Near the end of September, the West Chester Tea Party will feature Dr. Michael Pryce, an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate. He is also the author of “Anathema! America’s War on Medicine.”
Pryce - according to a West Chester Tea Party e-mail on Aug. 31 - will speak about “what is wrong with our current health care system, and what it will take to fix it” from the perspective of a practicing physician.
Then Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones will speak on immigration, including “the problems it causes and how it effects you from both a personal and financial perspective.” (from the same West Chester Tea Party e-mail)
A Q&A will follow both presentations.
The West Chester Tea Party meeting starts at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Lakota West Freshman School, 5050 Tylersville Road, West Chester Twp. Registration starts at 6:30 p.m.
So, will you attend? If so, what do you hope to hear? What do you want to ask?
Next week, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray will be the featured speaker at the Butler County Progressive Political Action Committee’s quarterly “Candidate’s Night” meeting.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Sept. 9 and will be at the LCNB Bank, 30 Park Place West, in Oxford. It’s free and open to the public.
In a press release, Cordray said, “I pledge to the people of Ohio that I will use my office to stand up for them against the forces that wrecked our economy and caused so much pain for so many.”
The release also stated a number of accomplishments by Cordray (and you can see it attached below), but the one thing that stands out to me is, he was a five-time “Jeopardy” champion.
At the meeting, Cordray will introduce Middletown attorney, J.C. Shew, who is seeking to defeat incumbent Ohio Rep. Tim S. Derickson, R-Oxford, for the 53rd District seat.
Other Democratic candidates speaking, include:
• Bruce Carter (running against incumbent Ohio Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, for the 54th District seat, and independent Arnie Engel, of Fairfield);
• Suzi Rubin (running against incumbent Ohio Rep. Bill Coley, R-Middletown for the 55th District seat);
• Butch Hubble (running against Clerk or Court Cindy Carpenter for County Commission); and
• George Stephen (running against incumbent Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds for auditor).
So, will you attend? If so, what do you hope to hear from these candidates?
The new court date in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati for former Butler County commissioner and former state legislator Michael A. Fox will be in April 2011.
Just last week Fox pleaded not guilty to federal charges for allegedly receiving about $460,000 in kickbacks in exchange for helping Robert C. Schuler, a Columbus-area attorney, land a multimillion-dollar county contract.
Schuler is Fox’s co-defendant in the case. Fox also faces mail fraud, conspiracy and filing a false tax return charges. Schuler faces conspiracy, filing a false tax return and perjury charges.
The original trial date was set for Oct. 4. Fox’s attorneys, Ralph Kohnen and Aaron Herzig, have claimed the case is a politically motivated.
Do you believe the claim is politically motivated?
The Butler County Board of Elections will now meet with the county commission in executive session to discuss if the county will proceed with its own lawsuit against Premier Election Solutions, or take its share of the Secretary of State’s settlement. Here is the last story written about this.
The executive session meeting with the commissioners was tentatively set for Monday, Aug. 30, but Butler County Board of Elections executive director Betty McGary said the meeting is likely going to happen in early September.
The board met Thursday, Aug. 26, and Friday, Aug. 27, to discuss their options - either sticking with its lawsuit against Premier where they are seeking about $5 million in damages, or take part with the Secretary of State’s settlement.
The elections board claims the Diebold machines had a glitch during the March 2008 primary election which initially caused more than 200 votes to go uncounted.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner settled on behalf of 47 counties. Each county that used Premier voting equipment will split $470,424, and receive up to $2.4 million in free software licensing for two years, free voting machines, a 50 percent discount on new generation optical scan equipment and the right to use other vendors for services.
Premier had purchased the voting machines originally manufactured by Diebold Inc.
So, should the Board of Elections take the Secretary of State settlement deal or proceed with its lawsuit?
Justin Cossoule has won the endorsement of the largest caucus inside the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. Congress, which is co-chaired by U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, and Lynn Woolsey, D-California.
Cossoule is the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 8th Congressional District, running against U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp.
Below is the press release about the announcement.
And for equal time:
For information on Cossoule’s campaign, visit here.
For information on Boehner’s campaign, visit here.
Just a couple days after the county’s Democratic Party chairwoman filed a complaint against Ohio Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, for allegedly not having a disclaimer on a couple of his campaign yard signs, the Republicans cried foul against Combs’ opponent, Bruce Carter.
Butler County Republican Party’s Fairfield regional chair Don Carpenter received a flier advertising a fundraiser for Carter in February. It apparently did not have a disclaimer. The flier was not created - and the event was not organized - by Carter.
Carpenter filed the complaint on behalf of Combs to the Ohio Elections Commission on Thursday, Aug. 19.
Combs claims his signs does have disclaimers - and Carpenter quipped, “I guess they didn’t look close enough.” Combs said his disclaimer is under the word “state” in state representative. The flier announcing a Carter fundraiser (not organized by the candidate) did not have a disclaimer.
In the grand scheme of things, not having a disclaimer is a minor offense. The Ohio Revised Code indicates the fine is up to $500. Only about 40 of these types of complaints are received annually at the Ohio Elections Commission.
Combs said he knew of the lack of disclaimer on flier for a planned fundraiser for Carter, but wasn’t going to say anything - that was until the Democrats filed a complaint with the OEC on Tuesday, Aug. 17.
Jocelyn Bucaro said she created the flier before she was the chair of the county’s Democratic Party.
Combs said it doesn’t matter who paid for it, but it needs to be known who did pay for it.
It will be interesting to see how these to complaints play out with the OEC.
But in a back-and-forth of OEC complaints, who really wins? Who gains the political advantage?
Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at mpitman@coxohio.com
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Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at 
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Wonder how the big petition drive is going, haven’t heard of Big Wind Rick getting many signatures.