Lucas County

Jon most likely gambled that if he were to drag the decision in the court, he would get appointed by default. Looks like Brunner sent a large lump of coal to the Stainbrook group by appointing Ben Marsh to the Lucas County Board of Elections.

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In the Blade:

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Monday appointed Republican Party veteran Ben Marsh to a disputed vacancy on the Lucas County Board of Elections.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100301/NEWS09/100309977

More detailed story:
http://toledoblade.com/article/20100302/NEWS09/3020429

Tuesday morning at 7:30a Mike Bell will be on the show to talk about the budget turned over to City Council this afternoon. 'Nuff said.

In the article in today's Blade, Jon is saying the Fire Department caused the delay and even suggested they were in cahoots with the Jeff Simpson faction to get the meeting closed down. You can see in the story a clearer picture of what went on (view the full story). I wanted to provide some more background now that I see how the article went and Jon's take on the event. At no time did Jon or anyone say what was going on downstairs. If there was an issue, why not send someone upstairs and explain the delay? For the whole 40-45 minutes during the delay, no one said what is going on or why there is a delay, it was only after the meeting started that Jon and Megan came up and said why there was a delay. The fire department inspectors were only upstairs for 3/5 minutes, at that time everyone wondered what was going on and it was a period of time after they went downstairs (10-20 minutes) that where we thought Jon would never start the meeting, especially after what appeared at the time that he called the fire department. So for Jon to say that the meeting started in violation of the fire inspectors is assuming he actually had the skills to communicate what was going on.

Prosecutor drops GOP signature fraud case
Cuyahoga County Special Prosecuting Attorney James A. Gutierrez released a report Feb. 26 in which he stated, “criminal prosecution is not appropriate” in the GOP signature fraud investigation.

Who would have thought that Jon would go back to the courts. How many times will the court accept this? Jon has filed in almost 3 jurisdictions now and they all said the same thing.
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Lucas County Republican Chairman Jon Stainbrook has lodged an appeal to recognize him as the legitimate chairman and to force Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to appoint him to a vacancy on the Lucas County Board of Elections.

http://toledoblade.com/article/20100225/NEWS09/2250370

I must apologize publicly for something I said on air a few months ago, and am doing it here as well as on air Thursday.
When the Cash For Clunkers program began under the auspices of the Federal Govt. I jokingly said on air that "next we'll have Cash For Kitchens". Obviously I was joking because the idea of using tax dollars to help people buy appliances is so obviously ludicrous.

The Board of Elections dismissed the case against relatives of Waterville council member Ann Cherry. Read the rest in the Toledo Free Press below:

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The Lucas County Board of Elections voted Feb. 22 to deny the voter registration challenge made against Lisa Cherry and stated no fraudulent voting took place by her or Ruthann Cherry.

http://www.toledofreepress.com/2010/02/22/voter-fraud-case-dismissed/

The Lucas County Republican Party will appear to have an interesting central committee election again. Of course some of the contested races are a bit strange, like Jon Stainbrook running against one of the Manson Girls Kelly Bensmen and there are a few other races of Stainbrook supporters challenging other Stainbrook supporters. Once the lists are certified, then we can see who is actually challenging who and who is a supporter and who is not. Until that time, you can get the uncertified list at:
http://oh-lucascounty.civicplus.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=5030

Hmm, I wonder who they are referring to feeling mistreated.
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The Lucas County Board of Elections (BOE) had a video camera running all day Feb.18, the deadline for May primary petitions.

Linda Howe, BOE director, said the camera tri-pod was set up in the morning to film the entire day, with switching of tapes periodically.

http://www.toledofreepress.com/2010/02/19/boe-films-petition-filings/

As promised, Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio Secretary of State, moved to intervene in the Lucas County litigation over political power in the Republican Party — except she was too late.
Ms. Brunner on Thursday asked to be part of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court case only to solve one problem — to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Judge Charles Doneghy on Friday overruled the motion, saying he had already terminated the case. The case ended when he denied a preliminary injunction sought by Lucas County Republican Chairman Jon Stainbrook on Thursday.

This just in from Michael Miller of the Toledo Free Press: Like all of the other courts Jon has tried to argue his case in, they are all saying the same thing. Why is it that Jon does not want to bring his case to the Ohio Republican Party? Is he afraid of the result? Thankfully we can move on with this now that Judge Doneghy has ruled. When the story is posted, I will go ahead and link to it. The judge has ordered the Ohio Republican Party Central Committee to take the case and to move forward as prescribed by law.

The latest stumble in the inevitable. Jon is just buying time.
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A lawyer for embattled Lucas County Republican Party Chairman Jon Stainbrook urged a judge yesterday to rule Mr. Stainbrook’s rival, Toledo lawyer Jeff Simpson, out of compliance with state law in his bid to be the rightful party chairman, while Mr. Simpson’s lawyer urged the judge not to venture down that legal path.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100218/NEWS09/100219...

There have been a bunch of rankings recently and Toledo did not fair too well. Here is the rundown:

Gallup ranks Toledo as one of the lower cities in well being in Ohio, and in the country.

Within Ohio itself, people in Cleveland and Akron rank their lives worse off than those in Columbus and Cincinnati, but much better than those in Canton, Toledo or Youngstown. Overall, Cleveland ranks 146th out of 185 American cities, with Akron 147th.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/work_stinks_but_life_is_lookin.html
Learn more at:
http://www.well-beingindex.com/

In on the tip line from Kevin Milliken: Ben Krompak and Carol Contrada have taken Democrat Party petitions for Lucas County Commissioner to replace Ben Konop. Ben Krompak was at Biggby's earlier this afternoon seeking signatures.

It is always interesting that Jon wants to enforce the law in court, but when it comes to his own issues like with the fire marshal, petition deadlines, and campaign finance, he is never in a rush to follow the law. But this is Jon we are talking about. Jon is arguing that the Central Committee meeting was delayed because of another court order in 2008 and that is why he is the only recognized chair. But what the judge said was both factions did not meet in the scheduled time in 2008 so even if he wins it, it will still be in Columbus. Jon for some reason wants to avoid the unavoidable.

Are Jon's days numbered? Judge makes ruling we all knew. Now it is in the correct venue. Saw this on Maggie's blog, click on the link to read the full post.

Other coverage:
http://www.toledofreepress.com/2010/02/11/judge-denies-stainbrook-injunc...
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Judge sends LCRP chairmanship issue to the ORP
Judge Charles Doneghy issued the following ruling today in the case filed by Jon Stainbrook and/or Megan Gallagher against Jeff Simpson over who is the chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party

Back in December, when the Fire Marshal was called to the Lucas County Republican Party headquarters, they actually filled out a fire inspection report and there were building violations which had to be fixed. On the report, the follow-up inspection date was written down, but in a recent informal conversation with the Toledo Fire Inspectors, the building was locked up on the day they were supposed to do a follow-up inspection and attempts to contact Jon have been unsuccessful. So why was no one there on 1/28 and why has Jon not re-scheduled a follow-up inspection? Who knows. But you would think he would want to not have this hanging around. It is probably not a good idea to avoid a follow-up report. The report is attached below.

Even Marcy Kaptur wonders why bother with the train route Ohio just received. Kaptur comments to the Plain Dealer:
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"Why are we bothering with something that's low-tech?" asked congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Toledo, in an interview with The Plain Dealer.

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/02/ohioans_wonder_whether_n...

Of course Marcy wants to spend more money to have a bullet train, but still, her lack of enthusiasm is noted.

We will finally hear the end of the forgery situation. There is a witness to the event and it only involved Jon and one of the Manson girls. Someone will have problems. Something will come out of it, either criminally or through the Ohio Elections Commission.
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A decision on whether to move forward with the Lucas County Republican Party
signature fraud case will take place in the next 30 days, according to
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gutierrez.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office is investigating the alleged

Toledo Public Schools and Lucas County appear to wanted to try to dismiss a request to lower property values of Michaelmas Manor by 1 million on a technicality. Ohio Supreme Court says not so fast.
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