Brinkman Says Ohio Senate President Bill Harris Rigged SW Ohio GOP Appointment: FOI Uncovers Letters Backing Schneider

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Former State Rep. Tom Brinkman says a public records request shows that Ohio Senate President Bill Harris concealed letters of recommendation supporting Michelle Schneider when she sought the District 7 Senate seat that covers Warren and Hamilton counties. Brinkman says one of the hidden letters came from the family of Robert Schuler, the incumbent who died in office last year. The GOP Senate caucus appointed Shannon Walker Jones to the vacant seat last summer. Brinkman contends a biased selection process was used in Columbus to seat Jones and "is not only un-Republican, it is un-American." Schneider is now challenging Jones in the May GOP primary.

Brinkman's claim that the appointment process was a sham rigged by Harris emerged in a letter that is circulating among Hamilton County Republicans. The letter says Jones raised $170,000 from First Energy Corp., an Akron utility company, and its coal suppliers. It claims Harris created a 7-member selection committee that focused on Jones fundraising prowess rather than her lack of support among Cincinnati-area Republicans:

"When the 'selection committee' recommended Ms. Jones, they disregarded written letters of recommendations for Michelle Schneider that . . . had been signed by (among many others) Commissioner Greg Hartmann, Prosecutor Joe Deters, Clerk of Courts Patty Clancy, Engineer Bill Brayshaw, County GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou and former Ohio Senate Presidents Aronoff and Finan. Michelle's support from Warren County elected officials was equally impressive, with letters from their County Commissioner, current and former Sheriffs, and county Engineer, Treasurer, Clerk of Court and Coroner.

"After the 'selection,' I made a public records request for all correspondence to the State Senate in support of any of the candidates. To my surprise, I found that the Senate President had withheld from his hand-picked selection committee many letters of recommendation, including one from the Schuler family. In contrast, only one countywide elected official (from Warren County) endorsed Ms. Jones. There were no letters of support from any Hamilton County resident. In light of this serious imbalance in local support, I question how the 'selection committee' could have recommended Ms. Jones over Michelle Schneider."

Schneider is a former state representative from suburban Cincinnati. She also was the mayor of Madeira. She is challenging Jones, who lives in Springboro, a city in Warren and Montgomery counties that is a suburb of Dayton. Jones got the Senate appointment in August 2009. Brinkman also applied for the Schuler vacancy.

Hamilton County GOP Chair To Tea Partiers: 'Welcome' Even If You Hate Our Guts

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- He must have a dagger behind his back. Hamilton County GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou thinks the Tea Partiers can be his kind of traditional Republicans even though they've filed candidates to run against 11 GOP congress people in Texas. Chairman Alex welcomes them in SW Ohio while there's a civil war under way. Of course, he hasn't put any of the insurgents into office locally, nor has he given them any choice party leadership spots. Down in Texas, establishment figures like the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee are being challenged. Even Ron Paul is among those being challenged. Maybe Alex figures they are right and his party has been wrong all along. About Texas, TPM notes:

"Around 20 candidates identifying with the Tea Party movement are running for Congress in Texas, most of them against Republicans. More than half of the Republican incumbents in Texas face primary opponents who claim to be affiliated with the Tea Party movement. That includes big names in Republican conservatives like Rep. Pete Sessions and even Rep. Ron Paul.The tea partiers are [also] taking on NRCC-selected candidates in elections where the seats are held by Democrats, making it tougher for the GOP to focus on flipping the seats to their side."

But Triantafilou extended an olive branch today in Cincinnati:

"I am pleased to report that we have an influx of new energy and excitement coming to our Republican party. Many of those energized by the Tea Party movement are coming into our party and seeking to become precinct executives and to become involved in other ways. My message to these great conservatives is very simple: WELCOME! The energy and enthusiasm demonstrated by this movement is important to what we are trying to accomplish in Hamilton County. While many Tea Party activists are unhappy with the direction of the GOP, I believe that our local effort to recruit, retain, and promote strong local candidates can only benefit from new energy and new ideas from strong conservatives."

Who is Triantafilou kidding? The Tea Party is a grass roots conservative movement begun by people who are fed up with the corporatist wing of the Republican Party, the people who put Bob Taft and his ilk on the ballot and into office. They aren't going to be fooled by the 4th Street Gang that runs the GOP. These people are storming the Bastille.

Hamilton County GOP Chair George Vincent: Soon To Exit?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- CityBeat's Kevin Osborne is reporting Hamilton County GOP Chairman George Vincent will depart no later than mid-April. He is supposed to be replaced by a sitting Common Pleas Court Judge who plans to resign his $120,000-a-year job for the partisan post overseeing the state's richest urban countywide political organization -- an organization whose grip has begun to ebb.

Judge Alex Triantafilou is currently seeking election to the judgeship, which was an appointment from former Gov. Bob Taft. According to CityBeat's Osborne, when Triantafilou drops out of the race to step in as GOP chair -- he does not have a Democratic opponent for the judgeship --the Republican party will name a replacement candidate for the November ballot. Osborne says the dealmakers already have made their choice: Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Russell J. Mock.

What's interesting about all this? If the changes indeed take place, judgeships get shuffled and voters have little sway over who fills these important elected offices. Instead, all the decisions get made by political insiders. Is that the kind of democracy John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had in mind when they created the Republic?

If Bogus, Cincy Blog Allegedly By GOP Chair May Be 'Invasion of Privacy'

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- An Ohio Supreme Court ruling last month for the first time recognized in the state a right to seek damages in cases where publicity portrays the person in a "false light." The case might have a bearing on a satirical blog called AngryGeorge, which is purportedly written by Hamilton County GOP Chairman George Vincent. Among other things, it has described him as using drugs.

The Bellwether reported Thursday that AngryGeorge was up and running. In a 5-2 decision June 6, the Ohio Supreme Court said it was concerned about the First Amendment, but said privacy rights were important, too.

"In Ohio, we have already recognized that a claim for invasion of privacy can arise when true private details of a person's life are publicized. The right to privacy naturally extends to the ability to control false statements made about oneself. Without false light, the right to privacy is not whole, as it is not fully protected by defamation laws."

Justice Paul Pfeiffer, who wrote the decision, also said:

"In Ohio, one who gives publicity to a matter concerning another that placed the other before the public in a false light is subject to the other for invasion of privacy if (a) the false light in which the other was placed would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, and (b) the actor had knowledge of or acted in reckless disregard as to the falsity of the publicized matter and the false light in which the other would be placed."

Libel and defamation are difficult for anyone to prove. But they are virtually impossible cases for public officials and public figures to win, and GOP chairman Vincent would probably fall into both categories. However, false light might give him a door to step through if he chooses to take legal action. So far, there's been no public indication of his thinking. (All this is predicated on one fact: Vincent is not really AngryGeorge.)

Many legal scholars have warned the blogosphere -- which by nature has been rough-and-tumble with anonymous snark and unrestrained speech -- might be ripe for lawsuits that challenge its Wild West frontier nature. Consider this: Could a blog that is found taking liberties with the identity of its become the scene of a legal shootout at the OK Corral, could its appearance end up taming the Wild West?

The full-text of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling is available HERE (pdf) and grew out of a particularly nasty neighborhood feud in Stark County. One set of neighbors posted handbills at a school and job site accusing the others of vandalism. There was more to it than that, of course, but the allegations of criminal conduct were major parts of the false light claims.