STATE DEM CHAIR DAVID PEPPER "ON HOT SEAT?"
UPDATED: 11/08/2018
UPDATED: 11/08/2018 - 4:00 PM (SO AS NOT TO SLIGHT THE STARK GOP)
UPDATED: 2:08 PM 11/18/2018 - MORE ON FERRUCCIO
AND
THE JEFF MATTHEWS LED STARK CO GOP
IS NOT EXACTLY THE FRIEND OF
EVERY DAY CITIZENS WHO FANCY THEMSELVES AS REPUBLICANS
HAVING A MEANINGFUL ROLE IN STARK CO POLITICS
Note: The SCPR did not mean to slight the Stark County Republican Party in focusing on the Democrats in this particular blog. At all, everybody knows that his blogger is an "equal opportunity critic" on the processes or lack thereof of government/political ways of dealing matters that affect the quality of government.
The short-circuiting of everyday citizen participation in a "taken seriously and not manipulative" manner undermine the trust that the general public has in our democratic-republican process.
One has to wonder whether or not local Republican/Democratic leaders "give-a-damn" about the integrity of political processes.
So, again, The Report apologizes to Chairman Matthews at what he might perceive as a slight.
Before The report received a e-mail from a Republican precinct committee person today, a number of Republicans have shared with the SCPR that Chairman Jeff Matthews (executive director of the Stark County Board of Elections) is highly dismissive and unsupportive of those Republicans who want to be active at the central committee grassroots level.
Here is an excerpt (in part) from the e-mail:
...
The Republicans run the Central Committee as if it doesn't exist: they won't even give the members a way to contact other members with an email or phone number in order to exercise their rights to call a meeting.
The GOP Central Committee is essentially dead.
Instead of a living, breathing, grassroots body of interested citizens, the Stark County GOP Central Committee is a dead body. I recruited several people interested in participating: I have more who, if the Central Committee was alive, would like to participate.
I have told them to forget about it and not waste their time.
The organizational meeting of the GOP Central Committee was a joke. Nothing was done according to the bylaws of the Stark County GOP. It was as much of a sham as a Massillon City Council meeting.
The only real business conducted was the adoption of a resolution commending the POTUS for his efforts in denuclearization of Korean Peninsula. Submitted by who?
Guess. [Stark Countian and Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken?]
The Central Committee has not met since. Efforts to gain access to information for the purpose of organizing and communicating with other members has been stonewalled and ignored. The Stark County GOP isn't interested in an actual living, breathing body of concerned citizens participating in self government.
...
[see resolution in the appendix to this blog]
ORIGINAL BLOG
Stark County's "organized" Democratic Party found a reason to celebrate last night?
And in the zeal to celebrate, the Party website forgot one race, to wit:
Looks like some pretty sloppy work on the part of the communications/publicists folks, no?
Political cognoscentis were surprised that Ferruccio was named chairman in June.
The SCPR was not.
He is hand-in-glove with various Stark County Democratic Party leadership officials (who control the Party through its executive committee and maintaining a core of loyal precinct committee persons) and undoubtedly does nothing without getting prior concurrence.
Three of the five victorious candidate cited on the Stark Dems' website this morning lost in Stark County last night.
It was "virtually" a clean sweep for Republican candidates "at all levels" (federal down through county offices) yesterday.
One member of the Stark County Dems "executive committee" says he is totally embarrassed (the SCRP's characterization; not the member's) at the poor, poor, poor showing of the party of Jefferson/Jackson.
Just look at the graphic at the lead of this blog.
See all the highlighted yellows?
These are ultimately winning candidates who "lost" in Stark.
They including Sherrod Brown (who was strongly endorsed by former Democrat now "independent" mayor of Canton Thomas M. Bernabei) have the anemic Stark County Democratic Party leadership for their poor showing in Stark.
Perhaps the primary victim of what this blogger thinks is the self-serving leadership ineptness of "organized" Stark County Democratic Party was 7th Congressional District candidate Ken Harbaugh.
It has been a while since Stark County (in terms of representing most if not all the county) had a quality congressional candidate to vote for.
One has to go back to John Boccieri (2008) and longtime congressman Ralph Regula (last ran in 2006. Ten years ago, wow!
Ken Harbaugh ranks right up there with Boccieri and Regula with his Country Over Party" campaign theme.
However, to win in the highly, highly, highly Republican gerrymandered (Jane Timken, Scott Oelslager, Kirk Schuring and Christina Hagan as Stark County-based participants) 7th, Harbaugh had to come out of Stark County (the most populous part of the district) with a very large plurality.
Harbaugh is from Avon, Ohio which is in the 7th as a consequence of the grotesque map drawn by the Republicans.
Accordingly, he had to have all out support of local Democrats to get the name ID and voter familiarity with his high-minded-campaign for a large plurality to become a reality.
This blogger covered many Ken Harbaugh campaign events. It was striking that the only leadership Democrat who showed up at these events was Canton treasurer Kim Perez.
The Stark County Political Report (SCPR/The Report) goes way back in Stark County politics (early 1980s) and the 2018 general election stands out as one the Democratic Party's biggest "butt kickings" that The Report has experienced over the course of that span of time.
But one must put an asterisk (*) by Maier, Jr's name. It appears that he was largely motivated not by convincing voters that Democrats had better ideas, practices and policies for ordinary people than Republican do, but, rather, by selfish political interest.
Over time, John Ferrero (the current Stark County prosecutor), Randy Gonzalez (the current fiscal officer of Jackson Township), Phil Giavasis and now Sam Ferruccio seemingly similarly afflicted, have reduced the "organized" Democrats to a "pile of political rubble!"
Only in the heavily registered Democratic city of Canton do Democrats dominate office. All of council and the city treasurer (Kim Perez, a former Stark County auditor), the city auditor (R.A. Mallonn) and the city law director (Joe Martuccio, succeeded by, but not yet elected, Kristen Bates-Alyward). It was a hard pill for Canton Dems to swallow when lifelong Democrat Thomas M. Bernabei bolted the party and successfully ran for mayor as in "independent" 2015.
Next month Bernabei promises he will announce whether or not he will run for a second term.
The SCPR thinks he will but that the Democrats in the form of Louis Giavasis (brother of recently stepped down Dem chair Phil Giavasis and current clerk of the Canton Municipal Court) will seek political revenge of Bernabei.
If Louis Giavasis does end up challenging Bernabei, you can bet your bottom dollars that the likes of Feruccio, Maier, Jr, the father and son Gonzalez team and other members of the Stark County Democratic Party "establishment," will awaken from their political slumber and go all out to defeat the politically traitorous Bernabei notwithstanding that Bernabei is said to be "best friends" with Chairman Ferruccio.
Of course we all recall humorist Will Rogers' quip: "I am not the member of a organized political party, I am a Democrat."
There are currently multiple centers of competing power bloc within the Stark Democratic Party.
Front and center and the most powerful is the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr political loyalty group. Maier, Jr was able to make his brother George T. Maier Stark County sheriff with a stop as safety director of Massillon (courtesy of then political ally and Massillon mayor Kathy Catazaro Perry) after George lost his job as the #2 guy in the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The SCPR believes that Maier, Jr was the force (having maneuvered, as Dems' chairman, the Stark County Dems' to endorse Ted Strickland for governor in 2006) to get brother George the #2 job.
After the Maier group are:
- the Kim Perez faction,
- the John Ferrero faction,
- the "organized labor" faction,
and various other Democratic elected official political following who float among the three main factions who collectively constitute the Stark County Democratic Party "establishment" in a sort of "cold war" model of politics.
Rancor within the Stark County Dems is a major contributor the the decline of the party's ability to elect its candidates to office. While today's organized Democrats do hold:
- the sheriff's office,
- the prosecutor's office,
- the recorder's office,
- the engineer's office,
- the coroner's office, and
- the county clerk of courts office
- Note: this office seems to be since Phil Giavasis held it seems to have been a keepsake for The Giavasises in that it appears to the SCPR that it was kept safe for Phil's brother Louis to "inherit" while held by former Phil Giavasis chief deputy Nancy Reinbold until her retirement at which point Louis Giavasis was appointed as county clerk by the Stark Democrats' Central Committee
the Dems came pretty close to losing the sheriff's office (2014, Dordea v. Maier) and the prosecutor's office (2016, Jakmides v. Ferrero).
If the party leadership continues its ineptness, then when John Ferrero "finally" decides to retire look for Stark County leadership Republicans to pounce on that office with a vengeance to take yet another countywide office out of Democratic Party control.
Rick Campbell is also vulnerable if the Republicans can come up with a name Republican to oppose him the next time he up for election.
There are rumblings that the SCPR is hearing about the management style of Sheriff George T. Maier.
He and the commissioners are currently defendants in a federal lawsuit in which a couple of deputies are accused of mishandling a County jail prisoner.
In short order, the SCPR plans to explore this story in more detail.
There is no doubt that George T. Maier is in a technical sense a first rate policeman.
However, the SCPR during his rise to become sheriff has continually written that his administrative/management shortcomings may prove to the "achilles heel" which ultimately cost him his job as sheriff.
Maier, Jr, and the Democratic Party leadership should be very nervous about George T. Maier's ability to keep a lid on employee relations and corrections officer conduct at the Stark County jail.
More on current chairman Sam Ferruccio, Jr and his predecessors:
One public official who knows Ferruccio well says that he (a person in a position to have had a heads up on the Phil Giavasis resignation) was surprised too by the Ferruccio and says that the SCPR and others need to realize that Ferruccio is new and (impliedly) cut him some slack.
The Report is not interested in be generous in the fashion.
If the Party is willing to go with an inexperienced chairperson then it ought to be a "next-generation-person" who starts with "a clean slate" in terms of not being controlled or unduly influenced by the current set of Party power brokers.
Despite his newness, Ferruccio needs to explain how statewide candidates did so poorly in Stark County under his leadership or lack thereof.
The Stark County Democratic Party and from Tuesday's results the Ohio Democratic Party (under David Pepper) are pathetic in effectiveness.
Ohio and Stark County need political competitiveness in order to hold their respective opponent Party accountable.
The Stark County Republicans for instance have no presence on Canton City Council.
And this is not a good thing for the citizens of Canton.
On the other hand, as an example, Stark County Democrats have very little leverage with Republicans Scott Oelslager (the 48th Ohio House-elect) Kirk Schuring (the 29th Ohio Senate-elect) and Reggie Stoltzfus (the 50th Ohio House-elect) because they come from HEAVILY GERRYMANDERED REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS and therefore have very little incentive to interact with registered Democrats Stark County citizens and according to multiple reports and this blogger's personal experience do not respond to activist Democrats and "the politically independent" and "critically inclined" Stark County Political Report.
But Schuring/Oelslager will spend time with persons they perceive to be among the elite/uncritical set of Stark County leaders.
Uf your name is:
- Sam Ferruccio, Jr,
- Phil Giavasis,
- John Ferrero,
- Johnnie A. Maier, Jr
both Oelslager and Schuring would turn cartwheels to get back to them even though they come from different political allegiances.
Neither would never, ever have the fortitude to go one-on-one with the SCPR.
Schuring and Oelager and their ilk are beyond hypocritical.
And is being so denigrate the American political system and sew seeds of distrust of government by many, many of their constituents.
Hopefully, Stoltzfus will not take on the arrogances of Oelslager and Schuring and will realize that voters who likely or possibly did not vote for him are nonetheless entitled to the ear of the District 50 representative.
His predecssor Christina Hagan took on the characteristics of Oelslager and Schuring.
In addition to the gerrymander factor, Oelslager and Schuring have to feel secure in the fact that neither has had a viable Democratic opponent for many, many years, if ever over the combined 60 years they have been in the Ohio General Assembly.
Such is why the SCPR is especially hard on the likes of Ferruccio, Phil Giavasis, John Ferrero and Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. (all Dems' chairmans in the order listed).
To repeat, he SCPR's take on all of them is that they look after themselves and their political friends and are about as unresponsive and unsolicitous the general membership of the Stark County Democratic Party and the general public as The Report thinks Oelslager and Schuring are of the general public and those they think can ignore and still get re-elected.
There is a cure for what ails the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party and its current leadership.
Really?
Yes, the likes of Lauren Friedman, Lorraine Wilburn and their political friends should target the next Democratic Party precinct committee persons election.
A key to the likes of Maier, Jr, the Giavasises, the Gonzalezes, John Ferrero and Kim Perez (Establishment) maintaining control and their self-interest is by having their people run for and get elected as precinct committee persons (LINK to Ohio's authorizing statute).
Under the leadership of the Establishment, folks like Friedman and Wilburn are nothing more than sacrificial lambs.
They are political un-sophisticates with the best of intentions and motivations (community over self) who get chewed up by the likes of the Establishment.
It would be helpful to get quality (community over self) Democrats in office if the likes of Friedman, Wilburn and other like minded everyday Democrats boned up on their political sophistication IQ and challenged the Establishment in the field of grassroots politics.
In the primary election of 2020, the Democratic precinct committee persons will be up for election:
Here is a list of the current set of Democratic precinct committee persons for a courageous person to grab on to and work to change in order to make the "organized" Stark County Democratic Party into a community serving organization.
Will somebody step forward to save the Stark County Democratic Party from itself?
If not, the 2018 election results are like to be the harbinger of Stark County becoming even redder and that would not be a good thing for Stark County government!
APPENDIX
Copy of Jane Timken? generated Korea in-support-of-Donald Trump resolution.
The list of Republican central committee persons.
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