There are two stories in the Dayton Daily News today about Gary Leitzell. If you read both of them, and pay attention, you realize that the DDN doesn’t seem to be able to define “elected.”
Gary Leitzell
Experience: Elected to the Southeast Priority Board in 1999; In 2004, He was elected president of the Walnut Hills Association; 2008, elected chairperson of the Southeast Priority Board, an office he still holds.
via Challenger Gary Leitzell is ‘a free thinker’ with Republican support [1].
Yes, priority board seats are elected. You have to get signatures, and run for the seat. Then, you have to be elected by the other people who’ve been elected to be the chairperson.
Yes, it’s not a big campaign, with selling your soul to special interests, but it is elected. In the next article- even though both her elections have been within 1,000 votes- and very racially divided- the paper announces that Rhine is hard to beat- and that Gary has “never held elected office.”
Leitzell, a stay-at-home dad who home schools his daughter and an entrepreneur who paints miniatures, is known for his activism in the Southeast Priority Board, but has never held elected office.
Particularly disappointing is the butt kissing that former challenger Dave Bohardt freely gives McLin in the article talking about her “qualifications:”
“She’s highly knowledgeable. She knows the ins and outs of City Hall. She and the city manager were able to significantly reduce workforce and expenditures quietly without a lot of hell raising.”
“I don’t think her challenger has the background or the acumen that our city is going to need,” Bohardt said.
However, Bohardt started out with an extremely negative campaign- where he tried to scare voters. He may have spent a lot of money, but he came across as a Turner wanna-be with an almost “tea party” twist. He now runs St. Mary Development Corporation [3]– a non-profit, quasi-public group, that depends on a steady flow of cash through City Hall. He may have failed to beat her, but he now knows where his bread is buttered.
The only reason Rhine McLin ever held office, who started her political career in the Statehouse – never having been elected, because her Daddy (C.J. McLin) died and she “inherited” the seat like royalty. Had her name been Leitzell- and she was presenting her “qualifications” as a mortician, she would never be taken seriously by anyone.
I can point to a long list of questionably qualified candidates who’ve been elected in this town. Most, having been anointed in a closed door meeting of the Democratic Party Screening Committee.
If you walk and talk to voters, as I’ve been doing, I can tell you- the mood is one of change, at all costs. Having the McLin name may be the biggest challenge Rhine faces in this upcoming election.
“Having the McLin name may be the biggest challenge Rhine faces in this upcoming election.”
I certainly hope that it true, David. I know that i for one have no issues with voting for Gary Leitzell. While he is considered an unknown as far as the mayoral office is concerned, I trust him more than I do Rhine McLin.
Initially, I was going to blame the “elected” vs “not elected” issue on poor editing by the DDN, as if they have any editors anyway but in this case, the same person wrote both stories !
And as for one of her “qualifications” cited by Bohardt, it’s scary if knowing “the ins and outs of City Hall” is a qualification.
Dave Bohardt is on his knees for those who feed him.
The Dayton Daily News is again in love with incumbency. Because someone is not in elective office does not disqualify someone. Leitzell actually is perhaps one of the more qualified people to run for office due to his involvement in neighborhood issues and service on the Priority Board. In this case the Priority Board system is doing what it was partially intended for, to act as a farm team for neighborhood activists to learn the ropes of urban governance, acting as a springboard for a commission run.
Leitzel reminds me a bit of former Louisville mayor Harvey Sloan, who was a doctor and a house restorer, who got into politics via the “back to the city” movement in 1970s’ Louisville, as a neighborhood activist. Sloan took on the establishment Democrat in the primary, defeated him, and then went on to defeat the Republican in the general election. So a very good example here with Leitzell, who is also a house restorer and neighborhood activist.