Glass City Jungle

I started writing this story this morning but I had some questions in what was reported in, Lucas County GOP feud persists, I knew from having blogged about this before that “Larry” Matthew Bartow also was accused of taking money from the campaign of Dave Schulz and not performing the work promised and that case was active at one point in time during the one that ended up resulting in the conviction and the felony diversion program. There were also questions raised as to a mailing done in Sylvania but from my understanding beyond a police report being filed no charges were filed. I think these additional issues add context to what Dave Schulz who is a member of the Republican state central committee and been an advocate for ethics reform for some time has as stated in reportedly calling for Matthew Bartow to withdraw from the precinct race or if he refuses to, that:

“If [Mr. Bartow] does win election, there should be a movement to remove him after he’s sworn in …” Mr. Schulz said. “I don’t think he should be serving on the central committee at all.”

There also seems to be some disagreement as to who recruited Bartow in reading yesterday’s Blade article written by Joe Varden provides:

Ms. Wack wrote that Larry “Matthew” Bartow, yet another Stainbrook recruit, was a “total loser theif [sic].”

She said her description of Mr. Bartow was justified because he was indicted in 2006 for taking $2,330 from the campaign committee of Toledo Municipal Court Judge Robert Christiansen.

Mr. Bartow admitted he took money for work he failed to complete, but was placed in a court diversion program in lieu of a felony conviction.

Jon Stainbrook states in the Blade article that he did not recruit Bartow, which is where the article created some confusion for me. So, I went directly to the source and spoke with Jon Stainbrook tonight for some additional details. It turns out that in the 170 petitions that were turned in by Jon Stainbrook that Bartow’s is not one of them, additionally Jon recruited someone to run against Bartow. Chris Mueller who was also in attendance at the press conference was associated with Bartow, they were collecting signatures as well but not in conjunction with the 170 petitions that Jon Stainbrook turned in, they are a separate group of primarily young republicans who also are advocating for change and more involvement in the Lucas County Republican Party.

Jon Stainbrook also appears to defend Mr. Bartow’s being left in the race by pointing out he is not the first to have a conviction record, citing the example of conviction of Dennis Lange, a member of the central committee related to tax fraud. Jon related that the earlier part of the discussion with Tom Troy focused on the fact that Bartow is currently a member of the central committee and that nothing was done to his knowledge to have Bartow step down and that if this is to be based on a criminal record then several others, including Dennis Lange should step down as well. This is the first precinct election since Bartow was convicted, and in the absence of some type of removal happening, it appears the Republicans of that district will have the final say as to the impact of the previous legal issues.

It’s clear that as it appears right now there is a very strong likelihood that there will be changes in the Lucas County Republican Party after the precinct elections. I’m not a member of the Republican party but I do know that there are those that do not want a change in leadership and while our local Democratic party makes the news for it’s division, on a smaller scale there is division within the Lucas County Republican Party as well. They have been trying to rebuild after the Noe scandal, some believe they are on the right track, others believe it’s taking too long and that the local party is not welcoming enough to those who have tried to get involved. It was reported earlier that out of the 495 precincts only 170 were filled and that 395 Republicans submitted petitions in total. Some of these precincts will be contested…democracy will happen with those in those precincts deciding who they want to represent them with perhaps more people learning what is actually involved in being a precinct person.

I applaud anyone who puts the amount of effort necessary into working that hard to try to bring more people into the party process like Jon Stainbrook has and all of those in both parties who have taken this step, after my one experience with trying to get signatures, it’s not quite as easy as you might think it is. I believe more people should get involved in the party of their choice if they do want to have a say in party politics. It’s up to the members of that party to decide what direction the majority wants to focus on and if you don’t get involved, then you really have no say in that outcome.