(VIDEO) "DOWNTOWN" MARLBORO TOWNSHIP GOES FOR TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN A BIG WAY!

 VIDEO

MARLBORO TWP TRUSTEE

KEN EDDLEMAN

ASKS STARK COMMISSIONERS FOR MORE

STARK CO. TAXPAYER DOLLARS

TO

SUBSIDIZE SOME TOWNSHIP RESIDENTS

In the view of the SCPR, there is probably no place in Stark County that subscribes more ardently to the "general" political philosophical notion that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" than those Stark Countians who inhabit Marlboro Township.  (See Demographic LINK to Marlboro Township)

But when it comes to having to fork out $2,050.00 to Stark County government for a sewer hook-on permit, well maybe just maybe that's "a horse err elephant of a different color," no?

POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF MARLBORO TOWNSHIP

Marlboro Township is one of Stark County's most reliable Republican political bastions.

While Barack Obama won Stark County (for a second time in a row) in 2012, Marlboro Township voters voted in landslide proportions for Republican Mitt Romney, to wit:

Going back the 1992 presidential election (H.W. Bush versus William Jefferson Clinton), the oldest data available on the Stark BOE website, Marlboro voters gave Bush a health 61% majority in the face of Stark County overall voting for Clinton 40% to 35%, to wit:

The SCPR's point on the Republican dominance in Marlboro is that it should be fair to say that by and large Marlboro voters/residents accept the Republican cardinal point of view of distaining government handouts in the context of Republicans believing in limited government, no?

After all, government handouts is the thing of those inner city Democrats, no?

Well, maybe that is changing?

At least that's the SCPR's take from Marlboro Trustee Ken Eddleman's appearance at last Wednesday's Stark County Board of Commissioners' meeting.

Here is a "must watch" video of Eddleman (who, by the way, is a Republican himself) and Commissioners Thomas Bernabei (a Democrat) and Republican Janet Creighton:



Hmm?

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY COLLIDES WITH POCKETBOOK ISSUES?

Maybe the folks in the area of the the sanitary sewer and storm water project aren't asking for a "complete" free lunch on the dime of U.S., Ohio and Stark County taxpayers, but it is - by the SCPR's calculation - close.

Here are the numbers:

Marlboro is the home of the quintessential rightest Republican John P. Hagan family.

Who in Stark County could be more Republican  John P. Hagan (Republican - Ohio House [the 50th House District' ] 2000 - 2008)?

John might be Stark County's version of "Joe the Plumber" of the 2008 McCain/Obama campaign inasmuch as his main claim to fame is being an plumbing institution of sort for the folks out in Marlboro.

Nobody should underestimate the political clout of John even though he failed after eight (8) years in the political limelight (i.e. all The Repository ink he got as state representative) to win his try for Stark County commissioner against Democratic political neophyte Doctor (chiropractor) "Pete" Ferguson.

While John lost to Ferguson, the SCPR ventures to say that he outmaneuvered the Ralph Regula family (former 16th District Congressman Ralph Regula who retired in 2008) and other Stark County Republicans in securing for daughter Christina an appointment to his old seat as state representative when Todd Snitchler vacated it early in 2011 to go work for Republican governor John Kasich as Ohio's Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) chairman.

Recent developments might indicate that Hagan is destined to finish out his political career as Marlboro Township trustee.

Proof that John Hagan's influence in Columbus may be waning is evident in the fact that he did not make the finals in his application with Kasich to succeed Snitchler on the PUCO board earlier this year.

Republican Hagan (currently a trustee) has over the years parlayed being Marlboro Township trustee (as least going back as far as 1993, if not further) into becoming a Ohio House "sacrificial lamb" candidate in 1998 into a narrow victory over Lawrence Township trustee and Democrat Mike Stevens.  Stevens had been appointed to succeed Johnnie A. Maier, Jr who resigned as a lame duck, term limited representative who moved on to becoming Massillon's clerk of courts.

When he made it to Columbus, John made what appears to have a project of having one of his kids succeed him (now that's pulling oneself up by one's own bootstrap, isn't it?) as Marlboro trustee.

That failed.

But then when Snitchler vacated the 50th, John fixed on daughter Christina (undoubtedly another "I can do it my own Republican stalwart") as a person - a bit delayed because Snitchler got in the way - to "inherit" the family right? to have the 50th House seat as a family heirloom?

And his efforts paid off.

On March 4, 2011 Christina was appointed by the right-wing Republican Ohio House Caucus to succeed Snitchler.

Christina has not disappointed the self-sufficient Republican types who make up the core of the Columbus-centered GOP caucus.

She has joined them as a loyalist to the nth degree.

Of course, Christina like her neighbors, friends and supporters in Marlboro is not above taking government help when doing so suits her purpose.

In October, 2013 there was a newspaper spread in the Akron Beacon Journal seeming to extol Christina for working two jobs (one as state representative, one as a area restaurant server) to pay back some $80,000 in government back loans for her college education.

The Report would like to ask her a few questions about her political philosophies in the context of participation government help programs.

But because the SCPR questions incisively, Representative Hagan (though a public official who gets paid by Ohio taxpayer dollars [one of whom is The Report) thinks she can pick and chose what media she talks to.

Actually she LOVES sending press releases to The Repository to a certain reporter who is apt to lock on to it and write a glowing article for a legislator who has not accomplished much of anything to date.

The next thing that the Hagans and their fixation on holding public office at one level or another will be doing is to copy Stark County Democratic Party chairman Randy Gonzalez and trying to sell the SCPR on the notion that holding public elected or appointed office with the family is a matter of a family tradition of public service.

Go figure!

That's politicians for you, Republican or Democrat.

The Hagans likely will not respond to this blog.

The SCPR can only hope.

But The Report is dying to know what the Hagans have to say about that 94.5% subsidy that township residents have received courtesy of a combination of American, Ohio and Stark County taxpayers in the light of the Republican Party creed of "doing it in on one's own?"

And, while they are at it, why didn't Christina go out and borrow money, "all" her "for college" money from private sources that gets NO backing from the federal government?

•  SCPR Note.  From the ABJ piece:
• By the time it was all over about three years later, she had borrowed $60,000 in federal and private loans and another $20,000 from her parents. 
• SCPR comment:  Despite being a devotee to the panacea of "all things private enterprise" (a core Republican Party philosophy; especially by the right wing of the party) as a cure to all that ails the nation, Christina apparently has no problem with government loan guarantees.

THE FUTURE FOR THE "LIMITED GOV'T"

What's next?

Santa Claus really does exist?

And he is handing out free lunches across the nation in the form of complete or nearly complete government subsidies, even in places like Marlboro Township?

IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE: REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE - OHIO IS HEADING DOWNWARD?

Everyday Ohioans and Stark Countians need to readjust.  In the words of one book out on the market, we need to adopt the book's suggestions of 365 ways to live cheap.

Because the U.S. economy and, of course, Ohio's (probably accentuated) is headed downward and the financial standard on we live is - within the foreseeable future - in the process of a inexorable and dramatic drop off.

And who is to blame?

For Stark Countians, the SCPR says, blame from the Ohio perspective lies with the Ohio General Assembly.  Not all states of the 50 are in a downturn, but Ohio is certainly one of the leading one heading southward.

All one has to do is to look at the fact that Ohio has lost about 600,000 jobs going back a decade.  A time span which encompasses the likes of current state legislators Scott Oelslager (R - Senate - 29th; also formerly of the House and Senate going back to the 1980s), Kirk Schuring (R - House - 51st; also formerly of the Senate and of the House) and Stephen Slesnick (D - House - 52ns).  Moreover, the time span also includes Todd Snitchler (R 0- House - 50th for 2 years), John Hagan (R - House - 50th for 8 years), William J. Healy (D - House - 52nd; 2 years), Mary Cirelli (D - House - 52nd for 4 years) and Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. 50th for nearly 8 years).  Current representative Christina Hagan (R - House - 50th) and former rep. Michael Stevens (D - House - 50th) are not included because of the brevity of their stints in office.

Unemployment figures are abysmal.  Of Ohio 88 counties, Stark at 10% ranks 44th in terms of having the most severe unemployment problem according to official state of Ohio statistics for July, 2011.

As far as the SCPR is concerned, the current Ohio unemployment dilemma is owned by both parties and owned by former governors Strickland (a Democrat) and Taft (a Republican) and their respective majorities in the Ohio House (Strickland) and Senate (both for Taft who had a veto proof majority for a time) because they failed to exercise "for the good of the people" leadership and instead devolved into partisan wrangling over Republican/Democratic bromides for what ailed Ohio rather than "think outside the box" and act on bold new initiatives that long term could have spared Ohio the severity of the financial and economic mess which plagues most, but not all, of the nation.

Stark's current set of legislators like the cover of the national recession as an excuse for Ohioans and Stark Countians suffering the way they are.  But if they were anything but muckety-muck legislators, Ohio could have been the exception to the rule.  The fact of the matter is there is nothing distinguishing about any of the legislators listed in this blog and they along with Strickland and Taft should be remembered for having let all of us down.

What is perplexing about the list is that nearly all of them (the legislators) remain elected public officials to this day.  Of course, Oelslager, Schuring and Slesnick remain members of the Ohio General Assembly.  And you have Healy (mayor of Canton), Hagan (Marlboro trustee and who tried to become a Stark County commissioner in 2008), Cirelli (a Canton councilwoman) and Maier (clerk of courts in Massillon).

To The Report these folks are "career politicians" who are plagued with stagnant thinking and are lethargic in approach and action.  They are settled in and are personally comfortable being on the public payroll while untold numbers of Stark Countians and Ohioans suffer.

Todd Snitchler in particular is an interesting case.  Elected to replace John Hagan in 2008, he sought re-election in 2010,  knowing full-well that should Republican John Kasich be elected governor he was going to be in a Kasich administration in some capacity.  Kasich was elected and Snitchler (who Kasich described as being "wicked, smart") got a posh job (going from about $60,000 annual pay as a legislator to $124,500) as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio; leapfrogging over a number of others with more compelling credentials.  However, the point is that it is obvious that Snitchler, like others on the list above, was looking out primarily for himself and his political future and not primarily the financial and economic well-being of Stark Countians.

Yes, while many Stark Countians do have to figure out 365 ways (if not more) ways to live cheap to maintain any semblance of their being used to a certain standard of living; those who stood by and let the financial/economic calamity settle in live - for the most part - rather large.

One would think that those who participated in bringing on bad times would have a hard time being elected to anything.

So if Stark Countians are going to pull out of the financial/economic hard times, they are going to have to quit electing "career politicians" time after time after time after time!!!

SNITCHLER'S REAL FIGHT - TO RETAIN HIS SEAT IN 2010 (err 2012) - MAY NOT BE WITH THE DEMOCRATS AT ALL. IS JOHN HAGAN ON THE "COMEBACK" TRAIL?

UPDATE: JULY 19, 2009

MIKE WRITES THE FOLLOWING COMMENT:

Mike has left a new comment on your post "SNITCHLER'S REAL FIGHT - TO RETAIN HIS SEAT IN 201...":

Since Hagan is term limited out, he can't run for eight years. At that point, Rep. Snitchler would be rotating out of the seat also. It will be impossible for Hagan to ever run against Snitchler. He's just running for township trustee because he needs the health insurance.

SCPR RESPONSE:

Mike raises a good point on the "break" required before a former "term limited out" legislator and run again FOR THE SAME OFFICE, but he has the wrong period of time.

It is 4 years rather than 8. See the actual Ohio constitutional provision in the graphic to the below:

The question becomes: will Hagan run against Snitchler in 2012 on the premise he will biding his time as Marlboro Township trustee?

Here is the constitutional provision:




ORIGINAL POST:

It appears that former Ohio representative John P. Hagan (Republican - Marlboro) is on the political comeback trail. He has taken out a petition to run for Marlboro Township trustee.If things had gone well for Trustees Tim Wise (Democrat) and Dave Wolf (Republican) who were elected in 2006, then Hagan may have thought twice about embarking on a political comback.

But they didn't. Wise and Wolf got themselves embroiled in a fight with Marlboro Police Chief Ron Devies and lost. Now both are likely unelectable in Marlboro Township. The word is that Wolf won't even try. However, Wise is likely to actually file and run. So Hagan has to figure he is an odds on favorite to win one of the two seats up in November this year.

If Hagan loses in Marlboro, he is finished politically in Stark County.

So, John Hagan is taking some political risk in running for trustee. Marlboro trustee is a post he held for a number of years before being elected Ohio House representative - the 50th - in 2000. He went on to serve 8 years in the Ohio House before being term limited out.

Was he done?

No, he "persuaded" his college student daughter to run in the Republican primary to succeed him. Only problem was that Republican Todd Snitchler was the "heir apparent" anointed by then Stark Republican chairman Curt Braden.

Columbus Republicans worked vigorously to get Chistina Hagan to drop out of the race. Christina made statements to local media that the Ohio Republican Party promised her a job if she would step aside and pave the way for Snitchler.

But she wouldn't and a blood feud ensued between the Hagans and Snitchler. How bitter was the fight. When Christina lost to Snitchler in the primary, the Hagan supported Democrat Celeste DeHoff in the general election.

For himself, Hagan - like so many politicians - couldn't see life continuing outside the public sector. So, he ran for a open county commissioner seat.

Surprisingly, to nearly all but the SCPR, is lost in a race against Democrat Pete Ferguson to be the county commissioner to replace Republican Jane Vignos who retired.

The SCPR believes that Hagan can only win in a district like the 50th where there is a lopsided Republican registration plurality. Accordingly, it was no surprise to yours truly when he lost handily to political novice Ferguson countywide (which now leans Democratic).

The amusing thing about the Hagan/Ferguson race is that "political insiders" were openly talking about who was the laziest candidate between Hagan and Ferguson.

The SCPR believes that should Hagan win in Marlboro (which is highly likely), the will then begin to zero in on Todd Snitchler for Hagan/Snitchler Round II.

Hagan himself could be highly troublesome to Snitchler. However, Snitchler is one of the few good things going for the Stark County Republican Party. Accordingly, he probably is best described as the "darling" of the Stark GOP.

He was selected to be the emcee at the annual Stark Republican McKinley event recently.

Ironically, "the darling local party" role might be one many Stark political observers believed Hagan to hold at one time.

After it is all said and done, the SCPR thinks Hagan will give Hagan/Snitchler Round II a go. But he likely to loss and when the political realities settle in he will settle into being Marlboro trustee for the rest of his political life.