Surprise (not!) Stainbrook nominated for BOE

It comes as no surprise to anyone that Jon Stainbrook's faction of the Lucas County Republican Party nominated him to replace Lynn Olman on the Board of Elections.

The Blade has the story - though it is written by Mark Zaborney and not by Tom Troy, the Blade's political writer, who has covered the goings-on so far.

While the reassignment of the story away from the political writer could be just a matter of Troy being off for the weekend, such changes often signal that the publisher of the paper is no longer as interested in the subject as he once was.

Additionally, today's story is lacking some of the editorializing and attempted influence peddling that I wrote about yesterday.

As for the nomination, no one is surprised that Stainbrook got himself nominated for the BOE position. His unsuccessful efforts to discredit both Lynn Olman (whose term expires at the end of February) and Patrick Kriner (who is the subject of a court case filed by Stainbrook over his appointment) were merely thinly-veiled disguises to name himself to one of their positions.

Stainbrook accused Olman of wanting to the keep the position because it has a paycheck and health insurance benefits. The local paper played along with this scenario only publicizing Olman's long-standing rejection of that claim in the articles yesterday and today.

But, as I also wrote yesterday, Stainbrook wanted the position for the very reason he falsely claimed Olman did.

To add insult to injury, Olman's health insurance under the Ohio pension system was without cost to him. But the PERS rules also require that whenever a person takes a paying position where health benefits are offered, the employer policy must be primary. So Olman ended up paying $1,200 per year (the payroll deduction for his coverage from Lucas County) instead of paying nothing had he not accepted the BOE position.

And that doesn't even get to the wages which Olman, a successful insurance agent doesn't need. I wonder if Stainbrook can say the same thing?

So there are now two men selected by Republicans to replace Olman: Stainbrook and Dave Dmytryka.

I'm not sure Stainbrook has ever held a 'real' job. I know he's earned money through his band and some odd jobs along the way, but there is no evidence he's spent any significant time in any organization or company that would give him the leadership experience of hiring and firing, overseeing a budget, supervising a staff, directing the management of an operation, etc...

These are all tasks a member of the BOE must perform.

Dave Dmytryka, on the other hand, is an engineer with a distinguished career. While I don't have his complete resume, I know he worked for Jones and Henry as the manager of their controls department before establishing his own company, Dmytryka Jacobs Engineering. He's earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree and is a registered professional engineer in six states. His firm recently received funding through the state's Third Frontier Program to help hire interns.

It should be noted, too, that when he decided to start his own business, he stayed in Toledo.

Based upon these few details, what's your first impression about who is more qualified?

My personal opinion is that the ruling by the judge Thursday to allow the Jeff Simpson faction of the LCRP to meet spelled the death knell for Stainbrook's reign. As a result of that meeting and the election of officers, Simpson and Paul Hoag will be able to re-submit their list of officers to the BOE which is scheduled to meet Tuesday. There is no time limit on the submission of the officers of the two competing groups and no restriction on submitting the list only one time, so the Simpson group can provide their list with a secretary's signature to the BOE.

The BOE will certify lists from both Simpson and Stainbrook and the state central committee will decide between the two. Considering that our Lucas County representatives to the state central committee participated in electing Simpson and that Hoag is also the state treasurer, most are confident the state central committee will select Simpson as the official and recognized chairman of the LCRP.

*** SIDE NOTES:

There are a couple of tidbits that didn't seem to fit in with other stories, so I'll add them here.

* In researching past Blade articles for the words they used to describe Stainbrook, I came across this article: GOP director's e-mail slams Stainbrook's recruits Blade, The (Toledo, OH) - Thursday, January 10, 2008.

The gist is that the LCRP executive director had done some research on the voting records of some of Stainbrook's central committee candidates and had written some unkind things about them in an email. Here's what Stainbrook had to say about the criticism:

"These are derogatory, defamatory things said about good Republican people," said Jon Stainbrook , who will call for local party Director Joanne Wack to resign today at a press conference tentatively set for 2 p.m. "This is unacceptable behavior."

I couldn't help but be struck by his own 'derogatory, defamatory things' said about 'good Republican people,' especially in light of his court filing that called 'many' of the central committee members "drunk." And that doesn't even get into the things he's said about Olman, Kriner, elected officials, etc...

If the behavior is unacceptable for the party's executive director, it is even more so for the party's chairman. Unfortunately, Stainbrook didn't apply his standard to himself as he didn't resign following his own derogatory and defamatory comments about good Republicans.

* Stainbrook has been touting, as one of his successes, the selection of Karl Rove for the party's 2010 Lincoln Day dinner on January 21. That event is 11 days away and several of us haven't received our invitations to the event. Information on the event is listed on the party's website, but how successful will the event be if invitations haven't yet been mailed?

But then, with my writings on the issue, perhaps it's just me that hasn't been invited....