, no?

Here you have two Stark County citizens who having had the disappointment of losing elections but who are determined to be vindicated on their belief that they did nothing wrong in publishing the campaign literature that they did.

Here is McCleaster's full press release commenting on the filing:
Media Contact
Jamie McCleaster
+1 330 806 7381
Rmccleaster@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


1/3/2014


FORMER CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE TO APPEAL OHIO ELECTIONS COMMISSION DECISION OVER CAMPAIGN LITERATURE


North Canton – Attorneys for North Canton resident and candidate for Council At-Large in last November’s election, Robert J “Jamie” McCleaster filed an appeal Friday in Columbus against the Ohio Elections Commission over a ruling in regards to McCleaster’s campaign literature. 


The week before the November 5, 2013 election, McCleaster’s opponent, North Canton City Council Vice President Marcia Kiesling filed two complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission. 

Her complaints were in regards to McCleaster listing Kiesling’s public meeting attendance rate of 72%, which was later found to be accurate by the Commission, and his wording used to describe ordinance 47-13 which granted raises for the city’s elected officials upon the start of the new term in December. The verbiage around the raises was deemed to be false, the appeal calls that decision into question.

When asked why he’s pursuing the appeal McCleaster said, “I still firmly believe that the words I chose for my campaign literature are accurate. I’m appealing this solely to right the wrong, and fight for what I believe is right!”


Robert J “Jamie” McCleaster is a lifelong (3rd generation) resident of North Canton, and a graduate of Hoover High School and The University of Akron. An engaged North Canton resident, Jamie has been active within the community for many years, serving on city committees and as the President/Board member of the North Canton Jaycees. Jamie lives on Pierce Ave with his wonderful wife Katie, their daughter Hailey, and son Jack. 


For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/mccleaster. 

While the Stark County Political Report does not take a position on the merits of the contest between Kiesling/McCleaster and Snyder/Mueller, the Report is impressed that McCleaster and Mueller believe so much in the rightness of their case that they are willing to forge ahead seeking vindication of their legal position.

Moreover, Warren Price ("Of Counsel, Allen Schulman and Associates [Schulman is Canton City Council president]) is to be commended for providing free legal representation.

One the confusing things about Price's work for McCleaster and Mueller in the original hearing is the effort (reportedly by Sndyer) to challenge Price's right to represent.  Sndyer, as the SCPR understands his position, is said to be saying that because Price had accepted employment (which turned out not to be the case) that a conflict in interest existed and that therefore Price should not be permitted by the Elections Commission to represent.

The SCPR lauds Price for pressing ahead and providing McCleaster and Mueller with their right to defend themselves in our democratic-republican system of government.

Of course, the SCPR, like no other Stark County media, will stay with this case so that Stark Countians can see it it progress - in all its detail - to the end.

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