Thursday, August 22, 2013

In a UA lobbyist's world, the school's problems dismissed

Whatever the University of Akron's critics may think about the school's poor record on  graduation rates and other negative stats, there's one guy in Columbus who is quite prepared to defend the place.  It's Sean Dunn, of Sean P. Dunn & Associates, UA's $270,000 lobbyist.

Dunn, as lobbyists are paid to do,  dismissed the criticism as mere "opinion"  unsupported by the real strength of the state campus in downtown Akron.  Whatever problems that might arise, he told me, are no different than those faced by "gigantic" universities and shouldn't be pilloried.

Dunn also defended the $120,000 annual UA lobbyist contract arranged by Dunn for Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff .  He said the chairman was  of "great value because of Mr. Arshinkoff's great political judgment" that is  respected throughout  the state. When Arshinkoff came aboard in 2011 Dunn asserted: "There's no better political mind in Summit County than Mr. Arshinkoff."

It couldn't hurt the cause that Arshinkoff had sent a $150,000 campaign contribution to the Kasich ticket from the county coffers.

As they say on Fox News, we report, you decide. Even if I already have.


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