Detail on Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. gubernatorial appointment to Ohio Board of Nursing (2009)
Been there, done that!
Switching parties (being a Republican 34 years; a Democrat 32 years) but finally, in 2008, getting to where I think most voting citizens need to be; namely: "a non-partisan!"
A perfect perch from which to write a political blog, no?
On April 29, Republican governor John Kasich appearing on CNN's State of the Union made the quote attributed to him above.
Apparently, the Kasich CNN interview got Stark Countian Tim Aral to thinking.
Take a look at Tim Aral's statement (1 min, 30 sec) made at yesterday's Stark County commissioners' meeting:
The aforedescribed Tim Aral statement at yesterday's regular meeting of the Stark County commissioners' came as a surprise in two regards:
- In the 10 plus years experience The Stark County Political Report covering the commissioners' meetings pretty much week-in, week-out; never has a participant during the commissioners' agenda space of "Public Speaks" has a citizen commented on a purely political matter as Aral did yesterday, and
- Aral, an employee of the Stark County Job and Family Services for 17 years, is a staunch member of the United Steel Workers which pretty much in the minds of many of us means he most certainly would be a Democrat,
Of course, the solution to Aral's lament at the distance from his personal political values of both the Republican/Democratic (or that matter any other "organized" political party) is to become a non-partisan.
Aral as a citizen engaged person has appeared before on the SCPR, here are the links:
It appears that such a step is not currently on the horizon in his internal debate on how to resolve his political discontent.
From a political perspective, this blogger has never felt more comfortable than as being a "registered" non-partisan voter.
Political parties like nearly all if not all institutions which seek to organize our lives (even including religious organizations) first and foremost seek to perpetuate themselves and make themselves indispensable to our lives.
Human masters of these institutions all too often grab control of many of our societal institutions and in a seemingly benign way seek to attach our happiness to being our being loyal to those institutions.
Often, it is not the happiness of the membership which preoccupies domineering institutional leaders, but, rather their own success, happiness and station in life.
Political parties may be at the apex of the "control-the-membership-for-party-personal-benefit" purposes.
In Stark County, it seems to The Stark County Political Report that one of the most accomplished at controlling the crowd for political party and thinly disguised personal benefit is former Stark County Democratic chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.
In the years leading up to the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election, it appeared to this blogger that Maier had launched a political infrastructure plan to adhere the "organized" Stark County Democratic Party to first "the good of the party" which in reality translated, in the opinion of The Report, to the benefit of Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., his close, close, close political friends and perhaps a few members of his family with himself being a primary beneficiary.
Maier, Jr. (buttressed by his "core" political loyalists) was first-out-of-the-gate in being an Ohio county Democratic Party chairman to support in the name of the Stark County Democratic Party, Ted Strickland, in his, what would turn out to be, successful quest to become governor of Ohio.
And, of course, Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. who apparently successfully lobbied the Strickland administration to appoint to him to the Ohio Nursing Board likely as the consumer advocate member of the board (LINK). If he was the consumer representative on the board, it would be somewhat surprising to The Report inasmuch as the SCPR does not perceive him to be a zealot for consumer interests. (Note: In original blog, The Report could not recall the exact appointment)
The SCPR thinks that there are likely others that the Maier connection to the Strickland administration paid dividends for.
If he served the entire four year term, he would have earned close to $16,000.
And one should not think that it is the likes of Maier and "organized" Democrats who are the sole offenders of community-above-self.
The SCPR can cite chapter and verse on Stark County Republican public officials who are every bit a politically self-centered who put political party as a vehicle of achieving personal political interests at the top of what they are all about.
Of the lot of candidates that are contending for elective office in 2018, only 7th Congressional District candidate Ken Harbaugh (see this LINK to his Canton Town Hall meeting) has an announced appropriate ordering of priorities in terms of the priority of his political party affiliation.
His Republican opponent (incumbent Bob Gibbs) is all about his political party being first as a vehicle for personal political achievement.
And only media that throw him softball questions get invited to cover his "townhall?" meetings.
The SCPR has no problems whatsoever for those voters who want to be identified with a political party.
But only insofar as they make it clear that is our country, our Ohio collectivity and our respective communities TRUMP political party interests and those of self-centered individual politicians.
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