"PONDER" RON PONDER' 'S OP-ED QUESTIONS RE: TRUMP'S STARK COUNTY REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP SUPPORT

"A picture says 1,000 words," the adage goes.

As the picture above shows, Stark County's leading Republican leaders:

• Stark County commissioner Bill Smith (then candidate Bill Smith),
• Stark Count commissioner Richard Regula,
• Stark County treasurer Alex Zumbar,
• Stark County GOP vice president Jane Timken (now Trump supported Ohio GOP chair),
• Stark County Republican chair Jeff Matthews, and
• Stark County 50th House District Christina Hagan 

in deciding to show up in September, 2016 to a Donald J. Trump campaign rally were "all-in" with the most outrageous major political party candidate to ever run for president of the United States of America.

Not there because of a "prior commitment,"  but equally supportive of the incorrigible Trump at that time, was Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton.  Countywide, Creighton is the most powerful vote getting candidate that today's local Republican Party has to offer.

In an Op-ed piece in The Repository yesterday former WHBC talk show host Ron Ponder (Points to Ponder) in writing about the Trump presidency to date  (Sometimes I hate to be right) had these poignant questions to ask of our local/Ohio politicos:

But what about local Republicans in locales like Stark County? Where do they stand? With Trump? And where do the candidates for state offices stand, such as the Republican candidates for governor? Do they support this man? Do they support his policies? Do they support his methods? 

Will the Republican Party itself be identified as being racist? Will this perception of the Republican Party “trickle down” to DeWine, Husted, Renacci and Taylor, Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidates? Would it be fair to do that? Should they answer for the sins of Trump?

It is "fitting and proper" to ask the posed questions of politicians that many of us rub shoulders with.

Compliments to Ponder for devoting yesterday's piece to pointing the "accountability" finger at local/Ohio political leaders.  The only thing missing was at the Stark County level; naming names.

The Stark County Political Report (SCPR) does name names and, of course, show pictures of those named "in action."

Look at Stark GOP chair Jeff Matthews clapping for Trump.

Moreover, it was a bit bizarre to see the 50ish Jane Timken acting the high school cheerleader at the Trump sited Canton rally of September, 2016.

Back to the Ponder piece:  "Should they answer for the sins of Trump?"

Indeed, they should except perhaps for Mike DeWine who seems to have kept a "I'm not too sure about this guy" distance from the irrepressible president.

Ponder does not mention him, but Republican and Governor John Kasich is to be lauded for his sense of political decency and his intuitive reflect of "ya know, there is something highly troubling about this guy" as a president of the U.S. stance.

Back on July 28, 2016 (right after Trump in mid-July had been nominated as the Republican Party candidate for president), Ponder emceed, in the wake of police/African-American citizen confrontations sprinkled across the nation, a local forum on police/community relations at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.

Before the event got underway, Ponder asked me what I thought of the Trump phenomenon.

My response:  "I can't get beyond (the largely Trumpian) lack of 'civility' aspect" of his rise to the head of the national Republican Party let alone his inflammatory policy pronouncements along with his disrespectful of women, Muslims, African-Americans and others rhetoric.

Who can forget his over-the-top aspersions cast on his fellow candidates.  Here are a few:

• Lying Ted,
• Little Marco,
• "Many lies by Ben Carson,"
• "Nasty," (Jeb Bush), and
• "No honor," (Lindsey Graham),

Daresay that none of the Stark County/Ohio Republican leaders listed in this blog would engage anyone who insulted them in the manner in which Trump insulted and continues to disparage those who differ with him.

Nor should they.

However, in embracing Trump (September, 2016), they all showed an incredible lack of sound judgement on discerning minimally acceptable political campaigning behavior or, alternatively, are so blinded to and by Republican Party political interests that they reveal themselves as being suspect in assessing and acting in the public interest over and above their political party identity.

As they stand now, the likes of Matthews, Hagan, Smith, Regula, Creighton, Zumbar, Timken, Renacci, Taylor and Husted have a lot of explaining to do.

Moreover, they carry the burden of offering that their "all-out" support of Trump was a rare mis-step in judgement not to be repeated.

Silence is not good enough.

A recent poll shows that most Americans including many Republicans are embarrassed by the rhetoric of Donald J. Trump.

The question is as a follow up to the Ponder Op-ed:  Are our Stark County Republican leaders sufficiently embarrassed in having supported Trump for president willing to admit in having made a "mistake in judgement" that has brought harm to the United States of America?

If not, Stark Countians should weigh-in on the lack of an apology in their having engaged the insupportable misjudgment in having  backed the caustic Trump in any their future election/re-election bids.

STARK COUNTIANS ANDREANI, CREIGHTON, HELD & ZUMBAR "EARLY ADOPTERS" ON DeWINE FOR GOV. CAMPAIGN

UPDATED:  10:05 AM

It appears that Stark County is "well-wired" should Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine be elected governor of our Buckeye State come November, 2018.

DeWine is the second of a group of  four prominent Ohio Republicans to announce his candidacy which he did on June 25th at an annual DeWine family ice cream social.

Stark County-connected Jim Renacci (representing the 16th congressional district including north-northeast Stark County and a spur through the middle of the county down to the Timken Company complex into the heart of Canton) announced on March 20th.

Expected to join the race soon are Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor (who resides in the City of Green located in abutting Summit County) and former Ohio secretary of state Jon Husted.

In Renacci and DeWine you have (currently) the lowest polling candidate (Renacci) and the highest polling candidate (DeWine).

On Monday of this week (June 26th), DeWine was in Youngstown campaigning at GLI Pool Products.

And who from Stark County showed up in support of the DeWine candidacy but Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton (the regional chairperson of the campaign), Stark County treasurer Alex Zumbar (chairman of the Stark County branch of the Creighton "responsible for" region, North Canton mayor David Held and Alliance manor Alan Andreani.

The region includes: Columbiana, Carroll, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Mahoning, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties.  Each county has a county specific chairperson.

Also present in Youngstown on Monday was former North Canton mayor and state representative Dave Johnson who was telling Creighton, Zumbar, Held and Andreani that he is now 80 perhaps suggesting that his days as a firebrand Republican campaigner are over.

But his colleagues at the DeWine event were not buying that line.

Creighton says that her connection to DeWine goes back to 1990 Republican gubernatorial race between George Voinovich and his running mate as lieutenant governor Mike DeWine.

As Creighton tells it, Bob Taft was the darling of the Ohio Republican Party establishment in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Voinovich was clearly the underdog in that race.

Creighton, then as Stark County recorder, herself having to fight the local Republican Party establishment in her quest to get elected recorder, was asked by the Voinovich/DeWine team to join their uphill—turned successful—fight to defeat Taft and his party insider allies.

That campaign, Creighton says, cemented her relationship with DeWine which, of course, continues to this very day.  "Loyalty" is the key for Creighton for agreeing to be a key figure in the DeWine campaign.

Creighton, who I think is the most powerful vote-getting-Republican in all of Stark County, says, she has been coveted (my word, not hers) by the Renacci, Husted and Taylor campaigns.

Consequently,  The Stark County Political Report believes that Stark County could be a Republican Party civil/political war-esque battleground as the ensuing campaigns march toward the May 8, 2018 primary election.

However, it likely will be an "underground" war inasmuch as the primary players, for public consumption, say glowing things about each other.  In the background, a political sophisticate has to believe that if it looks like Renacci has emerged as the main competitor to DeWine by early January, February, 2018, then things will get dicey in a hurry.

But the players will try to play the "let's be nice to each other" in public.

Creighton told me yesterday that she has confidence that Stark GOP chairman Jeff Matthews and Ohio GOP Jane Timken will not use their powerful party positions to advantage Renacci, whom the duo have strong, strong, strong ties to.

The Report expects Renacci's campaign to pick up momentum and be positioned come early next year to be the major challenger to the current DeWine lead.

Why would I have that expectation?

Despite Creighton's (and Zumbar's, too) confidence that the state and local party apparatus/structure will not be tilted to Renacci's advantage, I do not agree.

Again, Matthews and Timken will play a rhetorical game of fairness and impartiality.

And I do think the support will be clandestine and responsive to pressure from "on high."

Renacci undoubtedly will be the favorite of Republican president Donald J. Trump given:

• that Renacci is positioning himself as Trump II,
• that Renacci was provided a spot in the Trump presidential box at the Cleveland sited National Republican Convention last July,

Consequently, "Donald being Donald" it would be naive to think he will not "pull out all the stops" in support of the Renacci candidacy including:

• bringing the resources of the National Republican Committee (NRC) and his own personal intervention to the aid of candidate Renacci,
•  including putting enormous pressure on Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken to tilt Renacci's way even if doing so would violate a pledge Creighton says she has made to remain neutral,
• Always remember this:  Jane Timken would not be the chairperson of the Ohio Republican party BUT FOR the intervention in the party election in January, 2016

Think the president would like to have an all out loyal to Trump governor sitting in Columbus in 2020?

Trump is already thinking about 2020?

It was unprecedented  being less than six months into his first term that, last night (press camera excluded at the last hour) he held a fundraiser specifically to raise funds for his 2020 run.

The Renacci "aces in the hole" is the financial support of the Timken family (and, presumably, Ohio Republican Party chairperson Jane Timken, formerly vice president of the Stark Co. GOP) and likely Stark County GOP chair Jeff Matthews (also director of the Stark County Board of Elections) whose wife Heidi has worked in the congressional office of Renacci for a number of years.

A basic principle of political analysis in terms of whom "really" supports whom for office is "Follow the Money."

Here are the Federal Election Commission (FEC) political contribution listings for:

• Jane Timken going back to 2009/2010 when Renacci first came on the scene as a congressional candidate to challenge incumbent Democrat John Boccieri, and
• for the Timken Company (2016 only)

Other FEC records show "in toto" that numerous immediate to Jane Timken family members have contributed:

• tens of thousands of dollars,  perhaps,
• totaling up to hundreds of thousands of dollars when coupled with Timken corporate contributions going back to 2009/2010, 

to Renacci's congressional campaigns.

Renacci and the Timkens have a very tight relationship, indeed!

Readers will recall how Renacci threw a snit with those Republicans in charge of redistricting based on the 2010 U.S. census to get the Timken Company complex in the heart of Canton included in the reconstituted 16th congressional district.

To say again, Jane Timken became chairperson of the Ohio GOP because of the intervention President-elect Donald J. Trump as Ohio Republican Party central committee members convened in early January to choose a chairperson going forward.

Readers will recall that current governor John Kasich was during the campaign and ever since has been one of the few Republicans of political/office holding stature not to fall in with Trump.

The breach between Kasich and Trump provided the opening to Jane Timken(a former vice president of the Stark County Republican Party) to challenge Kasich ally and incumbent Ohio GOP chairperson Matt Borges.

Though he is way behind right now, nobody should count Renacci out.

He is one of the richest members of Congress and undoubtedly will have the financial resources to match DeWine's campaign finance warchest said to be in vicinity of $2.5 million as he opens his campaign.

Insofar as I can determine, all the Stark County players in a likely Renacci/DeWine square off as the leaders going into the May, 2018 Republican primary are supporters of the president.

Given the rocky, rocky, rocky start that Trump has had not yet six months a president, some of the players might be distancing themselves from the president as the next ten months unfold.

While DeWine is likely to be supportive of Trump, if the president runs into deeper political trouble if his polling slips significantly (let's say to about 30% of likely voters), The Report can see DeWine as the better position to separate from Trump.

For Renacci, he better hope that Trump heads in a positive polling direction and gets up in the 50% or better range nationally; for if he does not, it is hard to see how a Trump connection helps him overtake Mike DeWine.  If Trump's number continue on a southward trek, the connection could doom Renacci's run for governor.

The SCPR does not see that over the long haul that Jon Husted and Mary Taylor will be viable candidates for the Republican nomination given that she seems to be preoccupied with pressing family problems, to wit:

Husted has taken on the Hillary Clinton designation of being a Trump deplorable.  But it hard to see how he can out-Trump Jim Renacci.

Even 10 months out from the nominating election, it is easy to see that there is likely to be a battle royale between the Stark County Republican Party officialdom supporters of Mike DeWine and Jim Renacci.

One of the things that DeWine supporters will have to be wary of is "complacency" in light of one year out polls which show DeWine with a big lead.

Stark County DeWine for Governor chair Alex Zumbar (also Stark County treasurer) said that North Canton mayor David Held and former North Canton mayor Dave Johnson will be important to bring Stark in on the DeWine column in May, 2018.  However, he would not "at this time" name other DeWine supporters who will be involved in the grassroots aspect of the campaign.

I did check DeWine's Ohio secretary of state 2016 campaign finance reports to get a sense of his Stark County level of support.

Results?

Not very impressive.

One contributor from Canal Fulton, two from North Canton and a half-a-dozen, more or less, from Canton.

Which means that Creighton, Zumbar, Held and Johnson really have their work cut out for them if DeWine is to win in Stark and Creighton's area of responsibility.

If the victor (assuming it will either be DeWine or Renacci) can go on to defeat the Democratic Party nominee, Stark County wins either way the Republican Primary election turns out.

Creighton says "win or lose" she will be supporting whomever the Republican nominee for governor is coming out of the May 8, 2018 Republican Party primary election.

HOW FAR ARE STARK GOP LEADERS WILLING TO GO IN SUPPORT GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DONALD J. TRUMP?

UPDATED:  2:30 PM

LINK TO AZ QUOTES (SOURCE OF JFK QUOTE GRAPHIC)

"John F. Kennedy." AZQuotes.com. Wind and Fly LTD, 2016. 19 July 2016. http://www.azquotes.com/quote/560871

Stark County GOP chieftains Janet Creighton (a Stark County commissioner), Alan Harold (Stark County auditor) and Kirk Schuring (state Rep. 48th Ohio House District) likely may or may not be into heeding the admonition of one of America's leading Democrats of all time.

Creighton and Schuring (Governor John Kasich delegates) and Harold (an alternate) are faced with a dilemma come the November election.

As Republican presidential selection delegates assembled in Cleveland this week go through the process of  validating the clear choice of Republicans nationwide that Donald J. Trump be  the Republican standard bearer in the U.S. presidential election this fall, Creighton, Schuring and Harold are being scrutinized on every word they utter and every action they take or fail to take for assessment by political pundits as a tip off of how enthusiastic they are to be for Trump from now through November.

Schuring for one is quoted by area media as having said:  "Our governor is a person of integrity and his convictions prevent him from endorsing Trump."

This in the light of Trump having trashed Kasich on the opening of the convention yesterday, to wit:

Moreover, national media reports are making much of the fact that the Ohio delegation (which of course includes locals Creighton and Schuring) has been situated by the Trump people at the back of the convention floor.

Even before the convention, in conversations with both Creighton and Harold, the SCPR's takeaway is that both are treading very cautiously in embracing the Trump candidacy.

For, if Trump, like some think he will, goes down in political flames in November because he lacks self-control; he may take with him local Republicans as well as incumbent U.S. Senator Rob Portman.

From a March 24, 2015 SCPR blog (LINK):

Inadvertently omitted from the blog were Stark County Republican commissioner candidate Bill Smith (a Canton Township trustee) and Dan McMasters, Republican candidate for the Ohio House, the 49th District.

They too may suffer from Trump dragging down the ticket in Stark County.

To their credit, if one believes in political party loyalty, Creighton, Stark County Republican officeholders and and non-office-holding staunch Republicans are indulging some tortured rationalizations these days in order to gin up reasons on which to stand by and vote for the Republican standard bearer.

Arnold, Shriver and Briggs are likely to lose just because they are running against established incumbents.  (Note:  Louis Giavasis [clerk of courts candidate] in an Democrat appointee and therefore is not an "elector" incumbent,but is well established in Stark County politics having been a Plain Township trustee for years)

Of course, Schuring will survive in the 48th even if Trump does poorly in Stark.

Given the wide disparity in quality of the candidates for Stark County commissioner in the Smith/Slesnick race both in communicative skills and knowledge, understanding and solutions in relation to county issues, Smith in other election years would be a shoo-in to win.

The one chance that Democrat Stephen Slesnick has is that local leadership Republicans will drag their collective feet in the context of Trump being the GOP presidential candidate and thereby create a political crease for Slesnick to slip into office.

There is some comfort for local Republican running this year in a response to the SCPR from Stark Democratic chair Phil Giavasis that the Stark County Democratic Party is not recommending that local Democratic candidates  endeavor to tie their Republican opponents to Trump.

Make no mistake about it.  Foot dragging or lack of enthusiasm on the part of local Republican leaders like Janet Creighton can make a difference.

Tip O'Neill (the late former Democratic Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) once said:  "all politics are local:" meaning that tying political to local citizen interests 

The SCPR figures that Republican Larry Dordea lost to Democrat George T. Maier in 2014 because Creighton, who has strong connections to Governor Kasich, failed to take advantage of Kasich's expected and materialized huge win over his Democratic opponent and convince Kasich to focus on creating a coattails effect for Dordea.

Creighton says that the SCPR overstates her effect on local elections.

Nonetheless, The Report stands by the assessment that Creighton could have made Larry Dordea Stark County sheriff.

So the Dordea/Creighton relationship is proof-positive that she in effect took JFK's statement to heart and apparently thought that Maier was significantly more qualified to be sheriff than Democrat Maier.

Who is sheriff of Stark County is vitally important to those of us who live in Stark County (some 380,000 of us, more or less)

Who gets elected president of the USA is just a tad or two more critically important to some 324 million Americans.

So the question is whether or not Creighton, Harold and Schuring can follow Kasich's lead and at least consider putting the welfare of the nation over the immediate fortunes of the National Republican Party?

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, STARK DEVELOPMENT BOARD ET AL FAIL TO CONNECT THE DOTS?

Yesterday, likely owing to what the SCPR thinks is an incestuous-esque tie-in with The Canton Repository (former executive editor David Kaminski is the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce [Chamber] public relations main man), the Chamber's chief executive (along with several member entities' executives) got front and center entree to the pages of Stark County's only countywide newspaper to state their case for Stark County economic development.

Very few Stark Countians ever get such an opportunity.

While The Rep is not what it used to be, other than the Stark County Political Report (staffed by one person), it is a main pathway for local leaders to communicate with the Stark County public.

And, of course, in the four-author-shared-piece (Future of  Route 30 is vital to Stark County; Saunier/CEO/Chamber, Paquette/CEO/Stark Development Board Nash/CEO/Kenan and Sibila/Peoples Services), in Sunday's Repository, they only told part of the story on why Stark County is in jeopardy of falling further behind the rest of northeast Ohio's communities in the race to recover from the September, 2008 America "near" economic collapse and to use the recovery modality to bootstrap into realizing not only recovery but beyond that into an economic boon the which Stark County has not seen in a very long, long, long time.

The SCPR thinks that Saunier, Paquettee, Nash and Sibila are "spot-on" in pushing a project like Route U.S. 30 widening all the way to Pittsburgh as being one of a number of vital economic development cogs  to be realized in the quest for Stark County to have any chance whatsoever for a bright economic development future.

But nobody should think for a nanosecond that Stark's economic development future is keyed in so narrowly on Route 30 (as a corridor to the east) or even the expansion of Interstate 77 (as an enhanced commercial-way to the south).

There is much more that needs to be done with Stark's infrastructure on a number of fronts in order for Stark Countians to feel confident that Stark's public officials are on a track to ensure that future generations of Stark Countians will have a better economic development footprint than the county now has.

The SCPR understands that the focus of the column was on U.S. Route 30 and Interstate 77 because the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently issued an analysis of the transportation needs/plans? in a report named AccessOhio2040.

The Stark County Political Report today focuses on why Stark County is in the condition it is in (i.e. little if any local funding sources)  - so that it is laughable that ODOT's Jerry Wray (The Rep's companion piece, Local leaders rally against ODOT planning map) is reported as saying, to wit:

In a meeting at Stark State on Nov. 25, Wray told business leaders that if local governments and companies could provide much of the money that would improve the chances of extending Route 30.

Usually for high capital improvement projects money made available by the state or federal government, the local match ranges from 10% to 50%. 

For ODOT's Wray to say "much of the money" needs to come from local sources is like saying forget it Stark County in getting any financial help from the state of Ohio "you are on your own!"

To which the SCPR adds:

"Stark Countians, haven't you gotten the clear message that has come from the Kasich administration and the Ohio General Assembly since January, 2011?"

Less money; not more money is the central message insofar as the state of Ohio is concerned vis-a-vis its political subdivisions.

And even before the Kasich administration went draconian in 2011 and 2012, in one way or another Republican members of the Stark County delegation to the Ohio General Assembly (John Hagan and Todd Snitchler along with continuing-to-this-day Republican delegation members Scott Oelslager [the 29th Senate district] and Kirk Schuring [the 48th House district; formerly the 51st]) have worked with the Republican majority (except for two years that the Ohio House was controlled by the Democrats during the Strickland administration) to undermine local government finances and began the process that culminated with the gigantic Kasich administration sabotaging of local government funding '11 and '12.

So Director Wray "there ain't no 'much of the money'" for Stark local government to ante up.  And who believes that private companies will be forking any out anytime soon?

That Chamber is agitating for better treatment from ODOT is an implicit plea for more government money to be applied to Stark's vital commercial arteries to the east and south.

Being the political hypocrite he is, Kirk Schuring is quoted in the same Repository article, to wit:

Undoubtedly, the likes of Saunier, Paquette, Nash and Sibila ("the four") think that Republicans  Christina Hagan (of Marlboro Township) , Oelslager (of Plain Township) and Schuring (of Jackson Township) are terrific representatives.

"The four" are likely prone to be the first to glad-hand this legislative trio when they appear in Stark County.  And, of course, The Repository editors - "election in, election out" - endorse the three as being the best that Stark County can send to Columbus.

While it is all well and good for "the four" to try to rally everyday citizens to their cause in commenting on the ODOT plan (as the SCPR advocates that Stark Countians should make their collective voices heard); it is regrettably clear to The Report that the effort will prove futile.

For Stark County - due in large part to the work done over recent years by the likes of the Hagans, Snitchler, Oelslager and Schuring - has no meaningful local money to provide "much of the money."

To be sure, it is not only the Stark's Republicans at the Statehouse who have been factors in depleting Stark's local government funding.

Stark Countians should be placing part of the blame on the 2008 Stark County Board of Commissioners (Bosley and Harmon [Democrats], and Vignos [a Republican]) for "imposing a 0.50 sales tax).

The SCPR thinks that this triad set Stark County finances back more than anybody realizes in terms of undermining the public's confidence that the commissioners' are interested in hearing from Mr. and Ms. Citizen as to whether or not they think the county should have more money.

While the current Stark County Board of Commissioners:

• Thomas Bernabei [a Democrat], 
• Janet Creighton [a Republican], and 
• Richard Regula [a Republican] have done much to restore the public's confidence that the commissioners seek out and listen to them, the fact of the matter is that they:
• SCPR Note:  [Peter Ferguson - a Democrat - was commissioner before Regula when the decision was made],

had to go "bare bones" in asking for a 0.5% sales tax increase for eight years (which Stark Countians passed in November, 2011) because:

• of the damage that the Bosley, Harmon and Vignos board had done, and 

and because

• the damage done when nearly $3 million was stolen from the county treasury probably over a 5 to 6 year (thought to be 2003/2004 through March, 2009) span by former chief deputy treasurer Vince Frustaci,

the SCPR thought and said at the time (early 2011, when the levy increase was put together) that the commissioners should have put a full 1% request on the ballot.

It is understandable that the commissioners felt hamstrung and limited in what they could ask for.

Just a word on the loss of the nearly $3 million.

The damage done to the commissioners' ability to ask for more than a 0.5% increase, many Stark Countians believe - in reference to the Frustaci matter - was due to a public perception that the-then Democratic county treasurer Gary D. Zeigler (originally appointed by the Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee in 1999 who served until October 19, 2011) did not have in place adequate practices, policies, procedures and physical facilities to have prevented the theft.

Zeigler consistently rejected (in media reports) that he was in any way remiss in the administration of his office.

Understandable or not, the fact of the matter is that Stark County is on a very tight budget and there is "no extra money" to put into something like a local match for U.S. Route 30 expansion.

The major blame though, the SCPR thinks lies with Stark's Republican dominated delegation to the Ohio General Assembly and their unwillingness to fight the firestorm rush in the legislature the draconian cuts (millions of dollars in Stark County alone) in local government funding.

There is no doubt that Hagan, Oelslager, and Schuring have been key factors by way of  their supportive votes of the Kasich administration initiative to cut local government funding and now Stark County is "reaping what they have sown" and the financial "Chickens are - now - coming - home - to - roost."

This year Stark Countians will have Christina Hagan, Kirk Schuring and Scott Oelslager on the ballot once again seeking reelection.

If they are voted in again, then Stark Countian voters in effect ratify (double ratify in the case of Hagan and Schuring) their legislative work to undermine Stark's local governments from having the financial resources to participate in essential economic development infrastructure improvements and enhancements.

The SCRP is reasonably sure that Stark's Randy Gonzalez-led Democrats will not be able to mount and effective campaign with politically viable candidates against Hagan, Oelslager and Schuring and they, consequently, will be returned to the Statehouse for a new term.

Hmm?

So what is the alternative for Stark County government to have the resources to get into serious and effective economic development infrastructure projects?

Doesn't a November, 2014 vote validating Hagan, Oelslager and Schuring mean that Stark Countians should be willing to approve additional revenue sourse (e.g. bumping the sales tax up to a full 1%) to provide monies to fund economic development essentials such as pushed by "the four?"

In a videotaped conversation that the SCPR had with Commissioner Janet Creighton last Monday, she drooled over the fact that Franklin County has a $190 million "rainy day" fund.

While Stark County should have an emergency fund, it should be no more than $5 million.

What would be more visionary and enhancing of Stark County's economic development would be for the county to be able to put $15 million or so in an economic development fund annually (a full 1% sales tax levy would raise about $45 million)?

For Stark County governments to have local match capacity and monies for other types of capital projects,  the commissioners could use/revise (on the agreement of the political subdivisons) the formula currently in place among Stark County's political subdivisions (i.e. the SCOG [Stark County Council of Governments] funding mechanism:  consisting of Stark's villages, cities and townships [and the county itself]), to take the extra $22 million or so over current revenues that a full 1% would produce and distribute the revenues for the political subdivisions to use "exclusively" for economic development purposes.

Now that Hagan, Oelslager and Schuring "chickens have come home to roost," as the SCPR sees it, there is nothing else for Stark Countians to do (presumably in this fall's election having chosen to keep them in office) but to square up with the reality that it will take a local taxes revenue boost if future generations of Stark Countians are going to have a bright economic future, no?

A "FRIENDLY" FIGHT AMONG STARK COUNTY'S EMERGENCY FORCES FOR $2.35 MILLION IN COUNTY FUNDS?

UPDATE:  03/05/2013 AT 2:30 PM

PROJECT MGR JOE CONCATTO E-MAIL

Martin,

The Request for Competitive Sealed Proposals for a Countywide Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System for Stark County was designed around three Dispatch Centers in the County which are the Canton Communication Center, the Sheriff's Dispatch Center and the RED Center.

There are six other Dispatch Centers in Stark County which are CenCom, Alliance, North Canton, Minerva, Plain Fire and Perry Police.  

The County 9-1-1 Call Center does not use a CAD system.  Although the system was designed around three centers the other six would also have the ability to join.  The connectivity between all nine dispatch centers would be the same as the new Next Gen 9-1-1 connectivity.

The CAD bid (which is 90% software) consists of two parts; one, the CAD and Mobile Data Computer system; and, two a five year maintenance cost.

The plan is for the the County to pay for the CAD and Mobile Data system, however, the maintenance fee would be shar[e]d among those dispatch centers th[at] would connect to the system. 

After we determine which proposal is chosen, which will then identify the cost for 5 years of maintenance, we will then go first to the three dispatch centers and see if there is a desire to join.  We have yet to approach the other six dispatch centers because we don't know what it would cost for them to join.  As you know, no one will commit without knowing their annual cost.

The CAD Project Team which includes members of each of the three dispatch center along with our CAD Consultant and me are reviewing the vendor bids and hope to have a group of finalist (one to three) by the end of March.  

At that time we will have an idea of the costs for both the system and the maintenance fee.  We can then approach all the dispatch centers regarding their interest in being part of a countywide CAD System.

ORIGINAL BLOG

 VIDEO

Commissioner Tom Bernabei

on

WHAT TO DO WITH STARK'S $2.35 MILLON
 ON 
   9-1-1? 

The Stark County commissioners have a daunting task in front of them.

How to spend $2.35 million in dedicated funds (i.e. though in the general fund, set aside) in the continuing effort to upgrade 9-1-1 emergency call receiving and emergency vehicle/personnel dispatch to Stark Countians in dire need of EMS, fire and police services?

Unfortunately, for the commissioners; no matter which choice they make, it is unlikely that the impact of spending the money will be all that apparent to Stark County taxpayers and citizens who use the county's EMS, fire and police emergency services.

Unfortunate?

Indeed!  In this day and age of heightened accountability, it is a very unhappy day for a public official to plow money into unseen, unfelt (by taxpaying consumers) but vitally essential infrastructure improvements.

Elected officials are likely to live or die politically at the hand of a public perception that they are/are not doing things that tangibly benefit the public.

Last Tuesday, 9-1-1 Project Manager Joe Concatto (former Canton fire chief and Creighton administration safety director) appeared before commissioners in one of their frequent work sessions (generally held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday in each week) to advocate (sort of) for them to agree to purchase a state-of-the-art Computed Aided Dispatch (CAD) system.

Sort of?

Yes, in the opinion of the SCPR.

While Concatto certainly would like to see a new CAD installed in Stark, he realizes that there are just so many dollars to go around and a key component for a successful CAD operation is to have all Stark County emergency services providers to also have state-of-the-art radio interoperability radio system.

And even the direction to go with the radios option is not quite as simple as buying enough state-of-the-art 800 mhz radios to ensure that each and every nook and cranny Stark County provider of emergency services are, so to speak, "on the same [radio] wave length."

North Canton and Canton Township have already signed on to the State of Ohio MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System - LINK).

MARCS is believed by many in the emergency services field to be the ultimate goal of integrated radio communication between and among all emergency forces within Ohio.

Another "this is the future" factor is that the State of Ohio has a State CAD system that many believe is where all State of Ohio political subdivisions (e.g. Canton, the Stark County sheriff's department, Nimshillen's CenCom and the like) are heading longterm.

The question is likely not if MARCS and the State of Ohio CAD system will one day reign supreme, but when.

It is the timing of the "when" (in terms of statewide integration of radios and CAD) that is the puzzler for local emergency forces and the commissioners; not the "if."

So there may be a need to do a Stark County CAD and/or upgrading of the Stark County 800 mhz radio system in order to have first rate emergency service in Stark even if longterm the answer is integrating with the State of Ohio because the "longterm" is not near enough.

So the order of the day for the financial efficiencies of Stark County-sited taxpayers (whether they be at the village, city or township levels) seems to be to the SCPR to not jump off in different directions but to hold the course until the efficiencies can be figured out.

But given "Good Ole Stark County" and its deep-seated territorialism, its turfism; one can depend on various local government agencies going off on a tangent (i.e. from the mainstream) and doing their own gig that may undermine the county effort as a whole.

But these mavericks line up for monies designated for Stark County as if they are looking at county well-being as a whole.

In all, there are six Stark County local governments (according to Concatto) who have strayed from a unified countywide fix to 9-1-1 in all of its aspects so as to facilitate Stark County's achieving a complete 9-1-1 system that is among, if not the absolute best in all of Ohio.

The divisions, The Report believes, started with Nimishillen Township which is both a touch ironic and logical.

Ironic in the sense that the SCPR believes that there once was a plan for Nimshillen's CenCom to be the King Kong of a revamped Stark County 9-1-1 system.

Logical that Nimishillen should separate from the countywide rehab if its CenCom could not dominate in the sense that:

• the township had a huge mortgage on its CenCom building, and if it was not to be the core of the countywide effort (and impliedly generate for Nimishillen the funds needed to service its mortgage),
• then Nimishillen had to compete with the countywide effort in order to make township financial ends meet.

Fire Chief Rich Peterson of Nimishillen originally back in the mid-2000s appears to The Report to have formed a political alliance with the-then Nimishillen trustee Todd Bosley to forge a political campaign for Bosley to become a Stark County commissioner, and from that perch shepherd a rebuild of what was widely believed to be a broken Stark County 9-1-1 system.

The Report believes that as part of the the Bosley/Peterson plan, Nimishillen's CenCom was to become the flagship site for the rebuilt, state-of-the-art Stark County 9-1-1 which would be headed up by guess who?  You've got it:  Rich Peterson.

By the way, Peterson denies that being the head of a repaired 9-1-1 was ever his objective.  However, the SCPR does not buy his denial.

Democrat Bosley was elected by a narrow margin over Republican Richard Regula (who in 2012 regained his office) and proceeded to talk fellow commissioners Tom Harmon (a Democrat) and Jane Vignos (a Republican) into imposing a 0.5% sales tax with the apparent objective of providing adequate, if not surplus monies, to bring 9-1-1 call receiving and dispatch up to state-of-the-art.

Longtime advocate for rehabbing 9-1-1 Randy Gonzalez  must have thought he died and went to heaven.

He is a key figure in the Stark County Council of Governments (SCOG) which commissioned a study in 2007/2008 on the state of repair/disrepair of Stark's 9-1-1.

He has been working about 20 years on improving Stark's 9-1-1 system.

However, he has had to come back to earth.

Stark Countians rose up in droves to repeal the tax in November, 2009 (under a movement led by local civic activist and attorney Craig T. Conley) and, of course, consequently Bosley was "political" toast as he moved off running for reelection as commissioner onto running for state representative for the 50th Ohio House District.

And in the jockeying between Peterson, RED Center director Mark Busto, the-then Canton safety director Tom Nesbitt and Concatto for the project directorship, Concatto won out probably as a compromise between Bosley and his political adversaries in the Stark County EMS, fire and police community.

A thing or two needs to be said for Bosley.

But for his action in convincing Harmon and Vignos to impose the December, 2008 0.5% sales tax on Stark Countians:

• the county would not have a 9-1-1 system that is nearly in good a shape as it is now, and
• the county would not have survived the financial crash as well as it did during the lean times of 2010 and 2011.

A strong reason - the SCPR is told by the proponents of the repeal of the imposed sales tax - that the repeal prevailed by a very, very large margin is that the tax included monies for Stark County's general fund which was facing hard times even when Bosley was commissioner.

The repeal proponents say, the campaign to retain the imposed sales tax:

• focused exclusively on the 9-1-1 factor,
• while not mentioning or, at the very least,downplaying the general fund revenue factor
• which, they believe, enabled them to convince Stark Countians to reject continuing the tax.

In the interim, "you can depend on him to be a problem, if he is not in control of the finished product."

Depend on "him?"

Yes, "him" being, of course, Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II, who at first was a zealot for the 9-1-1 countywide fix, promising Canton's full cooperation.

However, when it became obvious that Canton was not going to dominate, he withdrew Canton's support for an all-out countywide 9-1-1 operation and has remained largely incommuicado with Gonazlez and Concatto on Canton's role ever since.

Another irony of Tuesday's commissioners' work session is that:

• one of the alternatives 
• (maybe even, the most likely alternative) 
• for the spending of the $2.35 million 
• (as communicated by former Canton police chief Dean McKimm - now the head of Canton's call receiving/dispatch center and who had with him John Whitlatch and Raymond Friedmann of the Canton Fire Department)  
• would fix Canton's way-out-of-date CAD system were commissioners to select the CAD option.

Another stroke of good fortune for Mayor Healy?

Hmm?

Or, perhaps, another example of "what goes around, comes around" if the commissioners choose not to go with accepting a CAD bid?

Also weighing in on Tuesday last, was Mark Busto as head of the RED (Regional Emergency Dispatch) Center which serves much of western Stark County.  He had with him Assistant Director Jamie Wood also of the center.

Busto seemed equally satisfied whichever way the commissioners elect to go.

The RED Center, the Stark County sheriff's 9-1-1 center, and the City of Canton Communications Center each serve about 100,000 Stark Countians.  The rest of Stark County (about 78,000 according to the 2010 census) is served by a variety of smaller 9-1-1 centers.

The person in Stark County that the SCPR is most on top of what ought to be done with the $2.35 million is, in the opinion of The Report, Commissioner Tom Bernabei.

Bernabei sits on the board of SCOG (which provides funding for 9-1-1 and for the Stark County Crime Lab) and has devoted countless hours in trying to become informed on matters that play large into what direction Stark County should take in parsing out the $2.35 million.

As readers of the SCPR know, yours truly does not pass out many accolades to Stark County local government officials and political figures.

But Bernabei is an exception.

Stark Countians can feel assured that Bernabei will have done his homework by the time decision day arrives on dispensing the $2.35 million and that it is likely that Commissioners Janet Creighton and Richard Regula will have wisdom to follow his recommendation.

While The Report has had a difference or two with Bernabei, he remains responsive to yours truly's probing questions.

He presents a mature governmental/political figure model for the overly-sensitive and "I want to be unaccountable" types (all too many of them who populate Stark County government and politics), who clam up when the tough questions come.

In the video presented below,  Bernabei makes the following points bearing on what factors are in play as the commissioners contemplate how they will apply the $2.35 million:

• follow SCOG's recommendation:
• that the commissioners first apply the money to purchase a CAD system,
• that any excess monies be used to purchase state-of-art 800 mhz radios (which cost about $4,000 each) to distribute throughout Stark County's emergency forces towards meeting an ultimate goal that everyone have an inter-agency-operable radio (i.e. between and among Stark County EMS, fire and police units),
• on a RFP (request for proposal - about 165 pages in length) bid put out by the commissioners which generated 13 bids (about twice the size of the 165 page RFP) only one of which was from an Ohio based company, the committee formed to review the RFPs narrowed the field from which to select to three which bids (which include both the software and a five year maintenance coverage) came in at:
• $2.109 million,
• $2.15 million, and
• $2.785 million; respectively
• with the caveat that each Stark County entity (e.g. Canton, Stark County, the RED Center and other users) will be charged, if a CAD system is purchased, a fee for their proportional uses,
• alternatively (as a possible disposition of the $2.35 million terms of holding on to it for the foreseeable future, perhaps, two to three years down the road), Bernabei discusses the possible financial benefit for Stark County to wait for Ohio's MARCS system to mature to NextGen and then Stark County upgrading some of its 10 transmission towers to allow MARCS to penetrate buildings so that it could be used by Stark's fire departments,
• alternatively, holding the $2.35 million in 9-1-1 rainy day fund in order to be in a financial position to join in with the State of Ohio's CAD system when the timing in ripe

Here is a videotaped Bernabei SCPR interview wherein he reviews quite thoroughly the options that the commissioners are considering in making the soon forthcoming decision as to what to do with $2.35 million of Stark County taxpayer dollars.

SCPR 2013 EDITION OF STARK COUNTY PUBLIC OFFICIAL, PUBLIC FIGURE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

REVISION & UPDATE: STARK COUNTY'S TOP FOUR RACES - 2010

 

For Stark County only, the Stark County Political Report believes that the four listed in the graphic above will prove to be the most interesting and, perhaps, the most significant.

This blog is a revision of one published on February 18th.  Why a revision?  For a couple of reasons.

First, Richard Reinbold has made himself uncompetitve in the 29th Ohio Senate race by eschewing PAC money.  The saying is that "money is the mother's milk of politics."  Reinbold's action is admirable, but going up against the well-established Scott Oelslager is not a race one takes on without mucho, mucho campaign funds.

The SCPR is told that the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus has no money to put into the Reinbold effort.  And, The Report has learned, Reinbold was not the first choice anyway.  Both county Auditor Kim Perez and Plain Township Trustee Louis Giavasis were preferred over Reinbold to make the run at Oelslager.

 

As if the Senate Democrats are in a position to prefer anyone.  The Caucus is a pathetic excuse for an organized political entity.  Senate minority leader Capri Cafaro has proved to be an ineffective leader.

Apparently, Reinbold is looking to surprise us all and defeat Oelslager by being the unconventional candidate and thereby appeal to an electorate that seems to be tiring of "politics as usual."

The SCPR wishes him well, but The Report does not think this gambit will work to generate interest among Stark County voters.  Moreover, Reinbold by force of his personality does not generate excitement.  Couple having no money with a dull personality and you have a contest that loses its place in the SCPR top four Stark County races for 2010.

Second, The Report's listing of the Meeks/Creighton face-off as the number one attention getter in Stark County politics this year needs a little more explanation.

While the SCPR believes the Snitchler/Bosley match up will be the closest race this fall (likely to remain too close for the SCPR to call right up to election day), its intensity of interest will be for folks like yours truly, the pols in Columbus and, of course, the voters of the 50th Ohio House district.  Not as much in other parts of Stark County which also has the 51st district (Haines [Democrat] v. Schuring [Republican]) and the 52nd (Slesnick [Democrat] v. Secrest [Republican]).

The Meeks/Creighton square-off because the commissioner election will be on the ballot in every Stark County precinct.  

For the foregoing reasons, the SCPR thinks Meeks/Creighton is the top race.

MEEKS/CREIGHTON

Former Canton mayor Janet Creighton entering this field for the full-term commissioner seat being vacated by Commissioner Todd Bosley made this contest #1 on the SCPR's list.  Another factor in bringing this contest to the #1 ranking is that all of Stark County will be voting whereas on the Snitchler/Bosley match-up; only about 1/3rd of Stark County will be voting.

Steve Meeks was appointed by the Stark County Democratic Central Committee to the seat formerly held by Tom Harmon.  But Meeks wants no part of coming up for re-election in two years.  The next two years may be the most difficult that Stark County (in the government sense) has ever faced.  

Why?

Because there is no money and there is not going to be any new money for the foreseeable future. Maybe, and only maybe, there might be a renewal of the existing sales tax.  

How will this impact running for commissioner in 2012 for an incumbent?

This way.

The commissioners will have to make draconian cuts in county services to Stark Countians.  And the cuts are not going to set well.  The public really does expect the commissioners to take care of the entire county with a few fishes and loaves.  When the manna from Heaven stops raining, then the grumbling will start and in the end sitting commissioners will be the butt of citizen anger.

So 2012 is not a time to be running for re-election.  That's why Meeks ducked out of the two years left on his term for the four years that Commissioner Bosley would have stood for if he had not decided to run for state representative (the 50th).

Meeks might have made an unwise choice.  Had he stayed in the two-year term race, he would have won hands down as former Canton law director, city councilman, chief of staff and service director (Healy administration) will.  However, Bernabei likely just plans to be a commissioner for two years to do what he can to help straighten Stark County finances out and then move on with his life.

Another thing that Meeks had planned on was who his opponent would be on the full term.

Undoubtedly, his jaw dropped when he saw that former Canton mayor and countywide officeholder Janet Creighton had taken out a petition.

And so it should.

It is pretty clear to the SCPR that Meeks cannot defeat Creighton and that he will be giving up his commissioner's seat come December 31, 2010. 

A Creighton victory will be good for Stark County.  Democrats have had a stranglehold over countywide offices for a number of years now.  Such has turned out to be a bad trip for the county.

BOSLEY/SNITCHLER

Number 2 on the SCPR list.  

Why?

Because this seat is a Republican gerrymandered one designed to keep a "safe district" Republican in the Ohio House.  The gerrymandering sheltered the lazy, politically inept John Hagan for a full 8 years in the House.  Hagan proved his political ineptness when - notwithstanding his long run as a Stark County politician -  he lost to political novice Pete Ferguson over a 2008 commissioners position in a politically competitive environment.

However, with the entry of Todd Bosley into the 50th Ohio House district seat, there is a chance that the Republican "fix" will become unfixed.

Had he not been the leading architect for the imposing of a 0.50 of a percent countywide sales/use tax increase in December, 2008, Bosley likely would be a shoe-in to win the 50th.

Because he did the "politically" wrong thing to do, he is reduced in the SCPR's opinion to having a chance to win the 50th.

Bosley will be hammering away at Snitchler as being a "do-nothing," "right-wing ideologue" state representative. Moreover, Snitchler's political romance with the right wing of Stark County Republicans (the teabaggers) could end up costing him the election.  He spoke at the original teabagger event on April 15, 2009 and is scheduled to speak once again at a teabagger event in Navarre on June 27th.

Snitchler, on the other hand, will - one way or another - play to the imposed tax as indicating that Bosley will be a "tax and spend" Democrat if he were to be sent to Columbus.  The Report has been told that "Vote No Increased Taxes" member Tom Marcelli (Bethlehem Township - the home of Navarre) will be working on the Snitchler campaign.  

This could be a good development for Snitchler.  He could appear to be taking the "above it all" road while letting the likes of Marcelli and his "Vote No" friends hammer Bosley on the imposed tax.  If the Vote Nos can turn a substantial portion of the 60 plus percent of "no" voting Stark Countians on the retention of the tax into Snitchler voters,  such could be a difference-maker positive for Snitchler.

One other important note about the outcome of Bosley/Snitchler.

Could a loss by either be the end of a a Stark County political career?

BOCCIERI/RENACCI

This race will be won or lost in Stark County, Although the 16th congressional district includes Wayne County and parts of Medina and Ashland, Stark will dominate.

Jim Renacci has made a huge blunder in his campaign.  He has drifted to the right of the Republican Party.  In order to win in the 16th, one needs to be at least "right, center."  

The reason that three (Stark, Medina and Wayne) of the four county Republican chairmen endorsed Renacci in the Republican primary was that he was perceived to be the most moderate and therefore the most capable of winning in November.  Otherwise, the person to get behind would have been Matt Miller of Ashland County who gave Ralph Regula and Kirk Schuring (2008) all they wanted in terms of competition for the Republican nomination.

The SCPR expected Renacci to be way more moderate in his views than Miller, Smith and Schiffer.  But he wasn't.  Everything that The Report saw coming out of the Renacci camp was:  "How can I appeal to the Miller and Schiffer" crowd.  

Jim Rennaci should be going nowhere near the Navarre teabagger event scheduled for June 27th.  But he is.  And his doing so will help solidify in the mind of Stark Countians that Renacci is a Republican right type candidate.

Very few, if any, right wing voters are going to vote for incumbent Congressman John Boccieri (Democrat - Alliance).  However, Boccieri is a conservative Democrat who will play well in the district.  Especially well in the Stark County part of the district.

So for Reanacci to court the teabaggers is like preaching to the choir.  And the choir will vote for him.  There are just not enough of them in the 16th to elect him.

There is plenty for Renacci to go after Boccieri on:  Flip-flopping just to name one (cap and trade as well as healthcare).  However, he will be so hung up on the right wing lunacy that he, in critiquing Boccieri, will sound likes Michele Bachman of Minnesota.  The right wing message will not play in most of Stark County.

Also, in this election for Stark Countians, Renacci is the outsider.  Boccieri is a Stark Countian for two years now.  Rennacci is not even a native Ohioan.  Rather a Pennsylvainian.  So he will not be able to whip up the winds of discontent on Boccieri being a capetbagger.  No much of a loss for Renacci, as we all saw how much of a non-issue that was with voters for Schuring in 2008.

By the way, if Kirk Schuring were running this time around, he would do much better in Stark County and, perhaps, be able to eke out a narrow victory.

Even so (Renacci drifting to the political right), Boccieri/Renacci will be a competitive race.  Boccieri will not win by the roughly 10% (as predicted early on by the SCPR) he won by against Stark Countian Kirk Schuring.  More like about three or four percentage points this time around.

This is not a Democratic year for congressional races.  That Boccieri wins in an off year for Democrats means that he could be on his way to being a long-term congressman from Ohio's 16th congressional district.

 PEREZ/HAROLD

The main question here is:  Will Alan Harold stay in this race?

Two years ago he was slated to run against the now-beleaguered Gary Zeigler (Stark County treasurer).  But he didn't.  The "story on the street" is that Harold's employer asked him to step aside after high-level state Democrats complained about Harold's candidacy to Huntington.

The SCPR asked Harold about this story.  His response:  "No comment."

Harold's whole handing of the Zeigler thing leads The Report to believe that Harold has no stomach for "down and dirty" politics.

And if he gets queasy about roughhouse politics, taking on Stark County auditor Kim Perez is not the place to be in a run for political office.

Although somewhat of a maverick in Stark County Democratic politics with his own political base (much like Commissioner Todd Bosley), he is a political power broker and likely will teach Harold a political lesson that Harold will not forget for years.

Harold will learn that taking on Perez is not like showing up at a Congressman John Boccieri campaign event (at the Sunoco station on Tuscarawas) with a sign in hand and yelling at the top of one's lungs.

Perhaps, in the light of the BP Gulf of Mexico massive oil leak, Harold would like to do an encore performance of his "drill, baby, drill" chant at the Sunoco station?

And it is not like running for a place on the Stark County Educational Service Center (formerly known as the Stark County Board of Education).

Apparently, the board candidacy was a "dry run" for taking on Perez.  Well, if Harold duplicates that effort in his vying with Perez, he will be looking wistfully at his numbers achieved in the board race (he narrowly lost).

Another campaign like that one will leave him a distant, distant second in a two-man race!