I Endorse Michael Ryan for Butler County Commissioner: A wonderful future if only we have the courage to embrace it

I thought it was going to be a secret for a while, but it was announced at the Nancy Nix fundraiser on February 21st, 2025, that Michael Ryan, the Hamilton City Council member and Vice Mayor, was planning to run for one of the commissioner openings that were coming up in November of 2026.  I have felt for a long time that if only T.C. Rogers, one of the current commissioners in Butler County, had another friendly vote, lots of good things could happen for a community that has over 400,000 people and has the potential for some of the best economic output anywhere in the United States, or even the world for that matter.  If another commissioner could help with the critical free market philosophy, lots of upward mobility for a lot of people would be created.  Upon hearing this news, I first thought that Michael would be a perfect replacement for the current commissioner, Cindy Carpenter.  I haven’t been a fan of hers since she started, but her career path fell off the road last year when she was caught campaigning for a Democrat in Middletown, Ohio.   There is a lot of talk about Cindy winning eight straight elections even though she has a lot of detractors in the Republican Party.  I would argue that the reason she holds up so well to Democrat challengers is because she is essentially a Democrat who puts an “R” next to her name to win elections in a very conservative county.  I think this campaigning in Middletown for Democrats thing will hurt her now in ways she’s not used to, so I think she’s very vulnerable.   We’re in a new day of politics, and putting up with these RINOs has been something that Central Committees have not been willing to do, especially when they have an opportunity to get a MAGA type of officeholder.  And that is precisely what Michael V. Ryan is.

My wife has been very busy with family business lately.  To run a family well takes a massive commitment sometimes, and my wife is the kind of person who will drop everything at the drop of a hat to help my two daughters with life as it’s happening.  This leaves me going to some of these vital community functions by myself a lot.  And at Nancy’s fundraiser, I talked too much to too many people to find a seat in the vast crowd.  Nancy Nix always does a great job with these events, which are always well-attended.  On this particular evening, it was being held at the Elks Club in Liberty Township, which is a favorite venue of mine.  It holds a lot of people, and she always brings in big-time comedy acts to entertain people during a nice dinner provided by the Spinning Fork restaurant that facilitates the club.  The comedians were Jeff Jena, Dave Dugan, and Lou Santini, so they were not second-rate acts, so seating had some priority.  If my wife had been with me, we would have found a seat and held it near people we usually associate with.  But Jeff Jena was acting as the master of ceremonies, and he was getting impatient. People were still talking as it was time to serve dinner and start the show.  So I needed to stop shindigging and get to a seat.  I had been talking to Michael Ryan about several county and city topics, and he saw my dilemma and said that I could sit with him and his wife, along with others from city councils in not just Hamilton but also nearby Middletown. 

Michael and I have had a lot of discussions over the years about the potential of Butler County, and as a younger guy, he has reminded me of a lot of up-and-coming political people who are formulating the MAGA movement that is emerging behind Trump’s leadership in the Executive Branch, which includes J.D. Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Bernie Moreno.  These are different kinds of brilliant people who could be successful in any field they want to be in.  However, a personality type is emerging that is quite noticeable, and Michael Ryan, who I call “young” at 41 years old, has a lot of good stuff to give.  Once I heard that he was planning to run for that Butler County Commissioner seat that Cindy Carpenter occupied, I got excited and decided to get behind his campaign and help however I could.  As he and I were talking about his upcoming campaign, shortly after Nancy Nix gave him a full endorsement in front of the crowd that caused a little controversy, in a good way, he kept reminding me of a different version of Vivek Ramaswamy. I met Vivek years ago through Nancy Nix and a few other places at VIP events, such as a time with Mike Pompeo and again as he prepared to announce his race for Governor of Ohio.  Leading up to Nancy’s fundraiser, I was coordinating that big announcement with Vivek at CTL Aerospace, and I noted how different this new generation of politicians was as opposed to the past before Trump changed politics forever.  Michael Ryan fits this new, young, ambitious type of politician who runs toward capitalism, not away from it as Cindy Carpenter has all these years. 

So I appreciated Michael and his very nice wife Amanda letting me share in their date night as a third wheel.  We talked about many incredible opportunities for Butler County if only someone like him could fill that critical seat.  We spent a lot of time discussing the vertical taxi market, which I have been talking about with everyone with a mind to listen.  A lot of people haven’t yet put all the dots together, but Joby Aviation is right up the road of the aviation corridor of I-75 that Vivek Ramaswamy is planning to talk a lot about as his run for governor, and they are building eVTOL aircraft that are ready to go right now.  I told everyone months ago how it was going to go down. They are only waiting for regulation approval and can start shipping these air taxi vehicles worldwide.  China and Abu Dhabi are the first to market as they have much fewer regulatory environments to slow them down.  However, under the Trump administration, I’m just saying that those barriers to the United States will be removed.  And someone like Michael Ryan is just the kind of person with the vision to put their arms around it and bring top tech innovation to Butler County as a leader of this emerging new technology.  He understands the value of that kind of innovation, but that’s not the only reason I like Michael.  He’s just a good person who wants to do good things, and I enjoyed spending time with him and his wife, along with the table of fellow council members and community managers.  Michael and Amanda are the kind of people you want to see providing leadership and opportunity to people hungry for it, and Butler County is a prime place to have the most vibrant economy in a state that is going to be Trump’s example of turning a rust belt into a tech giant.  From my experience with the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign for governor, I know his plans for the state.  And to cascade off that, Butler County can be the leader of the state to have the best opportunities that many people can’t yet possibly imagine.  And with a commissioner like Michael Ryan, even the wildest dreams of the most optimistic people can’t even be imagined because such greatness has never yet been seen among the human race. But that opportunity is coming at us very soon, with Vivek Ramaswamy as Ohio Governor and Michael Ryan as Butler County Commissioner. 

Oh, and regarding Joby Aviation and why Abu Dhabi is the current leader in the eVTOL market. Joby’s S4 aircraft, which hauls a pilot and four passengers at 200 mph with a 100-mile range, could slash the two-hour car slog from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to a breezy 30 minutes—no emissions, and much less noise than a chopper. They’re tying this into Abu Dhabi’s Smart and Autonomous Vehicles Industry (SAVI) cluster, a big local initiative to lead in next-gen transport. Joby’s already got exclusive rights to operate in Dubai starting as early as 2025, and this Abu Dhabi move opens the door for zippy inter-emirate trips. They’ve been showing off the aircraft at events like DRIFTx in Yas Marina, flexing their tech to seal the deal.  This is not science fiction.  The only thing stopping us in the United States is having the kind of politicians who can take away the barriers to market saturation currently held up to the speed of slow government left to us by Joe Biden and Obama’s years of bureaucratic infrastructure. The eVTOL is the future of transportation, much more important than building any new highway or railroad.  And Butler County, Ohio can lead America if only it has the right politicians who can make it happen.  The money and investment are just waiting for the pin-headed politicians like Cindy Carpenter to get out of the way.

Rich Hoffman

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The Cheating Spouse: Sara Carruthers Called Us”Extremists”

I wasn’t going to talk about what I’ve been saying to all the mostly guys in the Republican party of Butler County, Ohio in the wake of Lynda O’Connor’s loss from the Lakota school board until I read the comments from Sara Carruthers in the Journal News. Obviously, she was referring to me and some of the core team around me who are considered radicals where she said she hated the “extremism in the party.” And that she said, “I think it’s sad to have other Republicans fighting against you.” Well, she’s up for re-election and my message to her is, she’s next. And all those like her. We can’t fight Democrats when we don’t have Republicans in the party. So, we must go through this process to make things honest before we can ever consider winning in politics. Otherwise, it’s all an illusion. Everyone has probably seen the video that Candice Keller took of Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter campaigning for a Democrat on election day. There are a lot of RINO Republicans operating in the Butler County GOP, and they have made their voices known more ostentatiously since Trump has been out of the White House. And many of us, just aren’t going to put up with it. I’ve never given any illusion that I would. I work with people. I listen to their point of view and give people an honest shake. But politically, I’m to the hard right of the Tea Party, and that isn’t going to change. Obviously, I’m interested in politics for different reasons than other people. So my comment to people who have been asking me why I can’t support these RINOs when we learn about them is that I always say, “I love all Republicans until they show me they aren’t. Then I hate them.” There is no middle ground.

One of those cheating spouses

Further, I have been saying to lots of people an obvious metaphor that is directly relatable. Political relationships are a lot like marriage, with marriage being something everyone can relate to in some way or another. And most of the people I have been talking to have been men. I have said this to women, but the context is from a male perspective. When you catch a woman climbing out of the window to sleep with someone else on the other side of town, don’t go out and buy her a diamond ring. It would be best if you were looking for ways to get away from her, not deepening the commitment. And in regard to Lynda O’Connor, I feel she cheated on me, and my way of dealing with that isn’t to profess my love for her, or even to hold my nose and pretend like we have a happy marriage. Once it’s over, for me, it’s over. Forever. My policy is to let the cheaters have their loves, their forbidden fruit. I won’t play happy family with tea on Sundays like there isn’t a problem. A lot of people with low self-esteem are afraid that they won’t ever find another spouse, or maybe there are kids and property that are all wrapped up in the marriage, so it’s just cheaper to put up with all the cheating and play happy family. I think a lot of people find themselves in this situation, and it rolls over into their political lives. Well, that’s not where I am. I want to believe in the people who represent us politically, and those are my standards and the standards of a lot of people I know and associate with. What I hear from all these crybabies after this 2023 election are complaints that we have standards and that we should give those up and put up with the cheating wife who crawls out the window to multiple lovers across town, to keep the kids together, essentially.

To people like Sara Carruthers, it is considered “extreme” to have values.  The Trump MAGA movement is considered “extreme” because it does not want to put up with the politics of the past, where values are thrown out the window, and concessions with evil are endorsed.  In those kinds of statements, I hear a lazy person who doesn’t want to do the hard work of representation and upholding the values of the community she represents.  That certainly was the anger at Lynda O’Connor.  She did not express the community’s sentiment; she worked against it, even working to silence the community from having an opinion.  And that is what many of the insiders in the wake of the 2023 election have been expressing: frustration that they couldn’t control the narrative and impose some low bar that the rest of the community would put up with so they could compete with low-level Democrats for office seats.  If that is what we have to do to compete with Democrats, to play their dumb game, then the answer is, no. I know many people who will be a hard pass on that approach.  What’s the difference then between a Democrat and a Republican if the brand is destroyed by becoming one of them?  When Cindy Carpenter (Sheriff Jones’ budget girl) is campaigning for Democrats on election day.  I’ll pass if that is the kind of teamwork Sara Carruthers is talking about.  Like I’ve also been saying a lot lately to the soft-shelled tacos of the Republican Party, “With Republicans like you, who needs Democrats.” 

Here’s the deal: everyone can do what they want, I’ll only tell you once, Trump will be back in office.  There is going to be a very violent and tumultuous four years coming up while we clean up years and years of neglect.  And anybody who wants to ride that political train, get on and fasten your seat belt.  I know many people willing to fight for what’s right, and they will either do it arm-in-arm with a political party or work against you.  So, you better catch up if you want to do anything political.  It’s not extreme to have “high expectations,” and we are talking about that.  The anger at Lynda, Sara, Cindy, Sheriff Jones, and many of the business owners of Butler County who are only in politics to protect their investments is that they do not match the high expectations of those interested in politics that represent their values.  The message is that everyone should lower their values to accommodate the cheating spouse just to maintain the façade of marriage.  Which a lot of people do.  But these “extremists” that Sara is referring to are not those types of people.  Sincerity and honesty are not bad traits, and it is those traits that these aftermath losers are indicating are holding back the Republican Party.  I know many bright young people who would run for some of these future political offices.  But they will not kiss a ring or play nice with their morality.  This is why we end up with losers who lack ethical standards in some positions, which is why the Republicans are losing.  Not because the expectations are too high but because the kind of people they want are too lazy and too compromised to live up to those standards.  The future of politics will force that issue to be addressed, ready or not.  And in Butler County, Ohio, many are not. 

Rich Hoffman

Cindy Carpenter’s Resume Issues: What alleged violations against ORC 3517.21 really mean

In a tight race for Butler County Commissioner during the 2014 primaries where the current Commissioner Cindy Carpenter is defending her seat against two strong and highly educated challengers, the temptation to cross the line and break the law is ever-present.  Even though such law breaking is considered fashionable these days because our prosecutors and Justice Department officials are essentially shills for corruption—nobody enforces the 6 months in jail for candidates who mislead the public with campaign literature—to “pad” their credentials.  Carpenter after one term as commissioner has proven to be a Democrat with a Republican name and has sought to cover up the fact with a hostile presentation of herself toward those who disagree with her.  That kind of nonsense is seen on her resume.  Knowing she is being challenged by George Nafziger who is highly educated and loaded with a professional past and Christine Matacic who is essentially a well-connected crony career politician from Liberty Township, Carpenter apparently  felt she needed to beef up her resume to stay relevant—and she appears to have violated the law.  Credentials are supposed to be important, which is why there is a law to prevent such temptations from occurring.  That law is Ohio code 3517.21 specifically section (B) item (2), but who’s being specific.  Politicians work in generalities and prosecutors are terrified to enforce such laws.  If Cindy keeps her seat then retaliation is quite possible against them.  In fact right now there is quite a lot of turmoil between Butler County Republicans.  Do they throw their money behind the current commissioner in Carpenter because if they are caught trying to defect, there will likely be reprisal against their projects—which government is embedded in at every corner.  If they support Matacic, they might as well support another big government liberal as Matacic’s brand of Republican office occupation is essentially the same.  To complicate matters both career politicians are women—and nobody wants to be called a sexist for supporting George Nafziger over two potential women—even if they aren’t really conservatives.  So typically what happens is inaction, which is why it appears that Cindy Carpenter violated ORC 3517.21 knowing nobody would likely call her on it.

A big alarm for any women that one might meet is how many times she’s been married.  Sure, that’s old fashioned, but I’m that kind of guy.  If you go back beyond the four husbands that Cindy Carpenter has had back through the years to her high school year book, searching for the information found on her campaign literature indicating that she is a member of the Fairfield High School National Honor Society; her original name of Cindy Sears is not listed.  If Cindy was in fact a member of such a society, there would be some mention of it—but there’s not.  It is possible that there was a misprint in the yearbook during her senior days at Fairfield, or that she was an Honor Society member in some other period of her life, but typically this isn’t the case.  It is likely that it looked good on paper, so she put it on her resume.  Now if that was the only issue we might call it a mistake, but it’s not.

Carpenter listed also on her current campaign literature for County Commissioner that she “attended Miami University” which is different from her 2000 election literature for Clerk of Courts where such a credential wasn’t mentioned. So a simple investigation into the Miami University records and its branch offices under all her possible names has revealed that she never attended the university.  Checking under her various married names, giving her the benefit of doubt that she may have taken a class in basket weaving or something during the last 14 years still no mention that Cindy attended Miami University.  The Miami University Office of the Registrar has searched under all her names, Cindy Sears, Cindy Vogel, Cindy Ertel, Cindy Carpenter which was her previous husband’s name.  She is now married to a guy named Baker, so Cindy Baker was searched, and still nothing.  This means one of two things, the Miami University Office of the Registrar made a mistake and lost the records of Cindy’s attendance, or Cindy is counting the times she drove through the campus as having attended there.  That wouldn’t surprise me because reading through her resume it is certainly padded.  She lists virtually every time she attended a meeting for something as a credential.  For instance, she lists things like, “collaborated with Lt. Governor Mike Dewine to bring Federal Medicaid Waiver programs to Ohio,” and “presenter of Advocacy Session at the Ohio Department of Health Annual Conference.”  You get the point. At least her more recent resume is a bit more concise.  On her 2000 literature she literally listed every time she stepped into a federal government bathroom.  The only reason its relevant is that it shows the lady is desperate to prove her “social value” and will literally report every time she interacted with a public official as a credential, so going a step further and making things up isn’t beyond belief—especially when the records can’t be dredged up from the past.

If the local media had any testicular fortitude, they would do these investigations themselves—but they dare not because if Carpenter retains her seat, they don’t want to be “blackballed,” by her.  So they stick to the powder puff stuff.  There are also a lot of  respected Republicans—like her good buddy Sheriff Jones who are well aware of what ORC 3517.21 means because his jail is supposed to house its violators.  But his rational will likely be that this is just politics and there isn’t any harm in these things.  Everybody is doing it—so what’s the big deal.  But the same could be said for traffic violations, or drug sales—or even immigration issues—everybody is hiring illegal immigrants who are funneling drug money up and down the I-75 corridor destroying children’s lives right in our own back yard—but hey—everybody is doing it—so it’s all good.  See no evil—no foul no jail, no problem.  What are rules anyway, especially if nobody follows them?

Cindy’s many husbands, her altruistic tendencies, and willingness to push legal boundaries as she has had a recent tiff with the Butler County Prosecutor and was even caught lying on 700 WLW radio with Bill Cunningham demonstrate a pattern of behavior that is dangerous to any elected office.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  Her behavior paints a picture that is not favorable to Cindy Carpenter who is using her previous husband’s last name because of the name recognition.  (THE AUDIO THERE PROVIDES THE EVIDENCE).  Even if she doesn’t go to jail for her apparent ORC 3517.21 violations she certainly shouldn’t be re-elected so that Butler County has four more years of her chaotic management style.  Better people are available for her commissioner seat, and they should get a crack at the job without her infusion of manipulation seeking to preserve some deep rot in her mind running from three decades of misplaced priorities.  The list of husbands behind her is a record that no padded resume can hide—and is a more important indicator of her priorities as a person than the time in 1999 when she attended a Fred Pryor Seminar on conflict resolution and confrontational skills, or the time in 1998 that she attended a class at Solar Comp to learn how to use Windows 95, or the time in 1994 where she attended the Ohio Republican Party – Nuts and Bolts Seminar.  All that and more is on her past resumes explaining her work history and value for the seat of County Commissioner.  All that and apparently even things that didn’t happen.  Cindy Carpenter is the kind of politician that nobody wants once they see beyond the glitter and the charm to the person who is really sitting in that seat.  Worse is the reason that she’s there—to provide meaning to a life that has loads of personal issues hidden behind altruistic intentions at the expense of tax payers.  And that is the real crime behind her actions.  It’s not so much that Carpenter should go to jail for violating ORC 3517.21 as much as she should be punished for using a government office to mask her own deficiencies.  And if the padded resumes and conflicting presence is looked at beyond the thin veil of social courtesy, a person who should not hold public office is revealed.  A person who uses the office to bring meaning to a life that is otherwise void of it, and a person who seeks such a seat to fill themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com