Wednesday, July 27, 2016

WILL STARK CO POLITICAL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

A SORT OF "DEJA VU" ALL OVER AGAIN?


October 31, 2011 is likely viewed by Stark County Democrats such as Canton City Council president Alan Schulman as a "day of infamy" in  Stark County Democratic Party annals.,

On October 19th, then-Democratic Stark County treasurer resigned from office after having been restored to office in August, 2011 having been illegally removed according to the Supreme Court of Ohio by then Stark County commissioners Bosley, Meeks and Ferguson (all Democrats).

It had been revealed on April 1, 2009 that then-Chief Deputy Treasurer Vince Frustaci had stolen what turned out to be in the vicinity of $3 million from the county treasury, a crime for which he is currently serving a 10 year federal prison sentence.

Zeigler came under fire from local officials for, in the opinion of the state of Ohio auditor's office, not properly managed the county treasury managed the office in terms of its physical facilities, its procedures, processes, policies and programs so as to having had in place measures to prevent the theft of county taxpayer money.

On Zeigler's resignation, the Stark County Democratic Central Committee was tasked with finding a replacement for him.

Key Democrats (then-chair Randy Gonzalez, Commissioner Tom Bernabei (now a political independent and mayor of Canton and others) advocated the appointment by the Dems of Republican Alex Zumbar, to wit (Gonzalez at the Central Committee meeting) for the stability of Stark County government.



The Democrats did in fact provide opposition to Zumbar in November, 2012 but not with a candidate that offered much of an electoral challenge to him.


Here is a video clip of Schulman's opposing the Stark Democratic Central Committee appointment of Republican Alex Zumbar as treasurer of Stark County back in October, 2011.



Fast forward to 2016.

Zumbar is up for re-election.

Democrat Cody Horner filed as a candidate and was elected by Democrats in the May, 2016 primary to vie with Zumbar in November.

Then this:




Consequently, the Dems are scrambling to find a replacement facing a deadline of August 15th.rn

And by the way, the SCPR did not consider Horner to be much of a threat to Zumbar's continuance in office.  Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump being at the head of the Republican ticket is more of a barrier than anybody the Democrats put up.

The SCPR has an initial report that Canton City Schools Board of Education member Corey Minor Smith (elected last November) had be asked to replace Horner.

On contacting her yesterday, Minor Smith denied the report and said she would not be a candidate.

The Report is told that the Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee will be meeting this week to select a Horner replacement.

It is hard to imagine that the Dems can come up with a viable candidate to oppose Zumbar.

So in effect whatever the Dems do in finding a replacement, it will amount to a sort of "deja vu all over again."

Another way to put it:  Alex Zumbar has more or less received three free rides at the hand of "organized" Democrats since he defeated Ken Koher in a in effect void election in November, 2010.

Koher had the credential to be and was a legitimate cause for concern on the part of Zumbar to his being in the position he is today.

So much for the Gonzalez "hot air" in implying in the 2011 video above that the Dems would vigorously contest the continuance of Republican Alex Zumbar in office.


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