A Little Advice

Back in November, Republican Lee Brunckhart took out petitions to run for the Republican nomination for mayor of Massillon.

And Brunckhart appeared ready for the challenge;

"The one thing I keep hearing is we need to give the city of Massillon back to the people and the people need to have a voice, they need to be heard," he said. "That's why they send us to office" (Lee Brunckhart, The Independent, November 8, 2010).

Republican LeVera "Pinkie" Guillan, a leading member of the Massillon Area Republican organization called Brunckhart "young and energetic and full of ideas" (The Independent, November 5, 2010).

And Brunckhart got off to a fast start, having a strong presence at the Massillon Holiday Parade.

It is important to the city's Republicans that we too have a voice in city government.

Massillon needs a strong Republican candidate in the November election.

Massillon needs a Republican primary where both candidates, Mr. Oser and Mr. Brunckhart, debate the city's problems, and discuss the best path forward for Massillon.

And in May, the Republicans will select a candidate, and the entire party needs to rally around that candidate.

But we need a spirited debate among our candidates so that good ideas rise to the surface.

From both Republican candidates.

Last week, the Independent ran a story about Senate Bill 5, the plan by the State of Ohio to rescind collective bargaining for public (state) employees.

The story asked for comment from the four candidates for mayor;

Mayor for Life Cicchinelli, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, Andrew Oser, and Lee Brunckhart.

Only Brunckhart was not available for comment. The newspaper had to get his thoughts about Senate Bill 5 from his Facebook page.

This past Saturday, The Independent published an overview of the mayor's race.

The newspaper once again received comments from Mayor for Life Cicchinelli, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, and Andrew Oser.

Lee Brunckhart was once again unavailable for comment.

If Lee Brunckhart is a serious candidate for mayor, and we hope that he is, he needs to start talking to reporters. If they leave a message for him because he is unavailable, he needs to call them back.

If you can't answer questions from a reporter, and are always quoted as being "unavailable for comment," do you really think a whole lot of people will cast their vote for you?