TEN SHORT VIDEOS FEATURING
SCOTT KELLY
ON THE ISSUES IN NORTH CANTON MAYORALTY RACE
NOTE: Kelly's opponent, incumbent mayor David J. Held, is scheduled to interview with the SCPR on October 11th.
`And, of course, The Report will be publishing a blog which shares the video with North Canton voters.
It is not often that one gets a contested much less a competitive election for mayor of North Canton.
And since incumbent mayor David J. Held defeated then incumbent mayor Tom Rice in the 2005 North Canton mayoralty election, there has not been a competitive election for mayor of North Canton and it certainly can be argued convincingly that even the Held/Rice race was not competitive.
For the most part, as seen in the graphic above, Held has run unopposed.
The Stark County Political Report has no way of gauging whether or not Scott Kelly's challenge of Held this year will be competitive let alone that a political upset might be in the making.
But Kelly is brimming with confidence that North Cantonians have had enough of Held and North Cantonians are going to wake up on November 8th to surprising news that Kelly is in and Held is out as mayor.
North Canton is an out-and-out Republican city (of the seven council persons, six are registered Republicans) and, if there are going to be truly competitive elections, it will likely be an intraparty fight as in this year's election for three competitive council seats (one-at-large, Ward 3 and Ward 4).
When Held defeated Tom Rice in 2005, the election was a case of a Republican versus a Republican.
Held had been administrator under Rice and the two came to loggerheads during Held's stint as administrator and Rice fired Held.
Those Rice administration days indeed were dark days for David Held as a North Canton public official.
Ever since it has been smooth sailing for Held.
But if Held loses to Kelly on November 7th, it could be deja vu for Held with him being on the wrong side of more bad blood between mayoralty opponents.
Kelly lost his job in North Canton government as a firefighter in 2015 (notwithstanding that he was at the time a firefighter union head) due to what Kelly suggests (the SCPR's takeaway) was a trumped up scenario (impliedly attributed to Mayor Held) in which North Canton embarked on a financial austerity program to save about $700,000 in the city budget by purging his $54,000, more or less, annual salary with (according to Kelly himself) Scott Kelly being the only employee to be let go.
It will be interesting next week, to hear Mayor Held's perspective.
So it seems that the scene is set for a, perhaps caustic, fight between the two of them which may or may not prove to be one of the more tantalizing election contests (in anticipating the outcome) in all of Stark County political subdivision elections this year.
Officially, North Canton elections are set up to be non-partisan.
But the political reality is that the "non-partisan designation is political mythology and it really does make a difference to all to many voters which political party a candidate is registered with.
It may turn out that incumbent mayor David Held (a registered Republican wins over challenger Scott Kelly (a registered Democrat) in a walk because of North Canton's lopsided Republican Party I.D.
The SCPR suspects that Held may be in for more of a fight to retain the mayoralty (12 years now) than many might think. That is, if North Cantonians buy into Kelly's theory of the election that 12 years of Mayor Held are enough for a majority of 2017 election voting North Cantonians who, Kelly says, in his read of North Canton voters are thinking that North Canton government under Held has grown stagnant.
Kelly suggests that "change is in the air," and that he will as mayor be a change agent in how the administration of North Canton government is run.
TODAY'S BLOG FOCUS:
CANDIDACY OF SCOTT KELLY FOR MAYOR OF NORTH CANTON
Turning to interview issues identified by Kelly in his October 4th interview with the SCPR:
FIXING THE FORMER HOOVER COMPLEX AESTHETICS PROBLEM (4:35)
THE KELLY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR NORTH CANTON (4:27)
KELLY ON QUALITY OF CITY'S NEIGHBORHOODS: CODE ENFORCEMENT V. TAX ABATEMENT INCENTIVES (5:29)
MAYOR'S RESPONSIBILITY TO BE INFORMED AND IN CHARGE AND LEAD THE WAY ON NORTH CANTON GOV'T BEING AN "OPEN BOOK" (2:16)
KELLY ON FIELDCREST ZONING ISSUE (3:32)
LAW DIRECTOR TIM FOX, KELLY'S PERSPECTIVE (2:27)
NORTH CANTON COLLABORATING WITH OTHER STARK CO GOVT UNITS INCLUDING CEDAS AND JEDDS, IS KELLY A PROPONENT OF COLLABORATION? (6:36)
THE KELLY PLAN ON FINANCING NORTH CANTON GOVT GOING FORWARD (6:57)
KELLY WRAP UP OF INTERVIEW (HIS CHOICE OF WHAT TO TALK ABOUT (1:57)
- Streamlining Permit Process, and
- Sidewalks/curbs citywide
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