JAMES PORTER "RECUSES" HIMSELF" FROM SCHURING/FRIEDMAN ENDORSEMENT
At the very least, no?
Schuring's wife works for Porter at The Rep & is said to "politically" in love with Schuring likely because of Schuring's "errand boy" legislative services for the HOF-VP.
UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, 09/26/2018 AT 07:35 AM
HOW COULD ANY PUBLIC EDUCATION SUPPORTING VOTER (ESPECIALLY BOARD OF ED MEMBERS, SUPERINTENDENTS, TEACHERS, STUDENT PARENTS/GUARDIANS AND OF VOTE AGE STUDENTS] POSSIBLY VOTE FOR SCHURING?
UPDATED MATERIAL
NOTE: The SCPR has requested a 30 minute "on-camera" interview with Schuring. Of course, the focus of such an interview would be his facilitation of "charter schools." So far, Representative Schuring has "ignored" the SCPR request.
It is hard to believe that anybody who cares about K-12 public education could possibly consider voting for Kirk Schuring. (see Cleveland.com [the PD] LINK 1, LINK 2].
Of course, Stark Countians get none of this as it directly ties to Stark County based legislators such as Kirk Schuring from The Canton Repository.
With the likes of support Schuring as a key figure in the Republican Statehouse House and Senate caucuses, for 2015 (the year Schuring received ECOT connected campaign contributions) and 2016 alone (not counting going back to about year 2000 when Republicans fixed onto charter schools to Ohio ailing education system), Stark County has lost millions to mostly "for profit" charter schools.
Other than being a "connected" politician as pointed out in the "original part" of this, the fact that The Rep has not take Schuring to task for his role in diverting money from public school education to charter schools should be a clear signal that Stark's local mainstream media will not mimic the stance of Editor Larkin of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Yet another signal to Friedman that her chances for a fair shot at The Repository endorsement is between "Slim" & "None," with "Slim just having left town.
ORIGINAL BLOG
Well, for starters, Lauren Friedman (Facebook LINK) is as least hopeful she will receive a "fair and full" consideration for The Rep's endorsement.
The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) caught up with the Democratic candidate for the 29th Ohio Senate seat (which encompases most of Stark County) at fellow Democrat Ken Harbaugh's Town Hall (Country Over Party) at the Canton VFW on Saturday and posed the question of fairness to her in as shown in this video:
Why is fairness even a question?
The base reason is that recently The Report learned that on about June 1, 2018 The Repository in what appears to be the management's initiative reached out and hired Schuring's wife Darlene.
Her job?
As readers of the SCPR know, this blogger thinks that Repository publisher James Porter has taken the paper deep, deep, deep into conflict in interest territory when it comes to trustworthiness on telling "the full story" on the underway Professional Football Hall of Fame (PFHOF) village expansion project (HOF-VP).
The foundation for The Report conflict assessment:
- The Rep having a contract (since 2016) with the PFHOF to be "the official newspaper of the PRHOF,"
- Porter himself being a trustee on the PFHOF Board of Trustees, and
- Porter being the chairman of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the publisher of The Repository and their axis re: pushing Stark/Ohio taxpayer/official participation in the HOF-VP without being accountable to the public,
And now the analysis upon which the SCPR thinks Candidate Friedman is way too trusting that she has any shot at all of coming away with the endorsement by The Repository Editorial Board (interview scheduled on this coming Friday).
- Schuring, who has been either state representative or state senator for a Stark County sited legislative district (Wikipedia LINK) since 1993 has been a key player in bringing state support in the form of changes in legislative taxing authority at the county/city level as well as state taxpayer money itself to the HOF-VP without, by and large, the need on the part of Hall of Fame Village LLC (60% owned by master developer Stu Lichter; 40% by the PRHOF) for the HOF Village LLC to account to the taxpaying public for how public money is spent and whether or not the project is viable to ensure a return on investment to the taxpaying public,
- Porter creating a "good" persons public official list versus a "bad" persons public official list in his weekly Sunday columns (the former of which Representative Kirk Schuring is a member of),
- Porter, said by several local well placed locals, "to love" in terms of his doing the will of The Repository bigs over his 25 years of holding Stark County connected legislative office, and, of course,
- The hiring apparently at the initiative of The Rep's management in hiring of Schuring's wife Darlene as its Events Manager
The SCPR has learned that a Repository reporter has done the ethical thing and owned up at the reporter's initiative of "being friends" with Kirk Schuring and his fellow swapping House/Senate Districts pal Scott Oelslager (2002, 2010 and now in 2018) in order to avoid being term limited out of the Ohio General Assembly (OGA) which, of course, both supported when their respective Republican caucuses were using term limits as one of several methods gain majority status.
While Executive Editor Rich Desrosiers tells the SCPR that the endorsement editorial board will tell Candidate Friedman about the papers employment relationship with Darlene Schuring, it has not told "in print" the Stark County voting public.
Desrosiers told The Report that Darlene Schuring has such a low level of employment with The Rep that connections such as her being married to a candidate for state public office was not deemed to be significant enough to The Repository publishing the equivalent of a disclaimer.
A reporter does the right thing; the management apparently was going to bury the Schuring hire until The Stark County Political Report got wind of the connection.
Interesting, no?
To this blogger the seeming "burying' action which of course had to have publisher Porter's input is a really dumb thing to have even contemplated.
While to the SCPR Lauren Friedman has some impressive credentials (see her Facebook page), it appears that her lack of having been an elected official as contrasted with Schuring's 25 years would be cover for The Rep's editorial board doing a perfunctory candidate interview and coming out then with a pretty obvious before the announced outcome expectation that the candidate simply does not have enough of a record or Schuring being absolutely unproductive as a legislator (let's say for example like former eight year Democratic state Rep. Stephen Slesnick) to warrant Friedman getting the forthcoming endorsement.
It is amazing that after 25 years in the Ohio General Assembly, the following is all the contributors to the Wikipedia article can come up with on Kirk Schuring:
Schuring has worked to develop a pension reform plan that doesn't involve hikes to employer contribution to public retirement systems. There's a "sentiment of caution" among many lawmakers in terms of pension reform. He said many lawmakers are "justifiably sensitive to the plight of local governments."[9] He has been critical to finding a solution in providing a cost efficient and solvent solution to the public pension systems.
The only Republican to vote against the measure, Schuring joined Democrats in voting against a measure to require a photo ID when casting a ballot in Ohio.
Many had criticized Republicans for pushing the measure through the legislature.
But the SCPR is underwhelmed by the Porter/Desrosiers management team in terms of the paper's transparency.
Moreover there is quite a bit on the negative side. Those who want some chapter and verse on Schuring's monumental failures should take in these SCPR blogs (LINK 1 and LINK 2)
Within the past few days one local elected official in a position to know from his/her connection to sources within the bowels of The Rep, James Porter is pretty much an absent publisher in that he is said to be spending inordinate amounts of time with the Canton Chamber of Commerce and the HOF-VP project..
Although the SCPR does not think newspaper endorsements mean much this day and age, one does expect the process to be fair and transparent.
It appears that only through the journalist spade work of this blogger did The Rep/Darlene Schuring employment connection become generally known to the public knowledge.
To say it again, the SCPR thinks that Publisher Porter in how he manages The Rep has made (in the case of the HOF-VP) and, perhaps, in the endorsement mechanism, an "untrustworthy" publication.
But KUDOS to Candidate Friedman for holding the endorsement editors (said for the first time to include editors across Gatehouse across-Stark County-owned newspapers) to a fairness standard with the expectation that her vying for the endorsement is not a vain act.
When one looks over Schuring's record of 25 years in the Ohio General Assembly, he certainly does not appear to have a legislative star in "bringing home the bacon" to Stark County, unless, of course, you are C. David Baker, James Porter, Stu Lichter, Denny Saunier.
It appears that Representative Schuring has become their errand boy who seems to have a hotline in place from the State House to 2121 George Halas Drive, 500 Market Avenue, South and 222 Market Avenue, North.
Recently, Kirk Schuring held a political fundraiser.
Who attended?
Sources say C. David Baker, Denny Saunier, Randy Hunt, Barbara Bennett (wife of Stark County engineer Keith Bennett) and a number of others who staff the PRHOF Board of Trustees.
They and their likes throughout Stark County have the full and undivided attention of long time Stark County legislator J. Kirk Schuring.
The rest of us get "deep-sixed!"
Such is what happens when the voting public does not sufficiently hold elected officials accountable for producing results.
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