Tuesday, September 19, 2017

SCPR ELECTION SERIES (2018) JOSEPH SCHIAVONI - FOR THE DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION, MAY 2018


JOSEPH SCHIAVONI

AN "EXCLUSIVE" SCPR INTERVIEW



On September 12th, the "announced" Democratic candidates for Ohio governor (2018) squared off (well, sorta) against one another in Martins Ferry, Ohio in an Ohio Democratic Party sponsored debate.  See the entire debate at this LINK.

Governor John Kasich (a Republican) is term limited out after eight consecutive years in office.

Going back to 1991, Democrats have only held the governorship of Ohio for one term.  Democrat Ted Strickland served as governor from January 8, 2007 through January 10, 2011 before losing narrowly to Kasich in the 2014 election.

So Democrats are hungering and thirsting to put their person in charge as Ohio's chief executive in Columbus.

Many political pundits assessed the Martins Ferry event as being a love-in among the Democrats who were united in their attacks on Kasich.

Yesterday, The Stark County Political Report (SCPR) sat down with candidate Joe Schiavoni of the Youngstown area for an interview that lasted nearly 40 minutes.

Here is an excerpt from Schiavoni's Wikipedia biography (LINK).


The entire SCPR video Schiavoni interview can be viewed at the end of this blog published to ensure readers that the segments have not been cherry picked.

As the SCPR often does, in this blog the video in broken down into five minute segments for those readers who do not have a window of 40 minutes to view the interview in one setting.

Readers will note that a focus of the interview was a tie-in to the interests specific Stark County in terms of what Stark Countians can expect of a given candidate in attending to the priority needs of our county.

FIRST, Schiavoni introduces himself.

Schiavoni focuses on being "the working persons" candidate in that he talks about the working class jobs he has held early in life, his being a Golden Gloves prizefighter and his primary legal work as a workers' compensation attorney.

The video (4:12):



He does have a representional tie to Stark County in that until redistricting occurred in 2011, he represented the extreme eastern end of Stark (Alliance being the major area) when he was appointed by the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus to take over for John Boccieri who had been elected 16th Congressional District congressman.

SECOND,  Schiavoni on the importance of Ohio investment in city infrastructure: (2:40)



THIRD,  on a Canton/Stark County specific interest—the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village Project: (1:18)



While he is supportive of the project, Schiavoni cautions about "putting too many eggs in one basket."

FOURTH, Schiavoni on his willingness to dip into the "Rainy Day Fund."   He addresses Canton council president Allen Schulman's long standing demand that Ohio restore the 500 million plus cut in local government funding over the past 7/8 years. (3:34)



FIFTH, his commitment to the continued funding viability to rid Ohio (including, of course, Stark County's) of blighted properties through entities such as the Stark County "Land Bank." (3:01)



SIXTH, where does the money come from for Schiavoni's aggressive program to deal with Opioid addiction, restoring local government funding, land banks and the like? (1:33)



SEVENTH, the politics of Schiavoni becoming the Democratic nominee for governor. (3:57)



EIGHTH, the organized labor connection and their/Schiavoni's agreement with PresidentTrump on NAFTA and TPP and, in general, Schiavoni's ability to work with the prospect of "continuing to dominate" Republican Ohio General Assembly.  (5:07)



NINTH, Shiavoni on education/charter schools and the threat that Canton schools may be subject to a state takeover. (6:27)



TENTH, Workers' Compensation (WC), a emphasis in Shiavoni's legal practice, does it need fixing?  (2:26)



ELEVENTH, the effort of the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) to shift costs of incarceration/rehab down to local government (2:08), and



TWELVTH, candidate Shiavoni's wrap up. (1:50)



LASTLY, the entire Schiavoni interview (unedited).


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