Stainbrook calls charter signature attempt success though goal not met
I guess it comes down to how you measure the word “success” though when I read the Blade headline – GOP chief: Reform petition drive a ’success’ (link) for a brief moment I thought that Stainbrook had actually pulled off getting the required 14,289 signatures.
The story doesn’t state how many signatures were collected – the first few paragraphs as it appears online:
In less than 10 days, volunteers went door-to-door in 90-degree temperatures to collect signatures and learned that many Lucas County voters are ready for reform in county government.
“Volunteers collected thousands of signatures from voters who clearly see that the Democrat stranglehold on our county’s government has to end,” said Jon Stainbrook, chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, who directed the volunteers.
Yesterday was the deadline for the signature drive to get the county reorganization plan on the November ballot.
Although it fell short of a minimum 14,289 signatures, Mr. Stainbrook called the effort a success.
I still find it interesting that this effort has been stated would end the “Democratic stranglehold” on county government since it’s up to the voters of Lucas County to pick their representation. If there were quality Republican candidates running for County office and the voters of this area were truly tired of electing Democrats? They’d pick Republicans…Even if the charter was changed, the key element that exists no matter what is the voters…
While some here have speculated on the chances of Toledo City Councilman George Sarantou winning his second attempt at Lucas County Commissioner, Mayor Mike Bell (once a Democrat now an independent) threw a fundraiser for the Sarantou for Commissioner campaign on July 13 at El Camino. How much support will Bell give him and will this increase the odds in the favor of Sarantou possibly being the only Lucas County Republican elected official, remains to be seen.
In the rest of the article Stainbrook talks about how much people really wanted this and they will continue to fight for this.
Is he sure about the desire?
Isn’t kind of odd that the answer to “fixing” the democrat stranglehold is the same solution democrat commissioners were backing?
Does he think he’s fooling anybody – well, he did fool one. My younger brother signed and called me to ask what he signed. Told him not to worry cause I was pretty sure I would be seeing this blog post on GCJ soon. lol
July 16th, 2010 at 3:23 pmWell, when you consider the source that is defining “success”, you can see how the local paper can get all excited fluffing up a “failure”.
That’s right. The attempt failed.
Lisa, you made a great point. What exactly is wrong with finding a quality Republican candidate to get elected to office?
How much effort is really being focused on vetting candidates when the core LCRP Central Committee and Chairman are knocking on stranger’s doors to sign a petition for an idea a Democrat *cough* JRB Agenda® *cough* put on the table instead of packing the deck full of Republicans?
How long has it been since an endorsed Republican candidate found something to cheer about on Election night?
July 16th, 2010 at 4:20 pmI fail to find how a ballot initiative espoused by Ben Konop and supported by the Blade (two examples of less than Republican or Conservative thinking in NW Ohio) would constitute combating any real or imagined Democratic stranglehold on the area.
I do find it interesting however, to discover that participation in the political process without achieving the desired goal is considered “success” by the current chairman of the LCRP. Such an attitude may well explain his less than stellar success rate in getting Republican candidates elected during his tenure.
Perhaps the measure of success here is simply that fact that Mr Stainbrook remembered what the paperwork deadline was this time.
July 16th, 2010 at 5:06 pmgenerally success would be defined by meeting or exceeding your goal. As far as the LCRP Chairman is concerned, I suggest that success should be defined by the number of column inches the Blade manages to provide to the somewhat non-interesting escapades of Mr. Stainbrook. Looks like a lot of free advertising and very little “news” to me.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:23 pmWhile some here have speculated on the chances of Toledo City Councilman George Sarantou winning his second attempt at Lucas County Commissioner, Mayor Mike Bell (once a Democrat now an independent) threw a fundraiser for the Sarantou for Commissioner campaign on July 13 at El Camino. How much support will Bell give him and will this increase the odds in the favor of Sarantou possibly being the only Lucas County Republican elected official, remains to be seen.
Well, you have the Mayor doing the LCRP Chairman’s job while the Chairman of the LCRP is gathering signatures for a local paper-driven agenda.
Does anybody in town know what the eff is going on with job responsibilities?
(we can continue to speculate as to what Stainbrook’s agenda is, but I think this little LCRP-endorsed fiasco speaks volumes as to where the Chairman’s loyalties lie and you have no one to blame but your Republican selves…
)
July 17th, 2010 at 5:57 amOnly The Blah could turn a fiasco into a “success story” It would be laughable it it wasn’t such a sad commentary.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:48 amThe surgery was a success….but, the patient died.
July 17th, 2010 at 12:35 pm#3 – I fail to see the same thing. Both Konop and Stainbrook failed to get the signatures needed. And of the two, the one making the most public pronouncements about this was Konop.
Personally, my thinking from the outset – & especially after the Blade published an extensive article about how many political positions would be changed to APPOINTED offices under this plan – my thinking is that people are not going to go for this in a very big way – not once they understand the particulars. I just don’t think enough voters are stupid enough to get this thing passed at any time.
Anyone feel free to correct me if I’m off base here – but this is essentially a plan to limit voter/citizens’ rights to vote for various Lucas County government office seekers. It’s a plan that would severely limit taxpayer input as to how their money is spent (because appointees don’t have to fear the voters). Political office seekers having to rely on voters for their jobs is annoying to many office seekers and holders… those pesky voters just don’t cooperate a lot of the time.
It is also a plan to chain the various suburbs to the sinking fortunes of the City of Toledo. As I’ve seen commented elsewhere, our tax dollars go into one big pot so Toledo won’t be broke anymore.
July 17th, 2010 at 12:38 pmTruthseeker I agree with your second and third paragraph.
I’m not sure on the last one since Toledo would still exist as it’s own city as would the various suburbs but it could be a step in the direction of regionalism.
July 17th, 2010 at 2:43 pmIf I were the volunteers, I’d be livid. To spend your precious time going door-to-door in 90+ degree heat for no purpose is a huge waste of time. Time would have been better spent having those volunteers going door to door for the republican slate of candidates this fall, not for a ballot initiative that had zero chance of getting placed on the ballot. Horrible judgement by the Party Chair.
July 17th, 2010 at 3:26 pm“To spend your precious time going door-to-door in 90+ degree heat for no purpose is a huge waste of time.”
Call me silly, but I am inclined to believe it was more of a photo-op than a real petition drive…especially seeing who was in the photo. Collecting signatures just isn’t the type of ‘work’ those guys do.
I am guessing any signatures obtained would have actually been collected by the A team, (the nameless duo)as seen in today’s paper.
I hope the ’success’ rate picks up by election season.
July 17th, 2010 at 9:20 pmDid any of these people knock on any of the GCJ readers’ doors? No one ever knocked on my door. Not that I would have signed…I’m just wondering how much effort was really put into this.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:32 pmThey had under 40 volunteers from what I understood, I’m not sure what end of towns they focused on beyond the coverage of signature collection in West Toledo. It was a pretty unsurmountable task given the number of volunteers and the time factor.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:37 pmNow I;m not a forensic scientist, but I agree with Mindy on the above.
If you look at the Blade photos from the first article on the subject.
http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100711/NEWS16/7110346
You will notice that neither of the people in the photos are showing any signs of perspiration. It was a 90 degree day, and judging by the shadows they are casting (almost none, meaning it would be noontime) and the countless hours they had been putting in to collect signatures, those white shirts would have been beaded with sweat, and their shoes would have been grass stained from walking across lawns.
However, there may be some technology that the LCRP posesses that keeps their volunteers from perspiring. The two ‘nameless ones’ seen here: http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100717/NEWS16/7170376 Also seem to be able to survive the heat and protest without any signs of perspiration. (Could this ‘alien technology’ involve spending most of their time sitting in an air conditioned SUV?)
TOM MO? Which pair did your brother see?
July 19th, 2010 at 1:13 pmLOL @ Marty. I’ll have to email him the pics to see if he recognizes anyone.
The library he was at was the Washington Local Branch on/off Harvest. The branch is close to Alexis. It’s in District 5 – Waniewski’s district.
July 19th, 2010 at 4:17 pmGOP Chairman Jon Stainbrook has brought to bear the full force of his party’s volunteer network to collect the minimum 14,289 signatures from registered voters by the Thursday deadline.
full force? Is THAT was is printed in the paper?
Lisa? You understand there were at least 40 Stainbrook GOP members collecting signatures?
And how many came out to vote for him again recently to the Chairmanship?
Yep, the hard-core Lucas County GOP-ers rolled over and gave the Chairmanship to the Democra…err…I mean Stainbrook…
And a “Democrat/Independant” mayor is hooking the only Republican running in Lucas County up with a fundraiser lololololol
I hate beating a dead elephant, but it sure looks a lot like it is what it is.
Makes me wonder how many of these “volunteers” would crawl out of the woodwork with petitions if the BOE position was a general-election one lol
July 19th, 2010 at 5:14 pm