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Polivka said state party will allow Trumbull Democrats’ secret vote to stand
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County Democratic Party chairman Dan Polivka claimed victory Tuesday over attempts by state party chairman Chris Redfern to force him to have another vote to fill an unexpired county commissioner term.
“None of the threats held true,” Polivka said of comments by Redfern, who said Polivka needed to have a public re-vote to fill a Trumbull County commissioner vacancy, or face removal as chairman.
“He couldn’t tell me I was suspended because we didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” Polivka said of a meeting in Columbus on Aug. 27 in which the state party talked about removing — but declined to remove — Polivka as county party chairman.
Polivka said Tuesday a three-person committee, appointed by the state party that day to investigate whether Polivka and others knowingly violated state party bylaws, has agreed to allow stand the Trumbull party’s choice of Mauro Cantalamessa as interim commissioner. Cantalamessa will run in November to retain the seat two more years.
The state party committee consists of Tim Burke, Bill Demora and Martha Campbell.
Polivka said he agreed to form a committee of Trumbull Democrats to look at “whether changes should be made in the future” to the county party’s bylaws so that future votes will be done publicly.
Polivka said that committee will report back to the county party’s central committee “in the near future,” but he doesn’t know what the committee will recommend.
When reached by telephone Tuesday, Burke, Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman, said “the critical thing” is for the county party to change its bylaws to require public votes in the future. Burke said changing the local bylaws “has to be done now to lift the sanctions.”
The state party threatened to sanction Trumbull County Democratic Party candidates by refusing them access to a voter database and mailing discounts. It’s unclear whether those sanctions have been instituted.