VIDEO
Jill Creamer
in aftermath of victory over
Shaddrick Stinson
incumbent Massillon councilman
"As the crow flies," the residence of Ward 4 councilman Shaddrick Stinson and his Democratic opponent in the Tuesday concluded Democratic primary; namely, Jill Creamer, is only about two miles apart.
But the distance nearly doubles if one drives from 1123 Walnut Road, Southeast to 2040 Augusta Drive, Southeast.
Stinson lives in precinct 4B, a largely African-American community (as are precincts 4A and 4C) located in an economically depressed part of Massillon; Creamer lives in 4D, one Massillon's posh-est communities that sprang up in recent years as folks were lured to area as a consequence of The Legends of Massillon Golf Course being built.
Stinson seemingly materialized out of nowhere in the 2013 elections.
With Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and R. Shane Jackson (Maier Massillon Political Machine [MMPM]) - obviously to the SCPR - being the generators behind the move; the-then Ward 4 councilman Tony Townsend (a MMPM loyalist) was appointed in late January, 2013 by Massillon Ward 4 Democratic Central Committee members as council president on the resignation of fellow Massillon Democrat Glenn Gamber.
However, a question developed as to Hampton's eligibility to hold partisan political office because of her status as a member of the U.S. Army National Guard.
Rather than stand by Hampton, it appears that the MMPM dumped her in favor of Shaddrick Stinson and a political newcomer to Massillon city politics as Hampton had been until she became "personna non-grata" as far as the MMPM was concerned.
As the MMPM supported Democratic Party standard-bearer in the 2013 general election, Stinson did very nicely in the election.
Had Quenessa's husband Edward, running as an independent, not been in the race; Stinson would have won by a much more comfortable margin over Republican Jim Triner.
The SCPR thinks it's safe to assume that Stinson, an African-American, had African-American Edward Hampton not been in the race, would have achieved near 40% of the vote in the posh (overwhelmingly White) Massillon Ward 4D.
And Stinson worked very hard in Ward 4D, obviously knowing that he had a lock on the predominantly minority vote in the rest of Ward 4 as witness his having convinced former Massillon mayor Frank Cicchinelli to support him in the general election.
A critical condition of Cicchinelli support was Stinson's representation to him that he (Stinson) was not part of the MMPM and would be independent minded as a member of Massillon City Council and not be a more or less automatic supporter for the MMPM proxy (2011 Democratic primary election) Kathy Catazaro-Perry who defeated Cicchinelli in that primary election.
As it turned out, Stinson had bamboozled the "should have known better" former mayor.
Cicchinelli has told the SCPR that he made a mistake in supporting then-fellow-Democrat Shaddrick Stinson.
Well, all that got corrected on Tuesday of this week as Stinson-fellow-Ward 4-Democrat took him on and defeated him rather handily thereby making him former Councilman Shaddrick Stinson come January 1, 2016.
And the SCPR thinks he only has to look at Mayor Kathy and her bungling political advisers (Maier, Jr and Shane Jackson, [Kitchen Cabinet]) and their "let's get rid of The Legends of Massillon golf course as being the cause of his defeat.
In March, 2014 the Catazaro-Perry administration was talking up an "eyesore," "congestion-ladened" (at least from the perspective of many, most or all of residents surrounding The Legends) aquarium and water park being placed on nine holes of the 27 hole golf course.
A quote from Catazaro-Perry from an Akron Beacon Journal article:
“This is a wonderful opportunity that has come to the city of Massillon, and we need to give it our full attention and welcome them into our community,” Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry said after Thursday morning’s meeting. “The economic impact is amazing. ... This is going to be great for our families.”On October 14, 2014 in a letter to residents of The Legends' neighborhood area, her tune was somewhat changed, to wit:
Let me state for the record that there is no plan to sell or close the golf course. And let me further state I am not proposing any plan to sell or close the golf course. Ultimately, the authority to take those actions currently resides solely with Massillon City Council. That being said, we must now move beyond politics and recognize that mistakes have been made in the past regarding the golf course and take this opportunity to learn from those past mistakes so we do not to repeat them.When it became apparent to the mayor and her Kitchen Cabinet that in coming out in favor of seriously exploring the leasing/selling part of golf course; she tries to reverse herself with a disclaimer-esque letter to the residents of The Legends' area and by appearing before them within days of Tuesday's election (Wednesday, April 29th in a purported non-political setting: Who is going to believe that?) in which she tried to explain away her waffling.
As shown in videos which the SCPR in The Report's blog of April 30th, Legends' area residents were not buying.
Her appearance at The Legends on the 29th was a major political blunder which undoubtedly contributed to her close call of losing the Democratic primary to the unknown and untested (in terms of being prepared to be mayor) J. David Ress.
And Catazaro-Perry's dancing around in the issue and Stinson's own indecisiveness in the context of being perceived to be a Catazaro-Perry and MMPM loyalist probably did determine Shaddrick Stinson's political fate as Ward 4 councilman.
Take a look at Stinson's Ward 4 Tuesday results:
Stinson got the overwhelming majority of precincts 4A, 4B (Stinson's precinct) and 4C, the total vote was only 172 voters.
Creamer got 197 votes in precinct 4D having run a pretty slick campaign.
Precinct 4D (the home of The Legends of Massillon and Candidate Creamer) produced 226 voters.
While 13.8% overall of Ward 4 registered voters showed up on Tuesday, nearly 58% of the 13.8% were Ward 4D voters leaving 8.04% to be divided among the three pro-Stinson precincts or 2.8% on average in precincts 4A, 4B and 4C.
Pretty pathetic "get out the vote" effort by Stinson, no?
It looks nearly certain to the SCPR that Democratic nominee Creamer will be elected in November.
As can be seen from Republican Triner's numbers in the 2013 general election presented above, if Democrats are not fighting among themselves, Ward 4 is probably Massillon's most reliable year-in, year-out Democratic precinct if they can "get out the vote."
Creamer has the advantage this year of many Republicans having taken out Democratic ballots in order to support their Democratic friend, neighbor and consort as to a "focus on the fate of The Legends" matter.
Accordingly, Creamer's Republican opponent does not seem to have much of a chance.
One has to wonder whether or not Stinson wasn't kicking himself all over Massillon on the day after the election.
If only he had kept his word to Frank Cicchinelli that he would be his own person and not the captive of Mayor Catazaro-Perry and the MMPM, he would be looking at two more years as Massillon's Ward 4 councilman.
Moreover, he has to be questioning the supposed political genius of the Maier, Jr. Massillon Political Machine, no?
One also has to wonder whether or not Mayor Kathy will lash out at precinct 4D voters as being racist as she did in the summer of 2014 when council nosed into the financial sustainability of the hire of African-American Dwan St. John?
Dwan is wife of Stark County Black Caucus associated Deametrious St. John.
Deametrious is/has been:
- a paid political consultant for Democratic causes,
- who the SCPR deems to be a MMPM loyalist, and
- who likely served a year as one of two Democratic members of the Stark County Board of Elections under the sponsorship of former Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.
The last the SCPR knew, at least according to local media reports, Ms. St. John is pressing a civil rights complaint against Massillon City Council.
Here is a SCPR video of the victorious Jill Creamer in the afterglow of her Tuesday night triumph over an incumbent Massillon city councilperson.
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