A Cicchinelli Pep Rally

Tonight's "Candidate's Forum" at the Lions Lincoln Theatre will turn out to be nothing more than a glorified pep rally for Team Cicchinelli.

The Extraordinary One, Massillon's Mayor for Life, King Francis the Eternal, Lord Sovereign of the City has long manipulated this format.

Four years ago when he "debated" Tim Bryan at the Lions Lincoln Theatre, he packed the place with friends, relatives, and people who owed their jobs to him.

They hooted, they howled, they booed Bryan on command, and they cheered the Extraordinary One when they were supposed to.

The doors open at 6PM. The Question and Answer session starts at 7PM and lasts until 9PM.

The rules for tonight are absolutely ridiculous.

If you want to ask a question, you have to write your name on a slip of paper, and drop it into a bucket in the lobby.

The event organizers draw names randomly, and the selected person gets to go up to the microphone and ask their question of the candidates.

The problem is the Cicchinelli minions will arrive in force, and load the bucket. If they submit 90% of the names, they will get to ask 90% of the questions.

They will have that bucket full by 6:30PM.

And they will have prepared questions.

If a city worker gets drawn randomly, he better damn well ask the question the mayor wants to hear.

"Uh, yes, you, Mike Loudiana, do you have a question FOR YOUR BOSS?"

It will be a steady stream of city workers, Cicchinelli family members, and mayoral lackeys parading to the microphone and  praising their commander in chief.

The bucket will be stuffed worse than a Chicago ballot box on election day.

The fix will be in, whether that was the intent of the organizers, or not.

If the citizens of Massillon don't want the last candidate's forum before the election to be slow pitch softball batting practice for the mayor, they better show up, write out their name, drop it in the bucket, and ask real questions if called.

Because the mayoral minions will have their marching orders.

And they will be out in full force.