Stainbrook accuses GOP foes of scare tactics during re-election

Jon Stainbrook says these flyers were designed to intimidate his supporters. Enlarge

A brawny officer stands in uniform with arms folded beneath a banner headline — “warrant for your arrest” — and warnings of how law enforcement would be in full force at the June 9 biennial reorganization of the Lucas County Republican Party.

“There will be uniformed law enforcement officers present,” the pamphlet warns. “The officers will be able to check for all outstanding warrants.”

The recipients of this fictitious, mailed flyer were supporters of Jon Stainbrook in his bid for re-election as GOP chairman.

Mr. Stainbrook said he remembers how the orange-colored flyers arrived in mailboxes the day before the meeting at Erie Street Market.

“Everybody was calling me up and saying, ‘I don't want a warrant for my arrest,'” Mr. Stainbrook recalled. “It was clearly harassment and intimidation. Anytime you get a mailing that says ‘warrant for your arrest,' you're going to think twice about showing up.”

Though Mr. Stainbrook went on to win the battle last week to keep his chairmanship, he is still fuming over what he considers the opposition's playbook of dirty tricks.

He contends that internecine political skullduggery hit a new low with the flyers and a subsequent act by Patrick Kriner, chairman of the county Board of Elections and a fellow Republican, to hire, with his own money, two off-duty sheriff's deputies who stood guard at the meeting's check-in table.

As Mr. Stainbrook sees it, the presence of these deputies, coupled with the flyers, was an act of harassment against his party recruits and aimed at scaring them into leaving.

If enough of his supporters had left, Mr. Stainbrook would have lost the chairmanship to attorney Jeff Simpson, his election rival.

Mr. Kriner said in an interview yesterday that Mr. Stainbrook's charges of conspiracy are completely unfounded.

The former Sylvania City councilman said he hired the deputies at the request of the Ohio Republican Party and for the sole purpose of providing event security.

And he denied any prior knowledge of the Stainbrook opposition flyers, though he did support Mr. Simpson's candidacy.

“I am disappointed that Jon feels that he was slighted,” Mr. Kriner said. “This is the second time he feels he was slighted and put upon, but this is the second time he won the election.”

In the lead-up to the May election to the party's central committee, Mr. Simpson made an issue of the fact that some of Mr. Stainbrook's recruits have criminal records.

Another round of mailed flyers, this time printed on neon green paper, beckoned Mr. Stainbrook's supporters with a fictitious offer for free Xbox 360 video game consoles and large screen televisions. The so-called “grand opening giveaway” was to occur at a Walmart store in Oregon at the exact time as the GOP's June reorganization meeting.

Lucas County Sheriff James Telb confirmed yesterday that the off-duty deputies made no arrests the night of the GOP event and checked no one for outstanding warrants.

Sheriff Telb said he gave prior approval of the deputies' off-duty work because he initially thought the request came from the board of elections, which often uses sheriff's deputies. He didn't learn otherwise until after the meeting.

“As this thing developed I found that it wasn't really working for the board of elections, but working for a member of the board of elections,” Sheriff Telb said.

The sheriff also noted that one of the deputies was approached with the work offer by Mr. Kriner's brother, Sgt. Kelly Kriner, who works in booking at the county jail.

Nevertheless, Sheriff Telb said he has no hard feelings over the misunderstanding, and still would have approved the deputies' work if he had known that Mr. Kriner requested them on his own.

“From what I can ascertain, they just did what they were paid to do and they did it in a gentlemanly manner and then they left,” the sheriff said.

Mr. Kriner, who paid the deputies in cash, said he has asked the state GOP to count the $291 he handed over to them as an in-kind contribution to the party.

Mr. Stainbrook said he thinks Mr. Kriner is lying about the state party having contacted him.

Three off-duty Toledo Police officers had been assigned to the meeting on the county GOP's dime, Mr. Stainbrook said.

“We were the ones bringing in security, so there's not an alibi,” he said.

A spokesman for the state party did not return a request for comment Friday.

Contact JC Reindl at:

jreindl@theblade.com

or 419-724-6065.