2016 MASSILLON.COM ENDORSEMENTS 

Massillon.com proudly endorses:

Donald J Trump for President

John Ferrero for Stark County Prosecutor

None of the Above for U.S. Senate

Richard Regula for Stark County Commissioner

Yes on the Massillon School Levy

President

Donald J Trump 

After months of review, this race proved to be a real no-brainer.  The opportunity to have a successful businessman who doesn't need the job or the special interest money is too much of an opportunity to pass on.  Despite the explosively negative campaign against him, we can find accusations made against Trump to be little more than media bluster for salacious ratings material, typical establishment "gotcha" nonsense drama, and much sensationalism about little more than normal people see, do, and/or say on a daily basis.

To Mr. Trump's credit he brings many bold new visions to immigration, tax policy, health care, education, and top of all things: rebuilding our military and respecting our active duty, reserve, and military veterans in ways the government has absolutely and disgustingly failed to do for way too many years.

Senate

None of the Above

Frankly, if you asked us three weeks ago this would have said Rob Portman.  However this is no longer the case.  Even if I were not a supporter of Trump, I would find it a disqualifier the same, but when Portman endorsed Trump then a few weeks ago "rescinds" his endorsement because of juiced up media outrage, it just screams "sway in the wind" politician and I simply cannot justify stamping my endorsement on that.  This is especially true in the case of Rob Portman as he enjoyed a 20 point lead in the polls and really didn't need to say anything on the matter at all.  It would be awesome if politicians focused on their own race, their own jobs, and the people they represent instead of having to jump in with an opinion on every new article every day.

As for Ted Strickland... well, even with Rob Portman lacking the backbone required for my endorsement or my vote, not a chance in the world Strickland ever gets either.

Ted Strickland, in my opinion, is a trainwreck and abject failure.  His tenure as Governor was a disaster and I cannot see why the democrats backed this guy at all.  The Ohio Democratic Party but be running on empty for candidates because this was a failure to launch candidacy.

Stark County Prosecutor

John D Ferrero

This is the easiest of all endorsements.  John Ferrero has been doing the job, doing it well, and is frankly a good hard working person.  Jakmides has done nothing to even hint otherwise, nor has Jakmides even come close to proving himself qualified at all vs Ferrero being absolutely qualified and absolutely hitting the bullseye on job performance.

Keeping John Ferrero is about the easiest decision ever put on a ballot, and that includes races with only one person running.

Stark County Commissioner

Richard Regula

This again is a case of guy who has done the job and done it well.  Richard truly closed the deal with me the opposite way that Rob Portman lost me.  When Portman "disendorsed" Trump, the media asked Regula the same question.  His answer was exactly what it should have been... That he supports and will vote for the GOP nominee, Donald Trump and went on to say that's his only comment.  He said he's focused on Stark County problems, that he's running for Stark County and doesn't feel the need to inject himself into national races that have nothing to do with his job taking care of issues in Stark County.

Bravo Richard Regula.  Tossing aside the temptation to get your name printed in the paper by jumping into the sludge-pool  of national politics and staying focused on Stark County.  This deserves and gets my endorsement.

Massillon City School Levy

YES

Full Disclosure, I am not a resident of MCSD so I will not be voting either way.  However being that WHS is my alma mater and my reputation is tied to this school system in a lot of ways, I can't imagine not having an opinion on this.

This is probably the biggest surprise endorsement to anyone who knows me, as well as myself.  I reluctantly have to say, this is probably the best way out of the mess that the admin and board (former and some current) have created.  The experiment into a single middle school on the far west side is an abject failure.  Seriously, who thought that was a good idea... ever.  Follow that with arbitrarily closing the "border" elementary schools while completely ignoring the condition, age, and capacity of existing buildings was... just dumb.  Oh, the last levy "you have to pass it before we know what we are doing" was just awful.

This time....  Well, I have no choice to endorse really, it's about the best plan I can ever see coming out of this group.  Honestly, short of blowing up the whole system and starting over, eminent domaining properties they should have never sold off, and finding doc brown and a few vials of plutonium... this is the best shot at actually fixing the school system and doing so in an intelligent way.

Yes, I know it's not the best system in the world even when passed and finished... but it's the Cincinnati Bengals compared to the Cleveland Browns, none are going to the superbowl, but at least the Bengal option (a yes vote) isn't the 0-9 Browns.