Written by Brian Massie, Executive Director April 22, 2022

We believe that transparency is the key to good governance and an informed electorate.

Unfortunately, the leader of the Lake County Republican Party does not share that sentiment. We would like everyone in Lake County to know what happened today at the Lake County Republican Roundtable.

When I heard that John Husted and Jane Timken were going to be at the Lake County luncheon at Ryder’s Inn, I decided to take a video recording of both of them to share with our readers. Many Lake County residents have never even heard of either Timken and Husted, and we wanted to change that if we could.

Unfortunately, the guy to the left, Dale Fellows, met me at the door and said that there would be no taping today. Mr. Fellows is the head of the Republican Party, and one of the three most powerful men in Lake County. He decides who gets to run for office, and any elected official in either party knows not to cross him.

Fellows is also the Chairman of the Lake County Board of Board of Elections. He is quoted in the News Herald as saying that the Lake County Republican Central Committee will meet immediately to select a replacement for Commissioner Ron Young, who announced his retirement on Thursday at the Commissioners’ meeting.

Newsflash to the Republican Central Committee, Fellows has already been telling people that he will be appointed to the open Commissioner’s seat until the November General Election. So if you just want to be “puppets dancing on a string”, dutifully appoint your leader, Dale Fellows, to the open seat. Just make it appear that you had a choice.

We are very concerned that if Fellows does become Commissioner, he will advocate an authoritative style of government, which includes less citizens’ participation and involvement. This is directly opposite to Commissioner John Hamercheck’s and Commissioner Ron Young’s style in conducting meetings where freedom of the press and speech are paramount.

We will reiterate what we said in a previous article:

As we observe what is happening in Lake County, we are very concerned about the consolidation of power in the hands of a few individuals.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”…John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

It is very important that we have diversity of thought in our County government. We would not be opposed to having the Commissioners consist of the Democrat, Republican and an Independent. Seventy-five percent of the Lake County registered voters are not affiliated with any party, and have no one speaking on their behalf. When all of the Commissioners are from the same political party, the citizens in the County lose.

At least now you know with whom you are dealing….

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Categories: Lake County Politics