Bob Fitrakis

Robert Fitrakis (born November 29, 1955) is an American lawyer, political author, political candidate, and Professor of Political Science in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Columbus State Community College. He has been the editor of the Columbus Free Press since 1993 and wrote extensively about the 2004 U.S. presidential election and related 2004 U.S. election voting controversies. Fitrakis is a Green Party activist.

Background and education
Fitrakis is a Political Science Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences department at Columbus State Community College, where he won the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow to the Michigan State legislature in 1975 and studied at the University of Sarajevo on scholarship in 1978. Fitrakis earned a J.D. from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2002. His Ph.D is in Political Science from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where his doctoral advisor was Philip Abbot. He has also taught political theory at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and political science at Wayne State University and Oakland Community College. Undergraduate: Grand Valley State Colleges, B.A. History and Political Science and Redford Union High School.

Leadership roles
Fitrakis was an Election Protection attorney on November 2, 2004, in Franklin County, Ohio. He called the first public hearings on voter suppression and election irregularities and was one of four attorneys to file a challenge to Ohio's presidential elections results: Moss v. Bush and Moss v. Moyer. Robert served as the co-chair to Ohio Green Party State Central Committee, and was a member of The Green Party Shadow Cabinet.

Fitrakis served as the Ohio Chancellor and was voted the National Vice Chancellor in 2005 of the International Association of Educators for World Peace, an NGO in over 100 nations working to promote human rights and world peace.

In March 1994 he served as an international observer for the national elections in El Salvador and in 1993, he visited Reynosa and Matamoros, Mexico as part of a human rights delegation to investigate conditions in the maquiladoras. As a result of the trip, he co-produced a video entitled "The Other Side of Free Trade" shown around the country at colleges and public access stations.

Fitrakis was a member of the Human Rights Party in Michigan, a founding member of the Michigan Democratic Socialists Caucus (DSC), a founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio (DSCO). He served on the National Political Committee of DSA in 1994-5.

In 2002, Fitrakis was awarded the Golden Ruler Award from the Columbus School Board for his journalism in behalf of the Columbus schoolchildren. In 2003, the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio honored him with their Selma Walker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Human Rights Activism.

In 1997, the CICJ received a grant from the Drug Policy Foundation for polling in Franklin County, Ohio on the issue of medical use of marijuana and industrial hemp.

Fitrakis is a past President of the Columbus State Educational Association and has been President of the Columbus State Faculty Senate. He also chaired the Instructional Support Council of Shared Governance and was the faculty adviser to the Ohio Board of Regents.

From 1991-93 he was a Friends of the Homeless board member.

Political
In 2014 Fitrakis ran with Anita Rios as her Lt. Governor as write in candidates which gained official party recognition in the state, garnering 99,415 of recorded votes or 3.3%.

In 2006, Fitrakis ran as an independent candidate for Governor of Ohio endorsed by the Green Party.

Fitrakis was a candidate for Congress in the 12th district in 1992, running against Congressman John Kasich and for the Columbus School Board in 1995.

He was the elected Democratic Ward committee person in the 55th ward from 1996-2000. He currently serves as a Near East Area Commissioner and ran for Columbus City Council in the primary of 2003 Columbus School Board that same year and endorsed by the Central Ohio Green Party. He served on the Africentric School Advisory Board for the Columbus Public Schools and worked with the West High School College Preparation Program.

Fitrakis ran for County Prosecutor, Franklin County, as a Green Party Member.

Fitrakis is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Books

 * The Idea of Democratic Socialism in America: Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas and Michael Harrington, Garland Press
 * The Idea of Democratic Socialism in America and the Decline of the Socialist Party, Garland Publishers 1993
 * The Fitrakis Files: Cops, Coverups and Corruption, CICJ Books, 2009
 * The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, & Nazis. Columbus Alive Publishing 2003
 * The Fitrakis Files: A Schoolhouse Divided
 * The Fitrakis Files: The Brothers Voinovich & the Ohiogate Scandal
 * The Fitrakis Files: Star Wars, Weather Mods and Full Spectrum Dominance
 * The Fitrakis Files: Free Byrd & Other Cries for Justice
 * with Harvey Wasserman, Steve Rosenfeld: Did George W. Bush Steal America’s 2004 Election?: Essential Documents. CICJ Books, 767 pages.
 * with Harvey Wasserman Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents
 * with Steve Rosenfeld: What Happened in Ohio? A documentary record of theft and fraud in the 2004 election, New Press 2006
 * How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008
 * George W. Bush vs. The Superpower of Peace, 2003
 * Imprison George W. Bush: Commentary on Why the President Must Be Indicted in 2004-2005.
 * with Harvey Wasserman: The Strip & Flip Selection Of 2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft