Portage County Commissioner Tony Badalamenti arrived at the Ravenna Moose Lodge in September for an event to fund Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski’s re-election campaign. He thought he would take the opportunity to explain his recent budget decisions to the sheriff’s supporters.
He never got the chance.
Upon arriving, Badalamenti said a woman told him he would have to leave or be escorted out by four deputies, and would be arrested if he resisted.
Badalamenti recalled that he “chuckled,” only to have Portage County Republican Party Chair Amanda Suffecool tell him the sheriff did not want him there, and his money would be refunded if he left immediately. So he left. (Suffecool also confirmed the incident occurred. The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)
The rift between Portage County Republicans is one of the most glaring aspects of the March 19 primary election. Badalamenti and Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett, both Republicans, are facing in-party opposition on the ballot, as is incumbent state Rep. Gail Pavliga, who represents Portage County.
Badalamenti and Christian-Bennett have increasingly butted heads with fellow Republican Zuchowski. After approving his ever-increasing financial requests for years, this year they are asking him to live within his budget.
Now Zuchowski is endorsing the commissioners’ opponents, hosting fundraisers with them and backing their campaigns on Facebook.
“They have not made any promises, and there’s been no backroom dealing, but they are aware of the problems here in Portage County and they want to help,” Zuchowski said in one video, seated behind a nameplate engraved with his campaign slogan, “Fuck Around and Find Out.”
Zuchowski has said his requests are needed to ensure safety in Portage County, and has publicly accused the commissioners of “defunding” his agency. The topic is on the commissioners’ minds as they face Republican opponents.
Funding clash with the sheriff
Asked about whether he was kicked out of a Zuchowski campaign event, Badalamenti confirmed the story was true. He said he had heard some people were upset that the commissioners were taking away money from the sheriff’s office, so he attended the sheriff’s fourth annual steak roast, held Sept. 7, 2023, to set the record straight.
“They didn’t want me at their fundraiser, answering questions about defunding them when we’re just asking them to stop spending money, but he’s been pouting since March of 2023, as soon as we said, ‘Hey, you have to stick within your budget.’ And we’ve given him about another $300,000 after we said that,” Badalamenti said.
Badalamenti was first elected commissioner in 2020 and took office in January 2021. If he is re-elected, he would be serving his second term. Christian-Bennett has been a member of the board of commissioners since 2014.
The commissioners have become increasingly hesitant to fund requests from Zuchowski, a move that has earned them his vocal criticism, including allegations that they are defunding the police.
It’s an accusation Badalamenti denies. He said he championed cash infusions to the sheriff’s office, and the commissioners increased Zuchowski’s budget by $8 million since 2020.
Zuchowski, who took office in January 2021, asked for another $4 million increase this year, but the request is on hold until he produces the long-overdue results of four separate union negotiations with his personnel, Badalamenti said.
“If he were willing to sit down and explain to us what the maximum amount of employees he needs is, and why, and what kind of equipment and programs he wants to start, and why, we could work closer with him,” Badalamenti said. “We have not defunded one project. We have stopped some of the add-ons to his budget.”
Instead of civil discourse, though, the sheriff has opted to engage in behavior that Badalamenti termed both “ludicrous” and “childish.”
Badalamenti anticipates increased funds flowing to “the many things that need to be fixed that have been neglected in years past,” he said. Already completed are roofs on county buildings, elevators in the county courthouse, some improvements to county airport, and expansion of the county’s emergency management building.
“There’s always something, and the funds that we have to be able to do that are getting less and less, so we’ll be back to using our tax dollars and the budget. We have to start watching how we spend money,” Badalamenti said. “You have to take very good care of that.”
Federal Covid-era ARPA dollars let the commissioners fund many projects since 2021, but that money must be used by 2026 and will not be replenished, he noted.
“People look at our budget and say, ‘Oh, you have money sitting there,’ but there’s contingencies. We have to make sure we keep money on the side. When you have a budget of $69 million, there could be large needs. It’s not like a household where you suddenly need tires on a car,” he said.
Badalamenti’s challenger
Challenging Badalamenti on the Republican ballot is Jill Crawford of Ravenna.
Crawford has the support of the Portage County TEA Party, which notes that she supports conservative candidates like Zuchowski. She is a certified public accountant with over 30 years of experience.
In a statement on the TEA Party website, Crawford states that she would focus on transparency and accountability and would use the analytical skills she honed during her professional career to arrive at sound decisions.
She cites her late husband’s involvement with the county Republican Party and his support of local candidates, including having served as campaign treasurer for several candidates, as reasons for running.
Crawford said she considered running for county treasurer, but ultimately decided the job description of a commissioner was more appropriate.
“I feel as though with my financial background and analytical skills, it’s a good fit for me. It’s a good skill set to have for this position because one of the major responsibilities is to exercise financial control of county expenditures,” she said.
Realizing that even the current commissioners experienced an initial learning curve, Crawford declined to cite specific goals. She said she will, however, have her eye on rehabilitation and social services, economic development and job opportunities, and on decreasing response times for law enforcement, firefighters and EMS personnel.
“My focus will be on the whole county,” she said. “I will be fair to each of the departments that funds need to be appropriated to. I will see what programs the county can offer, and see what money can be appropriated to those programs.”
Crawford said she is not an active member of the Portage County TEA Party, though her late husband was. When TEA Party Executive Director Tom Zawistowski told her he wanted to endorse her, she sent him a statement and photograph, she said.
With a social media presence but no other promotional website, Crawford said she relies on visiting households to introduce herself and ask permission to place her signs in yards, and on sending her literature to registered voters.
A former Republican enters the November ballot
Also on the primary ballot is Democrat Carmen Lisa Laudato of Ravenna, who will face either Badalamenti or Crawford in November.
A long-time political activist — she is a former Streetsboro City Council member and a current member of Ravenna’s planning commission — Laudato said she would keep a close eye on taxpayer dollars.
She is employed as a middle and high school teacher at Safe House, a juvenile corrections and residential facility in Youngstown.
A former Republican, Laudato said she became a Democrat in 2019 when the first Issue 1, aimed at raising the signature threshold for ballot initiatives, started. A mother of three daughters whose civil rights she holds dear, the appearance of the second Issue 1, aimed at curtailing womens’ reproductive rights, confirmed her decision.
She attracted the attention of Portage County Democratic Party Chair Denise Smith, who asked her if she would consider a run for county office.
The idea, Laudato said, was less to unseat Badalamenti than it was to bring political balance to the entirely Republican board of county commissioners. Laudato reviewed board minutes from the past months and years and scrutinized recent budgets as well.
“I found something, all right,” Laudato said. “I was appalled at the money that had been allocated to the sheriff without any question, just, ‘Here you go.’ Then after he had overspent that, he would come back again, and they would just hand it over. It took them two years to start asking questions.”
Laudato said she does not blame the sheriff, who, like all public officials, has a duty to ask for as much as possible. It’s up to the legislative branch, in this case the commissioners, to rein it in, she said.
“What they did is they created Frankenstein’s monster, and then they got upset when he got loose and started terrorizing the villagers. That’s exactly what happened,” Laudato said.
If crime statistics had decreased, she said she could have “almost tolerated” the spending, but those stats have remained relatively static, she said.
“Now we’re in a situation where in addition to no decrease in crime, now we have taken ourselves out of the Portage County Drug Task Force, and now we’re in a lawsuit because of that. I don’t understand how leaving the task force makes us safer. Why would you take us out of a countywide cooperative agreement?” she asked.
She said she does blame Zuchowski for doing so, and for creating his own Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, which only created more of a financial burden.
Laudato also said the county lacks services and accessibility for differently abled people.
She would like the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities to form an advisory board that includes parents, school and county officials, and the children and young adults themselves.
“If you have a child with a disability, you shouldn’t have to be writing Facebook posts asking, ‘Should I send my child to Ravenna or Rootstown?’ There needs to be more equity in those services, and the county should play a role in filling in those gaps created by districts’ funding inequities,” she said.
Laudato also champions adaptive recreation facilities that allow typically abled and differently abled children to enjoy free time together.
“There’s one in 50 kids that have autism. You can’t tell me our county doesn’t need that. Portage County needs to be a place where people move to, not move from, because of lack of services,” she said.
The county’s infrastructure also needs attention, she said, suggesting that county officials may be hesitating to ask for sufficient funds to address issues such as stormwater management, water quality and sewage systems.
She said she would approach the budget in “a nonpolitical way, nonparty kind of way.”
“I need to be thinking about what legacy the policies I enacted leave. That’s what people will remember, not my name. They will know they go to a county with services and economic opportunities so they can work here and live here. For me, it’s about leaving it better than I found it, and I know I can do that,” she said.
The race for Christian-Bennett’s seat
Christian-Bennett, a Republican from Rootstown, is facing an in-party challenge from Sherry Griffith of Ravenna.
Christian-Bennett has served as county commissioner since 2014 and is seeking her third term. She owns Bennett Land Title Agency LLC, a land title and escrow agency that handles residential and commercial real estate transactions in Ohio’s 88 counties.
Christian-Bennett was appointed commissioner in 2014 to fill Tommie Joe Marsilio’s seat, was elected as commissioner in 2017, and has served since then.
A steadfast supporter of the sheriff’s budgetary requests until last year, Christian-Bennett recently said the money tap is now closed. Since 2020, the commissioners have increased the sheriff’s annual budget by $8 million, she noted, and that is enough.
Like other county department heads, Zuchowski will have to manage with the funds he has, and not expect more, she said. The commissioners fully support public safety, and have spent historical amounts of money in doing so, purchasing or leasing 85 cars, and funding countless upgrades, equipment and other buys he has requested, she added.
Instead, Christian-Bennett said she would like to focus on affordable housing and workforce issues. Noting that affordable housing affects even two-income families challenged in a housing market that has spiraled out of their reach, she said the commissioners need to encourage public-private partnerships that will result in reasonably priced homes.
It’s an uphill battle: The government cannot require developers to build such structures, and builders know they can make more money faster by producing upscale homes, she said.
To solve workforce issues, Christian-Bennett said she would like to see more programs aimed at matching employees with people with disabilities, veterans, and people with certain kinds of criminal backgrounds.
The two issues are linked, Christian-Bennett said.
“If people don’t have a place to live, they can’t take the jobs. Housing is an economic driver. If we don’t have affordable, quality housing, it will impact our economic development,” she said.
However, transportation is a significant barrier as the county’s bus system is limited and rideshares like Uber and Lyft are financially unrealistic, she said. The commissioners are exploring innovative ideas, but just as housing is not a one-size-fits all issue, neither is transportation, she said.
Griffith did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. She also did not send a response to questions the League of Women Voters posed for its voters guide.
Griffith’s Facebook page includes an open letter she penned to Portage County voters in which she describes herself as a conservative Republican, a lifelong county resident, a mom and a longtime small business owner. She writes that her common-sense approach to managing a budget will stand her in good stead as commissioner.
A member of the NRA, the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association and the Portage County Farm Bureau, she writes that she will encourage open communication while “working hard with the community to bring effective and beneficial changes” to county government.
Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ralph Spidalieri said Griffith had approached Zuchowski about her candidacy and had received his encouragement.
Ben Wolford contributed reporting.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.