"...Corsi took work in 1967 with Edward Howard & Co., a public relations firm, and volunteered to "bird dog" Carl Stokes' historic campaign to become the nation's first black big-city mayor. Corsi worked for Republican Seth Taft, gathering intelligence on Stokes and helping prepare Taft for his debates..."
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/08/cleveland_native_jerome_corsi.html"...He is the oldest of three children of Alice and Louis E. Corsi, a railroad union official. The son dedicates the new Obama book to his father, "for the care with which he first introduced me to politics."
That dedication drew a chuckle from Cleveland lawyer Kenneth F. Seminatore, a classmate of Corsi's at CWRU and a roommate while both attended Harvard. Louis Corsi was a Democratic Party activist and a leader of the United Transportation Union, which he helped organize in 1965.
"Lou was so far to the left that he would have made Barack look conservative," Seminatore said. "Lou was a trade unionist to the core."
His firstborn started swerving rightward while still a teen. Jerry Corsi took work in 1967 with Edward Howard & Co., a public relations firm, and volunteered to "bird dog" Carl Stokes' historic campaign to become the nation's first black big-city mayor. Corsi worked for Republican Seth Taft, gathering intelligence on Stokes and helping prepare Taft for his debates..."
Former Bush backer wins Obama campaign's 'Backstage with Barack' contest
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/121887565176440.xml&coll=2Saturday, August 16, 2008
Patrick O'Donnell
Plain Dealer Reporter
Switching political allegiances may have helped an Ohio State University law student land a prime spot at the Democratic National Convention next weekend.
James T. Fondriest, 22, of Massillon, is one of 10 supporters of presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama to win the campaign's "Backstage with Barack" competition. They will be flown to Denver for the convention, have expenses covered for two days and will meet the senator from Illinois before his acceptance speech Thursday.
"Just to soak it in and be a part of the experience of it is all I could have ever hoped for," Fondriest said Friday, in between law school orientation sessions. "Meeting the senator and being a part of history will be the opportunity of a lifetime.'
An Obama campaign official said "hundreds of thousands" of supporters filled in a questionnaire on the candidate's Web site to be considered for the spots. The campaign did not provide an exact number...