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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > June > 14 > Entry
Party leaders practically neighbors, far apart on issues
This story ran Saturday about the new leaders of the Butler County Democratic and Republican parties:
The county seat is still in Hamilton, but the seat of power of Butler County may have moved to the suburbs.
Both the local Democratic party’s new chairwoman and the GOP’s new chairman live in Liberty Twp. And though they are nearly neighbors, they couldn’t be farther apart on the political spectrum.
Republican Party Chairman Dave Kern, 68, is an avowed Tea Party activist who made headlines by calling President Barack Obama a “Marxist.”
Democratic Party Chairwoman Jocelyn Bucaro 34, got into local politics through Obama’s campaign, which led her to help form the Change Butler Political Action Committee.
“I’m probably more to the left than maybe your average Democrat, but not as far to the left as people even portray Barack Obama as being,” she said.
This may be what got her the job. Some say she was the compromise candidate between the incumbent party structure — largely union and inner-city — and a growing liberal movement out of Oxford.
Both new leaders say one of their main goals is uniting their parties.
Kern — who has served as Liberty Twp. trustee for nearly three decades — took the local GOP’s helm with a 108-98 vote split in the party’s central committee that unseated the incumbent chairman.
He did so with the backing of Tea Party members, as well as U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp. — who rarely gets involved in local politics — and state Sen. Gary Cates. It was yet another party infight, following a six-way primary battle for county commissioner.
“We need a unified party that remains focused on advancing our causes,” he said, saying divisions within the party are “not something that is insurmountable and can’t be healed.”
For Bucaro, success will be adding at least one Democrat to Butler County’s elected leadership. For Kern, it will be maintaining near-complete control of local government.
This week, both Bucaro and Kern could be found at their parties’ headquarters — talking to volunteers, lining up supplies and preparing for a face-off in November that could shape all of Butler County.
Question: Has the county’s seat of power moved to the suburbs?
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