WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR [US] LATELY?
Updated: Monday, April 29th at 6:42 a.m.
(Added material on "the Bernabei factor")
When it came to light at the late council president Allen Schulman, Jr. was not well, political jockeying started as to whom was going to succeed him in Canton council government.
Martuccio says that initially, he was promised by prominently placed Stark County Democratic leadership the support of the Canton branch of the Stark County Democratic Party in his quest to be appointed to replace Schulman.
And it would be the duty of the Canton members of the Stark County Central Committee to choose Schulman's successor.
But that promise of support evaporated when Sherer decided he wanted to come out from being the puppeteer of all things union-related re: Canton government, to being the chief puppet of union interests and ensuring that union interests became official policy and the program/pragmatic stance of Canton's government wherever Stark unionists under the cloak of the East Central Ohio Construction Trades Council thinks there is an organized construction labor interest at play.
Sherer's union home base is Local 550, Ironworkers.
Sherer's union home base is Local 550, Ironworkers.
Martuccio, being the "class act" he is, bowed out of the Democratic Party process to select a Schulman successor, saying that:
- he would not be the cause of Democratic Party discord, and, moreover, that
- he would take his case to registered Canton Democrats in the May 7, 2019 primary election.
Little did he know at the time that Sherer would be playing the "political 'power'" card that unions have with nearly every Stark County political subdivision candidate/officeholder in that the candidates/officeholders as candidates rely heavily on union campaign finance contributions and workers for their respective campaigns.
Sherer started his trek out of the shadows of backroom Stark County Democratic politics on being appointed as one of two Democratic members of the Stark County Democratic Party effective March 1, 2014, a position he held through March 1, 2017.
His dad, popularly known in Democratic circles as being Billy Sherer, was "the union" (said to be a right within the "organized Stark County Democratic Party) member of the Stark County Board of Elections until he was unceremoniously removed at the initiative Dems chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr who said at the time he was acting on the imperative of then Democrat Ohio secretary of state Jennifer Bruner, who, herself denied Maier's attribution.
So the SCPR thinks that Sherer's political "coming out" started with his selection as the Dems' Board of Elections appointee.
William V. Sherer, II has never been elected to any public office. Joe Martuccio has won in many elections over the last 20 years or so.
For as long as the SCPR can remember, Stark County unions have been "the tail wagging the dog" of Stark County Democratic Party operating and political candidate aspirations.
And Sherer, the second, the SCPR believes, at least by implication is trying to power his way into being "elected" Canton city council president.
As president, Sherer has very little "official" power. For instance, the president only gets a vote if the body of council is deadlocked on an issue.
However, the "union political contribution factor" regarding Democratic candidates makes Sherer as president a much more powerful in a "de facto"
sense.
Evidence of that power is the recent action of the Stark County Democratic Party leadership under Chairman Sam Ferruccio to pass a party generated resolution (outright endorsement no allowed by current bylaws) supporting the Sherer candidacy.
There is a move afoot within the Stark Dems to change the rule of the party endorsing in local races. Reminds The Report of then chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr engineering a change of policy of non-endorsement in any race involving Democrat against Democrat when he got the local party to endorse Ted Strickland in his 2006 successful race for governor. Not only was the Strickland endorsement made, but it was the very first county political party endorsement for him in that race.
This blogger believes that Maier, Jr. and his favored local political associates personally benefited from the 2006 Stark County Democratic Party endorsement of Strickland.
Canton mayor Thomas Bernabei, who became mayor as a political independent, recently returned to the Democratic fold (a disappointment to his blogger).
One has to think that as his opponents charged at the time, Bernabei's switch from being a lifelong registered Democrat to being a "political independent" was an opportunistic move (not an authentic move of "a pox on both political parties) so that he could run in the 2015 general election against incumbent Democratic mayor William J. Healy, II who was running for a third term.
One has to think that as his opponents charged at the time, Bernabei's switch from being a lifelong registered Democrat to being a "political independent" was an opportunistic move (not an authentic move of "a pox on both political parties) so that he could run in the 2015 general election against incumbent Democratic mayor William J. Healy, II who was running for a third term.
The redeeming thing about Bernabei from this blogger's perspective is a belief that when "push comes to shove," his independence of action will spring forth again if unions and or the party ask to do something that he deems not to be in the interest of the bulk of Canton's citizens.
In short, one should not doubt for a nanosecond that Bernabei is a Democrat. He clearly is and at heart has always been.
But he appears to the SCPR to be an independent-minded Democrat. And that plus, perhaps, a little backroom political dealing to avoid having a Democrat (Stark County clerk of courts Louis Giavasis) run against him in the November, 2019 general election seem to be the reasons why he has changed his registration back to being a Democrat.
A convincing reason he might have publicly thrown his support to Sherer might be the belief by some that organized labor has a stranglehold on Canton government and if he is going to be successful in pulling Canton out of its current depressed state connecting with the unions is a top priority.
In short, one should not doubt for a nanosecond that Bernabei is a Democrat. He clearly is and at heart has always been.
But he appears to the SCPR to be an independent-minded Democrat. And that plus, perhaps, a little backroom political dealing to avoid having a Democrat (Stark County clerk of courts Louis Giavasis) run against him in the November, 2019 general election seem to be the reasons why he has changed his registration back to being a Democrat.
A convincing reason he might have publicly thrown his support to Sherer might be the belief by some that organized labor has a stranglehold on Canton government and if he is going to be successful in pulling Canton out of its current depressed state connecting with the unions is a top priority.
Evidence of union power also shows in collective thousands of dollars contributed to the Sherer side of the campaign by elected Stark County political subdivision Democrats as part of the $60,000 plus of Sherer political war chest as compared to Martuccio's $2,800. Martuccio tells the SCPR that he did not hold one single fundraiser.
Bernabei was one of the Sherer contributors ($250) and tells the SCPR that it was in effect an announcement that he is supporting Sherer over his (Bernabei's) former Canton law department protege Joe Martuccio, whom Bernabei helped become law director as his successor.
Bernabei was one of the Sherer contributors ($250) and tells the SCPR that it was in effect an announcement that he is supporting Sherer over his (Bernabei's) former Canton law department protege Joe Martuccio, whom Bernabei helped become law director as his successor.
Many if not most of Canton city council members are among the contributors to the Sherer campaign.
For his part, Martuccio says he "understands" the rush of prominent Canton Democrats to financially support Sherer inasmuch as Sherer is the incumbent (by political appointment) council president of council.
This Martuccio "understanding" is generous from the SCPR's point of view. It would be one thing if Sherer had been elected in a Canton election context to the presidency. But the fact of the matter is that Sherer is a "politically" appointed president of council.
On the Republican side of politics and governance, it is the corporations, business interest in general and business supporting organizations (e.g. chambers of commerce) that weigh in pretty much universally for Republican candidates.
It is only when one party or the other gains commanding control of any level of government, does the union/versus/business factor gets abused.
At the state of Ohio level, it is the Republican Party which seems to abuse its political power in favor of corporate/business interests.
Canton, and likely other major Ohio cities, on the other hand under Democratic Party control seem to abuse their power in favor of union interests.
It is a little crazy the Stark County Democratic Party would come out overwhelming for Sherer in the Sherer/Martuccio face off come May 7th.
As law director, Joe Martuccio drafted the ordinance for Canton City Council whereby it became "government policy" to insist that any and all contracts with the public but mainly "private sector" be the subject of what is known as being "Project Labor Agreements" (PLAs).
PLAs are the "sacred cow" of construction trades priorities.
So the difference between Sherer as council president and Martuccio as council president would not be general support of unions as evidenced by PLAs.
What is it, then?
Martuccio would not have nor want to have "the whip of future union 'campaign contributions'" as a cudgel to get any "off-the-reservation" Democrats on any given issue in line with the will of Stark County Democratic Party leadership.
Martuccio, while a solid Democrat who generally supportive of Democratic Party positions, has not been and will not be a "jam this down your throat" elected official, as so many elected legislative Republicans and Democrats are when they have supermajority control.
Joe Martuccio is a "come let us reason together" Democrat.
The SCPR has ties to the Sherers in that:
- Billy Sherer served as an advisor to the Martin Olson for state representative candidate (2002, 2004), and
- who worked to enhance union financial support for the campaign
Philosophically, this blogger likes the contribution of unionists to the common cause the major contribution of which is the historical building up of the middle class.
The decline of unions have been a major factor in the decline of America's middle class since unionism high water mark in the mid to late 1970s.
However, the SCPR abhors blatant power politics (achieved in a noncompetitive political environment such as Canton's city council and the Ohio General Assembly) and will speak out against its expression wherever it comes from; friend or foe, unions or from the business sector, Democrat or Republican organizations.
The reckless and "power equals right" attitude (a la GOP chairperson and Stark Countian Jane Timken in supporting gerrymandering to take political party competitiveness out of Ohio's elections) does more than anything else to undermine public support for our system of government.
The power mongers are looking out for selfish/organization/political party interests and do not stop to think that a power grab and exercise might not be in and probably is no in the "overall" public interest.
Here and there, the two may be the same.
But we all know from life experience that parochial interests generally come at the expense of the public interest being abused which gives birth to a cynicism that all of government is suspected of being corrupt and, which, secondarily causes many citizens to "opt out" as participative citizens (e.g. voting, citizen activism, and the like) which over the long term puts our system of government at risk.
It is the Joe Martuccios of the world who encourage every day, day-in, day-out citizens to be a part of government processes designed to solve problems of our life together.
The May 7th Democratic primary will be a face-off between a proven oft-elected public official (Martuccio) and an ambitious political neophyte (Sherer) who one has to suspect is primarily interested in enhancing union interests under the cloak of Canton government.
The May 7th Democratic primary will be a face-off between a proven oft-elected public official (Martuccio) and an ambitious political neophyte (Sherer) who one has to suspect is primarily interested in enhancing union interests under the cloak of Canton government.
It will be interesting to see which pathway Canton's voting Democrats go down on May 7, 2019.
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