MASSILLON REPUBLICANS ACTING LIKE DEMOCRATS?

UPDATED JANUARY 21, 2019 - HALTER CHANGES MIND, WILL RUN AFTER ALL

UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2019 - BRUNCKHART TAKES OUT PETITION TO RUN AGAINST FELLOW REPUBLICAN IN WARD 2 (SEE GRAPHIC RE:  PETITION)

MASSILLON GOP SPLIT

LED BY

BRUNCKHART & HAAVISTO?

Humorist Will Rogers is reported to have said:  "I am not a member of an organized political party.  I'm a Democrat."

And the Heavens only knows the exact number of how divided with factions national, state and the Stark County Democratic Party is.

It now appears that Republicans are catching the same political illness.

At the national and state level there are now "Never Trumpers," Republicans supporting Trump and independent leaning Republicans.

At a very local Stark County level it has been shared with this blogger that a division is occurring within the Massillon Republican Party.

Last week a source told The Stark County Political Report that James Haavisto (who ran against Tom West for the 49th Ohio House seat in November, 2018), who lives in Massillon's Ward 4, was planning to run either for president of Massillon City Council or for mayor of Massillon.

The Report e-mailed Haavisto to confirm/disaffirm the report, but no response.

Accordingly, this blogger started watching the Massillon filings with the Stark County Board of Elections (BOE) closely.

And, lo and behold! early in the week this BOE entry appeared:

As a follow up, the SCPR contacted Massillon sources and learned the following:

• Haavisto's action has caused a political upheaval in Tigertown among Republicans,
  
• Stalwart Republican and engineer of prior Republican majorities in Massillon government Nancy Halter has resigned from the Massillon Area Republican Organization.
• Haavisto and former Massillon mayoralty candidate (twice) Lee Brunckhart are thought to be putting together a slate of candidates to challenge sitting or Massillon Republican Party establishment candidates (MRPEC) into a number of Massillon's six wards,
• Brunckhart himself will be filing in Ward 2  (to be pulled January 16th according to Brunckhart)  for a seat now held by Democrat Dave Irwin (a seat formerly held by Halter) even though MRPEC Jim Thierat has taken out petitions,
• 
  
  

• Thought to be Brunckhart/Haavisto insurgent candidate Mark Lombardi has taken out petitions to run against MRPEC sitting councilwoman Sarita Cunningham in Ward 1.
• Thought to be Brunckhart/Haavisto insurgent candidate Michael Snee has taken out petitions to run as the Republican candidate against incumbent Democrat Linda Litman,

Massillon Council has taken a nosedive ever since Halter stepped down a few years ago.  She has been a favorite of the SCPR because of her straight forward ways vis-a-vis other council members and the mayor but nonetheless willing to work with those she has taken exception to.

The Report has moreover learned that Stark County Republican Party chairman Jeff Matthews met with representatives of the insurgents in an endeavor to learn why Haavisto and Brunckhart are putting together a slate of challengers to existing and/or "want to run" MRPEC candidates,

Answer:  Nothing definitive.

A likely effect of the challenges/or in lieu of MRPECs at the Ward level (with, apparently three more wards to be filled with insurgents in Wards 3, 4 and 5) is that the politically venerable Halter will not file petitions to be a third Republican at-large candidate along with Republican incumbents Ed Lewis, IV and Milan Chovan.

Note:  The SCPR has received at telephone call here in Hawaii about 3:00 a.m. (gotten to on voicemail about 6:30 a.m ) with a message to the effect that Halter WILL FILE for councilwoman-at-large due in large part to her receiving phone calls since the original blog encouraging her to change her mind.  The SCPR welcomes Halter's change of heart.  Perhaps she can get Massillon government headed in a more productive direction.

The third at-large seat is held by Democrat Paul Manson who if Halter were to file would be in great jeopardy of losing the Democratic seat.

If any of the insurgents are elected, one can be sure that there will be MRPEC who retain their seats and that a "battle royale" is likely to ensue involving a mix of MRPEC types, insurgents and Democrats.

Exactly what Massillon needs, no?  Not if you are a member in good standing with the MRPEC.

For the SCPR, the more candidates, the better.

Brunckhart recently appeared on Mallys (sic) Adventure and spoke for over an hour about the plan as well as making comments on Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perrys recent State of the City address.

At about the 28:00 minute mark of the video, Brunckhart touts Haavisto's reason for running.

Although he seems to be touting Republican candidates in general, a SCPR Massillon source is not buying.

This source is convinced that Brunckhart is working with Haavisto to, over time, take over the Massillon Republican Party.

The SCPR's read of Brunckhart's appearance on Mallys Adventure is that there is room to interpret his points as being not so much Republican candidates for various Massillon council positions and the mayoralty but rather as candidates which bear the stamp of Lee Brunckhart.

As an example of the SCPR's suspicion that the Brunckhart engineered 2019 primary/general election is more particularized than being for the benefit of the Massillon Republican Party in that at about the 32 minute mark of the video he refers to "our group," "new candidates coming into 'our group."'

Both Brunckhart and Haavisto appear to be politically ambitious but neither has any electoral success.

Even though the SCPR likes a plentitude of candidates, it appears that the Brunckhart/Haavisto group is unlikely to be successful.

Just look at the campaign finance reports for Haavisto's 2018 run for District 49 of the Ohio House as compared to Mayor Catazaro-Perry's for the 2015 general election.

M

Of course, like it or not, money is a critical factor in achieving campaign success.

 o money.

However, Ress (who says he in running for council president this time around) has a much greater history and currency in Massillon civic life than Haavisto does.

The same goes for the rest of Brunckhart's "group" so far announced on the 2018 Primary Election slate with exception perhaps for Brunckhart himself.

Although the SCPR is unimpressed with Catazaro-Perry's performance to date as mayor, it is hard to see Haavisto becoming a matter of concern to Mayor Catazaro-Perry and her re-election bid.  And, The Report, is told; she is not worried.

It seem absolutely bizarre for Brunckhart and Haavisto to think that Haavisto can defeat Democrat Catazaro-Perry with a divided Republican Party in the Massillon electorate.

Interesting developments on the Republican side in Massillon, no?

In Massillon Democratic politics there is at least the Ferrero faction and the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. faction. 

Perhaps there are even more.

Could there be something in the water in Massillon which induces political division no matter which political party?