43
Trumbull Democratic Party chairman achieved the unthinkable
Photo
Polivka
Photo
Redfern
EDITOR’S NOTE — As 2014 winds down, The Vindicator is taking a daily look back at the people and events that made this year unforgettable. “The Vindicator Rewind” will highlight and update a memorable story from 2014.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
It seemed unthinkable last July that the Trumbull County Democratic Party would prevail over Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, when Redfern told The Vindicator that the local party must change its 35-year-old policy of taking private votes to fill vacancies for public office.
Redfern added that if Dan Polivka, county party chairman, didn’t agree with the policies of the Ohio Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee on public votes, Polivka should resign.
But 31/2 months later — Nov. 4 — not only had the Trumbull Democrats thumbed their nose at Refern’s demands for a public vote, but Redfern had himself lost his seat in the Ohio House of Representatives and announced his resignation as state party chairman.
Polivka said last week it’s “ironic” that it was Redfern who resigned, but he isn’t going to gloat over that.
“I always had a good relationship with Chris Redfern,” Polivka said. “I’m not gloating over his misfortune, and I’m happy with how things turned out.”
Polivka said much of Redfern’s misfortune stemmed from the state party’s failure to check into the background of Ed FitzGerald, the failed Democratic candidate for governor, to discover that FitzGerald had no driver’s license for 10 years.
Polivka decided when he became Trumbull chairman in 2010 that he would reinstitute the practice of paying an assessment — $3,800 per year — to the Ohio Democratic Party.
That money entitled the Trumbull party to access to bulk mailing discounts, a sample ballot and a voter database, Polivka said, adding that $3,800 is just about the value of those services.
So when Redfern revoked those privileges from the Trumbull Democrats for a month for refusing to conduct a public vote to select a replacement for Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel after Heltzel died in June, Redfern was violating his own bylaws, Polivka said.
As a compromise, the county party established new bylaws that call for “caucus-style” voting — a system that divides the Trumbull County Democratic Party Central Committee into eight geographical groups that vote separately in a public meeting to fill a vacancy.
The votes are “probably not” recorded by the party for later review, Polivka said at the time the new bylaws were approved, but anyone inside each of the eight meetings could record the results.
Polivka reiterated last week that he felt strongly that entirely public voting to fill unexpired terms of public officials leads to intimidation by party leaders, which is why central committee members oppose it.
“I had to fight for our precinct committee members, our candidates and our party as a whole,” Polivka said.