Saturday, November 11, 2017

SCPR OHIO GOVERNOR SERIES: DEMOCRAT PILLICH, ADVANTAGED CANDIDATE? (PART 1 OF 2)



PART 1 OF 2

NOTE:  PART 2 OF PILLICH SERIES BLOG NOW PUBLISHED
WHICH FEATURES PILLICH ADDRESSING
IN SHORT VIDEO CLIPS
OHIO ISSUES

LINK

Democratic candidates for governor include Connie Pillich (who, some say, is a frontrunner in a group of five candidates based on her having run statewide before [2014 for state treasurer against Josh Mandel), and:

  • William O'Neill
    • currently a  Ohio Supreme Court justice from the Cleveland area,
  •  Joe Schiavoni of the Youngstown area,
    • currently a member of the Ohio Senate,
  • Betty Sutton of the Akron area, and
    • most recently, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation,
  • Nan Whaley of the Dayton area,
    • Note:  Stark County Clerk of Courts Louis P. Giavasis has endorsed Whaley as well as Jackson Fiscal Officer Randy Gonzalez (who, of course, in the recent past served as chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party).
Ohio political pundits are waiting to see whether or not two others file to run for governor before the February 7, 2018 filing deadline.

Two others?

Indeed! 

At least one of them (Cordray) may come in at the last moment and take the nomination.

Written about frequently in Ohio media, they are:

Richard Cordray
  • currently the head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
and 

Jerry Springer
  • former councilman and mayor of Cincinnati,
  • a 1982 losing candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor,
  • currently a talk show host
So much for the other candidates, this blog is FOCUS ON CONNIE PILLICH:


The Stark County Political Report's t(SCPR) take-away impression is that candidate Pillich is not all that impressive.

Fellow Democratic candidate for governor Joe Schiavoni of the Youngstown area LINK) who interviewed with the SCPR (in mid-September,  answered all The Report's questions and then some.

Pillich on Thursday past, said the SCPR could have 30 seconds.  This after she spent the better part of an hour answering the questions of largely uncritical questioning by Northern Stark County Democrats.  But through persistence, The report actually stretched out the interview to 2 minutes.

The Report to ask Pillich two questions.

One: what makes her a better choice come the May 8, 2018 Democratic primary election over O'Neill, Schiavoni, Sutton and Whaley?

The other:  Should she win the Democratic nomination, will the Democratic gubernatorial victory over the Republican candidate affect her approach to running in the 2018 gubernatorial general election?

Here is the video with her answers:



In the video, Pillich talks of being interviewed by the SCPR in her 2014 race against Republican Josh Mandel.

Never happened!

Obviously, candidate Pillich is getting the SCPR confused with other media.

Her faulty memory could explain her obviously "cut and run" modality vis-a-vis the SCPR.

Another factor that the SCPR thinks was poor preparation for Pillich making the trip from the Cincinnati area to Canton is that absolutely NO Stark County Democratic elected officials were present at Thursday night's event.

What are her campaign aides doing in preparing for such an opportunity.

Only about 25 Stark Countians showed up at the Pillich event.


As pointed out earlier in this blog, Nan Whaley has already picked up two endorsements from Stark County elected officials in Stark County Clerk of Courts Louis P. Giavasis and former Stark Dems' chairman (now Jackson Township fiscal officer) Randy Gonzalez.

One would think that Pillich campaign aides would have leaned on Stark County elected Democratic officeholders to come and give their candidate a look, no?

And maybe they did and nobody was interested.

Either way, the absence of such officials does not look good for the Pillich campaign in Stark County come May 8, 2018.

The Pillich campaign as it manifested itself in Stark County on Thursday, November 9th might indicate that candidate Connie Pillich is going to be "left in the dust" behind more savvy campaigns.

Next up (likely November 12) see Part II of the SCPR's analysis of the Pillich campaign as presented on the 9th including links to background material which are easily accessible on the Internet.

Video of Pillich/audience members Q&A with SCPR commentary on some of the candidate's responses.

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