UPDATED: 05:30 P.M. (RESS VIDEO ADDED)
BUT SHE WILL BE
TOAST
TOAST
COME
NOVEMBER?
A near upset defeat of sitting mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry by political novice J. David Ress.
The difference?
Ward 3, the ward from which Catazaro-Perry springboarded into the mayor's chair in the first place in her upset defeat of 24 year mayor Francis H. Cicchinell, Jr in the 2011 Democratic primary.
Catazaro-Perry won this election in her home base of Ward 3.
Though the November election includes Republican Lee Brunckhart and gadfly candidate Scott Graber, the SCPR is already projecting former mayor Frank Cicchinelli to win in November.
There is the caution that Cicchinelli has to get by the "surely to come" challenge that he is not eligible to run as an independent because he has been a registered Democrat for all of his political life and therefore his change is merely one of opportunism and not an authentic, "good faith" break with the Democratic party.
But if he does, he coasts to victory in November.
During the campaign, Ress more or less said that he ran his campaign in the expectation of losing to Catazaro-Perry who many including the SCPR sees as being the puppet of former Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.
Maier, Jr is the elected clerk of courts in support of the Massillon Municipal Court which includes political crony Eddie Elum.
Also in the Catazaro-Perry support team mix is Maier, Jr's chief deputy clerk of courts R. Shane Jackson who doubles up as the political director of the Stark County Democratic Party.
With the political warhorses Maier, Jr., Elum and Jackson at Catazaro-Perry's beck and call, the political experts undoubted see themselves to be, Ress's feat last night is all the more amazing.
The SCPR was hearing reports that Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero as saying that he expected Ress to win.
Yours truly was not buying, but Ferrero (a bitter Maier Massillon Political Machine foe) was within the length of a "political" thread of being correct.
Another interesting tidbit that you will only hear from The Stark County Political Report is that Mayor Catazaro-Perry while campaigning in Ward 6 with another Maier, Jr. stand-in, that is to say Linda Litman (a narrowly [by seven votes] Ward 6 councilperson candidate) got the Massillon Police called on them because of their persistent engagement with a voter who clearly told them that the voter was a committed Litman's Democratic Party opponent and incumbent councilperson Michelle Del Rio-Keller who chose to not run at-large again but in her home ward.
Catazaro-Perry has shown the SCPR that she does have an obnoxious streak in her which is pretty rare for a politician.
All of her political/officialdom weaknesses, The Report thinks, are going to combine come about November 3, 2015 and make somebody else mayor of Massillon.
How do you like the idea of Mayor Scott Graber should Cicchinelli be forced off the ballot?
Getting back to J. David Ress.
His candidacy should be inspirational to everyday citizens across Stark County who want to make a contribution to the political/government well being to the county's political subdivisions
The Report's take is that the likes of Maier, Jr., Jackson and Elum can be intimidating to well-meaning, politically guileless day-in, day-out citizens.
Ress's near miss shows that these political pros are for the most part Wizards of Oz who bellow and command but when one pulls back the curtain sees them for what they really are: a lot of hot air!
But of course these Wizards are supported by taxpayer dollars.
A SCPR thank you to J. David Ress for venturing forth to challenge the politically challenged mayor who The Report thinks with the likes of Maier, Jr, Jackson and Elum at her side are driving the once mighty city of Massillon right into the ground.
Here are the remaining precincts so that you the reader can see for yourself how impressively Ress performed.
But first, here is a video of Ress's reaction having just lost a close election.
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