Right after my shoulder surgery, I went to the Montgomery County Democratic Party meeting- with the intention of throwing my hat into the ring for Chairman. There is no way I would have gotten elected, because, the Monarchy has their own plans. But, it turns out, excluding me from running because I wasn’t a precinct captain anymore wasn’t legal:

After discovering a 55-year-old court case, an Ohio Democratic Party official has said Mark Alberini is eligible to run for Trumbull County Democratic Party chairman even though he’s not a central committee member.

Bill DeMora, ODP secretary, previously had said Alberini, Trumbull County Board of Elections chairman, couldn’t run to lead the Trumbull Democrats because the local party’s constitution restricts candidates for principal officers — chair, vice chair and secretary — to central committee members.

Alberini is challenging Dan Polivka, chairman since 2010, when the party meets Tuesday to elect officers.

DeMora said at his request, a friend searched for relevant cases on the eligibility of those running for a county Democratic chairman and found a 1967 decision from the Cleveland-based 8th District Court of Appeals. In that case, the judges ruled absent a specific state law “to the contrary, there is no requirement that the chairman of a county central committee of a political party be an elected member thereof.”

DeMora wrote in an email, the case “CLEARLY states that, in fact, the chair of a central committee NEED NOT BE A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE. Thus, my previous rulings are REVERSED and ANY ELIGIBLE DEMOCRAT who resides in the county may be chair of the central committee.”

DeMora told a reporter that “a court case means it is law. The law supersedes the rules” of the Trumbull Democratic Party.

Source: ODP official shifts ruling in Trumbull race | News, Sports, Jobs – The Vindicator

I wonder how many other party meetings there were that DeMora allowed this illegal exclusion to be used? DeMora is the tool of the party that sent the email “letter” telling me I was a political leper. (Note- only Montgomery County does this “endorsement” thing)

What I would have talked about, the food for thought, was that the Montgomery County Democratic Party isn’t anything but a private club to keep the friends and family plan working with the patronage system. That they have no plan, no strategy, no initiatives, technology or system to develop candidates, run candidates in every race, or win elections. Their fund raising skills are crappy, their meeting attendance is a joke, and there is zero programming to engage and motivate dems to join together to fight the republican menace.

Contrast this with the newly transformed Greene County Democrats under Kim McCarthy. They have a 10 year plan. They developed a new logo and identity. They keep their offices staffed and open, in a highly visible storefront at the main intersection of Xenia across from the County Courthouse. They’ve been recruiting precinct captains, organizing into wards- and being social. They had a picnic in July, and a volunteer appreciation dinner last night- paid for by the party, where they raised around $3000 for a local non-profit. They actually like each other- instead of breaking out into a scrum.

They call roll at their meetings, record votes properly, and don’t have their former chairman get up and call an elected dem candidate a trump like enemy. They put out their own slate card- including all candidates. Quite the opposite of the MCDP.

If you wonder how ineffective the MCDP is- you need to look no further than their ability to get dems out to vote. What was once a solidly blue county- is now a toss up. Where virtual unknowns like Bill Matthews and Jordan Wortham- come within spitting distance of winning a County Commission seat- spending next to nothing. If the Montgomery County Republican Party wasn’t equally as incompetent- they would have won more races. Of course, the fact that the MCDP had write-ins for candidates against Tom Young and Steve Huffman, is yet another example of how incompetent Owen’s and now Al-Hamdani are. The first challenge is to at least have candidates to choose from.

Considering Owen’s thought it was OK to mail smear pieces against progressive Dems, Fairchild and Turner-Sloss, in the Dayton City Commission race 2 years ago on the party mailing discount should have been a clear indication that he was unfit to lead.

Al-Hamdani, when meeting with me, complained about not having money to hire an executive director, having no resources, or tools to help candidates get elected. Never mind a retired attorney offered to be the executive director for free- and was ignored.

In fact, many people who come to a MCDP meeting for the first time, never want to go back. They aren’t welcomed, acknowledged, or respected. Nor is there anything happening at a party meeting that would make you feel as if you were making a difference- unless of course, you were just there to keep your patronage job- and make sure your boss gets reelected.

I’ve said over and over that once you work for an elected official- you should be disqualified from being a precinct captain- an extension of the Hatch Act, banning partisan political activity, since you work for the people- not the party. Even enacting that change at this point may not be enough. The real problem is the precinct captain system is broken beyond repair. Why should only one voice in a strong dem household be able to have a say in the party affairs? And, since the party can’t manage to get more than half the seats filled- are they in fact a legitimate body in the first place?

After watching the hard work of Tim and Alison Benford, who run the positive and uplifting South Dayton Dems, go un-rewarded and un-recognized by the MCDP- one has to wonder why this party has any legitimate claim to power. After all, isn’t being election deniers a Republican thing? The MCDP made it very clear to the ODP and even the DCCC not to support me- after I was chosen by 10,324 Dems to be the candidate in a 4 way primary- and where almost 98,383 cast their vote either for me- or against Mike Turner in the general election.

The fact that the most help a party gave me in the race was when the Republicans mailed a card to dems telling them that I was so bad I was un-endorsed should be noted. That the D’s didn’t endorse me at the State level either- along with 2 other candidates is almost criminal. And when looking over the un-official results, 2 of us, did better than many of the “Endorsed” Dems that the party supposedly backed.

The entire state has now been owned by the Republican Party. With the exception of Steve Chabot losing in Ohio-1, the Dem party was emasculated. Maybe it’s time to consider a massive restructuring of the party statewide- with adult leadership.

Some numbers to consider

Montgomery County Ryan 94,512, Whaley 76,154 Esrati 74,650

Greene County Ryan 26,490 40.31% Esrati 21,003 31.94% Whaley 20,367 30.86%

Clark County Ryan 17,141 38.60%, Esrati (Unendorsed OH-10) 8,981 38.69%, Gary Josephson (unendorsed OH-15) 5,407 25.65% Total for County for Congress: 14,338, Whaley 12,559 28.60%

So, despite endorsement and millions of dollars, Whaley got a measly 1504 more votes than me in Montgomery County. I beat her in Clark County by 636 votes, and in Clark, which is split in a gerrymander, fellow Cleveland Heights native, Gary Josephson and I combined to beat her by 1779 votes.

It’s time to dismantle the 2 party rule in Ohio as fast as possible. If there was a party for the “Undeclared” voters in Ohio- it is bigger than both the parties. It’s only by gerrymandering and manipulation that the R’s keep winning everything in Ohio- as well as the Dem’s parochial patronage friends and family program.

We need to move to ranked choice voting sooner than later- and make Ohioan’s happy about voting again. That they can vote for people they want, not that were picked through our insane primary system with gerrymanders ruling the outcomes.

When the MCDP meets next Thursday, it would be amazing if every Dem who cared- came to the meeting- and demanded that we get a real plan out of Al-Hamdani and his minions- or that they step aside, and let someone who can out perform their “endorsed” candidates – without any help, start them on the path to salvation and redemption.

The numbers should speak for themselves, but, when you consider the dollars spent per vote, I did better than any of their previous endorsed candidates, and could have done more, if we were running elections, not auctions.