Elections board: With Koehler out, is Masich in?

WITHIN A NANOSECOND of Ron Koehler's resignation as the director of the Summit County's Board of Elections, speculation on his possible successor arose as quickly as the snow in your driveway. A $105,000 political job doesn't go begging, particularly with a Republican luminary calling the shots as a board member.

Koehler isn't talking about his reasons (I failed to reach him) but when Summit County GOP chairman Alex Arshinkoff and his enabler on the board, Ray Weber, both said they wouldn't rehire him, Koehler was left without any option but to resign.

His current term ends on March 5, a day before the Ohio primary, which is sort of awkward, but such trivialties never discouraged Arshinkoff from replacing people who don't agree with him down to the decimal point. If all of this sounds a tad mean toward Alex, you might want to recall that shortly after Gov. Kasich appointed Todd McKenney last November as probate judge, McKenney surprisingly announced he wouldn't seek election to a full term in this year's election. The word at the time - never denied - was that McKenney had appointed a few people to county boards that nettled Arshinkoff.

Oh, and let's not forget, a former Republican election board director, Tom Wagner, resigned with health problems said to have been aggravated by Arshinkoff's constant badgering. For years, the chairman has complained that it was increasingly difficult to find good Republicans to run for office. Oh? Alex is 3-for-3.

OK, back to the speculation. I spoke to five sources across party lines. All speculated on a single name for the job: Joe Masich, the current Probate Court administrator and a long-time Arshinkoff loyalist - the Tonto for the chairman's Lone Ranger.

No more than a few weeks remain for the election board to reorganize, during which applicants for the direcctorship will have to be screened along with other tidying up of the process before the job is filled. Better hurry.