LOW LIGHTS, highlights of Jane Timken Cleveland City Club Speech of 07/21/2017

UPDATE:  COMMON CAUSE WEIGH-IN ON JANE TIMKEN'S REDISTRICTING COMMENTS

On Friday just past, Jane Timken, in her capacity as chairperson of the Ohio Republican Party since January 6, 2017, spoke to the Cleveland City Club on the State of the Ohio Republican Party.

Having listened to a podcast (also viewing a videocast) of the event, my assessment of her presentation is that it is marked by both the 'low lights' and 'HIGHLIGHTS.'

Timken is of particular interest to many Stark Countians first and foremost because she is a Stark Countian but also she is the wife of our county's most prominent citizens W. J. (Tim) Timken, Jr; chief executive officer and president of Timken Steel.

Timken industrial enterprises have provided a good living for thousands if not tens of thousands of Stark County families.  The "Timken" name is a hallowed name with many, many, many Stark Countians.

Jane Timken herself is a native of Cincinnati.

Recently (January 6, 2017), she was catapulted to the top spot of the Ohio Republican Party as its chairperson.  Hence, her appearance at the Cleveland City Club on Friday.

The pre-eminent highlight recited at the outset by her is that she is the very first female chair in Ohio Republican Party (ORP) history.

A point of emphasis on ORP website these days, is a recitation of other firsts.  It appears that the party is trying to project itself as a sponsor of minorities.  But of course we all know that the proof of such is not in the saying and in singular events but what the track record is for hoi polloi.

There was very little said on Friday to highlight that she was born on third base and accordingly is in no way a model for the masses of American women who who do not have the advantages of Jane Timken.

The "glass ceiling" is largely in place for everyday American women, Republican, Democrat, or independent.

As the father of three professionally accomplished women, I absolutely love it as women achieve one milestone after another milestone after another.  Scores more women having an opportunity to staff American leadership is long overdue.

It damages the nation that we as Americans have been way to slow to embrace more than half our national population thereby making it an untapped resource to build on and "maintain" America's greatness.

Nearly all of Trump's current cabinet posts are occupied by white men.  As is well known from FAKE news reports (sarcasm), the presidential has a highly suspect history with women and whether or not they are to be valued as a prime American resource in our quest to maintain America's greatness.

There is no doubt that we as a nation have many problems to work through.  An essential asset in doing so is to incorporate our women as full-fledged partners in the effort.

Jane Timken's unstated Friday lowlight would be that it took what some people think is a sexist president-elect to put her over-the-top in her stalemate with former chairman and Governor John Kasich confidant Matt Borges as they vied with one another for the chairpersonship in early January of this year.

Kasich before the election, in the runup to the inauguration and continuing to this very day has been a staunch anti-Trump Ohio elected Republican official.

Most of his opposition has been on the issue of medicaid expansion which the president and a sizable block of Congressional Republicans oppose.

Timken on the other hand would not be the first woman chairperson of the Ohio GOP BUT FOR Trump.

So it is evident that she owes Trump.

And his intervention is certainly a high mark for him in his relationship with women leaders.

From time-to-time, he will do cosmetic things to make it appear that he is this or that.  But in the case of his personal history with women over much of his 71 years, the president leaves a lot to be desired.

He has an overwhelming history strongly suggesting that he views women as objects with marginal worth beyond their physical attributes (see this LINK).

Timken spoke for about 15 minutes before Cleveland's civic forum on Friday.  And took audience questions and answers for about 30 minutes.

Some of the impressive parts of her presentation:

• taught by her parents "to work hard and never back down,"
• admiration for her tough-minded and purposed mother,
• high regard for her father (a lawyer) who taught her how "to make [her] case" in the context of disagreeing with him (and, by implication, those she crossed paths with in life),
• her competitiveness and willingness for what she believes in,

Some of the unimpressive parts of Jane Timken's Cleveland City Club presentation:

• a downplaying of her privileged status of being a Timken and the doors that opened for her that are not available to most Americans,
• knocking former President Barrack Obama as a "divisive," leftist political ideologue,
• blaming former Democrat governor Ted Strickland (elected in 2006) for the lost of some 350,000 jobs most of which occurred as a consequence of "The Great Recession" of 2008" which began during the administration of Republican president George W. Bush,
• suggesting that as vice president of the Stark County Republican Party in charge of candidate recruitment that she was responsible for Republicans regaining a foothold in Stark County elective office 
• [note:  the primary reason for the county treasury, the county auditor's office and control of the county commissioners' office flipping Republican was the onset in April, 2009 of a scandal in which many Stark Countians blamed Democrats for having put in office by political appointment in 1999 one Gary D. Zeigler who was cited by the Ohio State of Auditor's Office as having not placed safeguards in place so as to have prevented the theft of upwards of $3 million from the county treasury by Zeigler-appointed chief deputy treasurer Vince Frustaci],
• [note:  she fails to mention that she as candidate recruitment GOP official, the city of Canton has NO Republican elected officials and only one Republican candidate for county council in this fall's election with no candidates dating back to the the 2013 and 2011 Canton Municipal elections],
• leaving out that a primary reason Stark County likely ended up with two Republican congresspersons is that the Ohio General Assembly egregiously gerrymandered the county (in violation of the "one person, one vote" of the Constitution) in 2011 by virtue U.S. Constitution mandated reapportionment with every 10 year U.S. Census,
• (formerly, Stark County as a whole, was the key county in the pre-2011 reapportionment in the 16th Congressional District held for many years by deceased this past week Ralph Regula, a Republican)
• disturbingly suggesting that Republican right wing/Democratic left wing ideological-based political warfare is the manner in which she intends to lead the Ohio Republican Party,
• generally attributing everything positive about America/Ohio being Republican/Trump programs, policies and practices whereas everything negative comes from "organized" Democrats,
• claiming to be "neutral" ["we {Republicans} do not rig our primaries"] in the upcoming May, 2018 Republican Primary for governor,
• [note:  as noted heretofore, Timken would not be Ohio GOP chair BUT FOR Trump and moreover Timken, the Timken Company have made huge contributions to candidate Jim Renacci; what political realist really believes that Jane Timken as party chair will be neutral?],
• Does anybody doubt that if President Trump calls Timken with directives on the governor's race that she will step to his tune?
• blasting Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren as a leftist Democratic political ideologue (which I agree she is) but excusing herself as a Republican right wing ideologue and Trump loyalist to the nth degree,
• [note:  Warren, I think, is the Democrat's foremost Trump basher],
• saying that as an attorney that she is for "the rule of law," but suggesting that the special prosecutor investigation should not be happening because it hampers the agenda of "our great president" and characterizing the investigation "impliedly" as mere distraction,
• making by virtue of the highly partisan nature of her talk and her unfettered endorsement of Trump (which, of course, takes in his FAKE news attribution to major American news outlets), to show the graphic again, this statement credible, to wit:

In the Q&A session, there are two highly significant "exchanges" which tell a lot about Jane Timken as chairperson of the Ohio Republican Party:

First, this on Trump and women:

In essence, Timken gave a non-answer.

The core of her response: 

"I've had the pleasure of having met the president on an individual basis.  He's  a wonderful human being who cares a lot about his family.  I have great respect for the him.  And that's all I have to say about that."

Sounds somewhat like the newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, during the Trump campaign, called him a political hack.  Now he loves the Donald and finds him to be a good man.

Second, this on redistricting:

Question.

"Do you and the Republican Party favor setting up a commission to redraw [congressional] district to provide more equitable division between parties in congressional districts?

Answer.

"I tend to think elections have consequence and we have a history of being able to draw congressional districts based on our [Ohio's] apportionment board.  I tend to want to keep that system unapologetically.

For anybody who wants the well-being of the nation, Ohio and our local communities the best they can be, highly partisan, kool-aid drinking politicos such as the Jane Timkens of our world are an anathema.

Common Cause of Ohio is currently involved with an effort to get Ohio voter approval of establishing a commission to redraw (2021) congressional districts under the name Fair Congressional District Redistricting."

The organization and its many civic-minded Ohio partners, successfully got overwhelming passage of a state legislative redistricting commission in 2015.  That, too, will get implemented in 2021 with the coming and going of the 2020 U.S. Census.

The SCPR asked Common Cause of Ohio to weigh-in on the Timken redistricting comments:

The response:

Catherine Turcer <CTurcer@commoncause.org>  Today at 9:37 AM
To:  Martin Olson 

Mr. Olson, 

Good morning!  I am surprised by Jane Timken's statement.  The state legislature is responsible for drawing the congressional districts, rather than the Apportionment Board.  In 2015, more than 71% of voters supported creating the bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw state legislative district lines.  Issue 1 of 2015 was supported by both the Ohio Republican Party and the Ohio Democratic Party.   

I do agree that elections have consequences but I also believe that districts should not be artificially manipulated to favor one political party over the other.   Fair elections are the cornerstone of a robust democracy.  Computers have made gerrymandering or mapmaking for partisan advantage much easier and have created truly uncompetitive elections. 

We deserve more compact districts that keep communities together and more robust elections. Because -- as Ms. Timken's said-- elections have consequences.  These consequences should not be determined by mapmakers but by the voters. 

Thanks,
Catherine 

Jane Timken is, in fact, the Ohio GOP's first woman chairperson.

But she is not a game changer for those who believe in:

• the best interests of our country, state and local communities "trumping" the political/personal interests of a single politician and political parties; Republican or Democrat,

She is like any other true believer highly partisan politico who by her own words comes down at the end of the day of being for selfish interests over and above community interests.

No doubt about it.  Timken's Cleveland City Club appearance was more about low-lights and not so much about highlights.

For those readers have an hour to spare, here is a LINK to the entire Timken Cleveland City Club presentation including the Q&A session.