From the Weekly Reader:
Gov. Kasich turned up on the Fox News Hannity show for a reunion among relatives who are still talking to each other. It was so family-ish as Kasich and Hannity engaged in chatty cordiality. .
From Kasich we learned that he was gleefully running for president only because he loves America. Spare me. Guv, you've been running for something for decades because your over-active ego won't let you do otherwise.
But Kasich is different this time as a born-again with a road map from God while pretending that he is a moderate. Really. A hawkish boots-on-the-ground moderate who spent years working for a Wall Street company that tanked, and for Fox News with a show called "Heartland with John Kasich."
Didn't know that Fox made space for moderates. So much for the new Sunny Kasich with standard photos of outstretched arms and an expression of ecstasy ready at every turn to help the less fortunate. It is getting tiresome to hear the governor, a millionaire many times over, begin so many responses to so many questions with the fact that his father was a mailman
But as Oscar Wilde once told us: No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
* * * *
When Frank Comunale summarily pulled out of the Akron Mayor's race with a resounding endorsement of Dan Horrigan, his action vibrated among the political class, including his own people who worked on his campaign the day before. It was an element of surprise - maybe even to him - with Comunale pleading campaign poverty and physical exhaustion. Good grief. The October surprise in August? Whatever.
* * * * *
Speaking of surprise, the aftershock of the incomprehensible misfirings at the University of Akron has driven off a potential new athletics director. Brian Wickstrom, the athletics director at the University of Louisiana at Monroe reportedly declined an invitation to accept the job, saying uncertainty from the sweeping changes underway at UA discouraged him from coming to the Akron campus. Grapevine news travels fast.
The vacancy is being filled by Nathan Mortimer, the school's top finance man, following the resignation of Tim Wistrcill.
Is this any way to rebrand the value of a university?
Showing posts with label Dan Horrigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Horrigan. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Comunale out - mayor's race a twosome
The in-and-out Akron mayor's race took still another turn Monday: Summit County Councilman Frank Comunale withdrew from the Democratic primary, shrinking the field to a twosome. And that couldn't make supporters of Summit County Clerk of Courts Dan Horrigan happier. Or his lone remaining Democratic opponent, Mike Williams, more at a loss.
Once upon a time there might have been four candidates as State Sen. Tom Sawyer teased his party with the prospect that he would run, too. Didn't happen, and there's nothing to be gained by revisiting that bit of Kabuki politics.
So on Sept 8, Democratic primary voters will be choosing Horrigan or Williams and be done with it. The Republican candidate in the general election is Atty. Eddie Sippien, but the political reality in a Democratic city is that his name on the ballot is little more than a formality.
For now all of the behind the scenes pushing and shoving has produced little interest around town. Much of the campaign narrative has been awash in intrigue - as well as it should have been. The departure of Mayor Don Plusquellic left a huge vacancy at City Hall after 28 years and Council chairman Jeff Fusco has bravely served as an interim mayor in the office that he isn't seeking (He wants to retain his council-at-large seat)
Still there was this thing about a contentious council faction that opposed Plusquellic and was now carrying Williams banner to haul the city off into a murky direction. Besides, Williams, an Afican American who was hostile to Plusquellic, worried not only his Democratic opponents but some business interests who saw him as little more than an opportunist banking his future on the race card.
Horrigan, who is white, does have support from some black leaders , but a three-way primary could open the door to City Hall to Williams. Horrigan's backers rightly tried to remove the racial factor and define the race on the ability of either candidate to serve the city well.
Comunale's departure will make that point more clearly.
Once upon a time there might have been four candidates as State Sen. Tom Sawyer teased his party with the prospect that he would run, too. Didn't happen, and there's nothing to be gained by revisiting that bit of Kabuki politics.
So on Sept 8, Democratic primary voters will be choosing Horrigan or Williams and be done with it. The Republican candidate in the general election is Atty. Eddie Sippien, but the political reality in a Democratic city is that his name on the ballot is little more than a formality.
For now all of the behind the scenes pushing and shoving has produced little interest around town. Much of the campaign narrative has been awash in intrigue - as well as it should have been. The departure of Mayor Don Plusquellic left a huge vacancy at City Hall after 28 years and Council chairman Jeff Fusco has bravely served as an interim mayor in the office that he isn't seeking (He wants to retain his council-at-large seat)
Still there was this thing about a contentious council faction that opposed Plusquellic and was now carrying Williams banner to haul the city off into a murky direction. Besides, Williams, an Afican American who was hostile to Plusquellic, worried not only his Democratic opponents but some business interests who saw him as little more than an opportunist banking his future on the race card.
Horrigan, who is white, does have support from some black leaders , but a three-way primary could open the door to City Hall to Williams. Horrigan's backers rightly tried to remove the racial factor and define the race on the ability of either candidate to serve the city well.
Comunale's departure will make that point more clearly.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Plusquellic's back, and good for that!
"I'm back!" the animated man in a loose-fitting patterned shirt and jaunty hat exclaimed with a broad smile. As I approached him on the sidewalk outside the Uncorked Wine Bar downtown, he repeated: "I"m back in my city."
Well, yes. Deeply tanned, apparently well-rested from his tortured exit and no longer in his dark mayoral suit, Don Plusquellic was mingling with others , one of whom asked him to take off his hat. When he did, it revealed a brush cut that had replaced his carefully groomed white hair that was a trademark of his Hollywood persona at City Hall. It was then that you came to realize that now out of the office he had occupied for 28 years, he was indeed tailoring hmself for a new life in the city.
Inside the noisy bar, a large crowd had come to the reception for Pete Nischt, the rising young Democratic party executive director who announced his candidacy for the Akron school board. The event was hosted by County Executive Russ Pry, who sat unobtrusively at the rear of the long narrow room to observe the festivities..
Nischt will need all of the support that he can muster in a three-way race involving Debbie Walsh, Alex Arshinkoff's executive director at county Republican headquarters and Ernie Tarle, Plusquellic's nemesis. Need I say more?
Although the former mayor said he might take some time to work for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, his political presence doubtless will be felt in his hometown as well as the University of Akron campus. More than one person remarked that Team Scarborough might have had second thoughts about an amateurish rollout of job cuts that downsized the school's academic credibility had Plusquellic, a feisty soul, been in its face.
No fault of interim Mayor Jeff Fusco, nor interim Democratic chairman Sandra Kurt, both temporary caretakers of city or party business, the dominoes fell quickly in the post-Plusquellic scramble. So the party will need an infusion of kinetic energy for the forthcoming mayoral primary race pitting Dan Horrigan against Mike Williams and Frank Comunale. I'm told Williams, an African American and perennial candidate, is already trying to fashion the contest into a racially acute contest. If he persists, it will create two ugly camps that will divide a city with a progressive reputation in race relations.
The voters need to know the stakes as Akron approaches a critical decision for its future. So welcome back, Mr. Plusquellic. Is there anything you can do about the city that you have long voiced with pride?
Well, yes. Deeply tanned, apparently well-rested from his tortured exit and no longer in his dark mayoral suit, Don Plusquellic was mingling with others , one of whom asked him to take off his hat. When he did, it revealed a brush cut that had replaced his carefully groomed white hair that was a trademark of his Hollywood persona at City Hall. It was then that you came to realize that now out of the office he had occupied for 28 years, he was indeed tailoring hmself for a new life in the city.
Inside the noisy bar, a large crowd had come to the reception for Pete Nischt, the rising young Democratic party executive director who announced his candidacy for the Akron school board. The event was hosted by County Executive Russ Pry, who sat unobtrusively at the rear of the long narrow room to observe the festivities..
Nischt will need all of the support that he can muster in a three-way race involving Debbie Walsh, Alex Arshinkoff's executive director at county Republican headquarters and Ernie Tarle, Plusquellic's nemesis. Need I say more?
Although the former mayor said he might take some time to work for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, his political presence doubtless will be felt in his hometown as well as the University of Akron campus. More than one person remarked that Team Scarborough might have had second thoughts about an amateurish rollout of job cuts that downsized the school's academic credibility had Plusquellic, a feisty soul, been in its face.
No fault of interim Mayor Jeff Fusco, nor interim Democratic chairman Sandra Kurt, both temporary caretakers of city or party business, the dominoes fell quickly in the post-Plusquellic scramble. So the party will need an infusion of kinetic energy for the forthcoming mayoral primary race pitting Dan Horrigan against Mike Williams and Frank Comunale. I'm told Williams, an African American and perennial candidate, is already trying to fashion the contest into a racially acute contest. If he persists, it will create two ugly camps that will divide a city with a progressive reputation in race relations.
The voters need to know the stakes as Akron approaches a critical decision for its future. So welcome back, Mr. Plusquellic. Is there anything you can do about the city that you have long voiced with pride?
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