Robart returns against Coughlin to show that he's a leader

 I see that Don Robart, the former long-time mayor of Cuyahoga Falls, will attempt to be the Comeback Republican of the year.  In Stow, Oh., no less.    At age 69 and eager to have a day job again as the town's clerk of courts after his defeat in 2013.

 That's the post now occupied by Kevin Coughlin,  Robart's arch rival over the years, who says he hasn't decided whether he will run again. If he does, he could be a very conservative Republican running as a very conservative independent against a very conservative ex-mayor  to make the general election a 3-way race that will include Democrat Diana Colavecchio. She once held the job  briefly before  Coughlin narrowly defeated her by a couple of points.

But that's getting ahead of the story, which already has been described in a Beacon Journal headline as the "stage for political fireworks."  For now,  however, it is more about the current intrigues of the Summit County Republican Party. Coughlin has forever been in the cross-hairs of party chairman Alex Arshinkoff as a pain-in-the-ass mutant from party orthodoxy, which Arshinkoff has largely controlled as his private domain. There's also been bad blood between Robart and Municipal Judge Kim Hoover, a Republican who transferred his court to Stow from Cuyahoga Falls in a dispute with the mayor.   Connect the dots.

I would be shocked if Alex  hadn't had a word or two with Robart on how to rid the county of the monstrous presence of Clerk Coughlin.  Along with those briefings, there would also be assurances of how Robart's campaign would be paid for, which  has always been Arshinkoff's forte when candidates come a-callin'.

Although the post is largely paperwork-bound, Robart said he wants to prove his leadership talent.   But considering other possible options  for his comeback - another mayoral campaign? -  you can only wonder why he chose the one leading to Coughlin. In polite society, it would be called a grudge match.

For Husted a very busy week

It's been a busy week for Secretary of State Jon Husted.  While he was attending to his re-election campaign,  he also had to rule on a Summit County Board of Elections matter and then suffer a setback by a Federal judge on his  controversial election reforms.

To no one's surprise, he informed the county board that he would step aside from a request from Democrats that he investigate a board worker's use of her cellphone to post many times on Facebook as a sort of personal phone bank while she was on the job - a big-time  no-no.

Husted called upon the board to settle the issue in a "bipartisan fashion".  He said what?
Bipartisan?  It is  beyond acceptable naivete to use that standard of civilized behavior for a gathering of  board officials with English-speaking accents.  Six years ago, former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, even unceremoniously removed board member Alex Arshinkoff,  the county Republican chairman, from his hallowed chair for being disruptive.  (He has since returned under Husted.)

There's more.  Husted's decision to cut and run had a deeper context:  the  worker in question is Cecilia Robart, the wife of former Cuyahoga Falls mayor Don Robart,   the fellow who   had a brief stay on Husted's office payroll as a liaison in northern Ohio - brief because of the stuff that later was found on his office computer after he left office. Yep, pornography.  That damned Internet can be a career killer.

In that instance, Husted acted promptly in an election year by removing Don Robart from his ranks.

When you connect the dots, you can't make these things up.

Arshinkoff's solution to the latest hometown guyser   was to call for a probe of everybody's  cellphones, which , of course, eliminated any further thoughts of bipartisanship.

* * * * *

We assume the alarm button in Husted's office ran overtime when U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus in Columbus declared Husted's restictrive voter plan was unconstitutional and ordered him to restore all of the cuts in voting hours.

The secretary's deal was gilded with Republican repeatedly expressed concerns that voters were cheating like hell when they went to  the polls.  Voter fraud? All  subsequent studies revealed  no such thing and merely raised serious concerns that minorities were being targeted, which indeed they were.

Normal etiquette returns to Board of Elections

Every now and then, a warm and fuzzy slice of political life reminds us that there is a glimmer of hope in the future of civilized discourse.    Such was the case today in the Beacon Journal report that normalcy has returned to the Summit County Board of Elections.

The story told us that Cecilia Robart, board worker and wife of former Cuyahoga Falls Republican mayor Don Robart, was quite active in using her cellphone while on the  clock.  An investigation  revealed that she had been on Facebook 48 times  in a single day (twice that number over a longer period!) even though board workers are prohibited from taking such liberties on company time.

Well, now.  The probe called for a studied temperate response from Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, a board member, and he rose to the occasion.  He  considered the affair a dirty trick by Democrats. He didn't call it dirty, asking only: "What kind of crap is that?  That's baloney." The reporter said he pounded his fist.

We all know that throughout his millennia as GOP boss for the party of family values,  Alex has set near-impossible standards for gentlemanly etiquette for his line of work.  He had long rumored that Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic would be indicted for reasons not fully explained.    And leaping to  the solemn defense of his party when United Way included a stop at Democratic headquarters to pick up a bauble  for a scavenger hunt, he once called for a boycott of the charity.There were other times, but we're talking here about more pleasantly  controlled moments. As they say in hockey, no blood, no foul. 

As for Cecilia Robart, she wasn't pleased, either.   In her cellphone  chatter,  she merely raised the spectre of  recalling Don Walters, the Democrat who vanquished her husband, because the new guy ended Rockin' on the River in the Falls. (Last concert Friday night.) She called him a liar and  threatened the Democrats with the return of her husband to oppose Walters the next time. Aside from that, well...you've heard enough.

Looks like more halcyon days ahead, right,  Alex?

Major disclosure: I will be a Republican!

OK! That's it!  I'm heading down to the Summit Count Board of Elections to register as  a Republican.  (Which will finally satisfy my late father and let him rest in peace.)

I've been tinkering with the idea ever since they started paying GOP chairman Alex Arshinkoff $10,000 a month to be a University of Akron lobbyist.  And after Bryan Williams (Alex's heir-apparent as chairman?)  landed on the county Board of Elections  following his resignation as a board member  of the State Department of Education under fire for a conflict of interest.   After all, I have to eat, too.

But the decisive point in driving me into the land of the enemy  was the announcement  that Don Robart,  the recently defeated ex-mayor of Cuyahoga Falls, has been hired as the "eyes and ears"  of Secretary of State  Jon Husted to keep book on several Northern Ohio counties for an annual fee of $40,000. As you can see, conservative distaste for public spending doesn't include the immediate family.

Well, folks.  As one who has not had a regular  pay check since I left the sagging newspaper world in the late 1990s, you should not ask why  I am so sour about certain people returning to the inglorious public trough for jobs that don't require much heavy lifting.

Robart told the Beacon Journal that he hasn't ruled out running for elective office again.  If so,  I would be interested in the eyes-and-ears job.  After all, as they say, the legs go first.

Post- election stuff from the other side of the universe

 POST-ELECTION DEBRIS:

In an interview with WKSU's M.L. Schultze,  Republican Don Robart, who was defeated as Cuyahoga Falls mayor in  Tuesday's election,  seemed quite puzzled why some of us placed him in  the Tea Party's grasp, saying:

"I think they're (sic)  calling me the darling of the Tea Party was quite an exaggeration.  For the most part I don't even hardly know those people..."

For someone who doesn't hardly know ''those people", it does seem fair to ask how he could have excitedly praised the Tea Party throng  at their rally in his city as  the "moral, fiscal and social conscience of America?"  Who knew?

* * * * *

Are we witnessing the end of days?  I sensed that the human race may be preparing to cash it all in after reading Chairman Alex Arshinkoff's learned explanation in the Beacon Journal of why voters were in a mood to throw out a lot of incumbents.  "I think they're (voters) fed up with politicians," the combative Republican county boss opined. "They don't see an end to the bickering and the fighting."  Based on local experiences, I think I might know how we can begin to turn that around,  Alex.  But why bicker?

* * * * *

Throughout election night, NBC's Chuck Todd continued to remind the viewers that President Obama's approval ratings had fallen to a new low without once noting that  Obama is barred by law from seeking a third term.  So for any  non-candidate, such ratings are little more than table talk.  Iconic Ronald Reagan's disapproval rating (Gallup)  rose to 56 pct.  in January 1983 - one point higher than Obama's 55 pct. in August 2011.   We won't even mention that George W.Bush's highest  disapproval rating led all other presidents with 71 pct. in October, 2008. So to Chuck Todd, I ask:  What's the point?

* * * *  *
Finally, the Ohio Republican Party was out the morning-after with stunningly breaking (and overcooked) news.  Blared State GOP chairman Matt Borges:  Obamacare was a disaster and Democrats "will be held accountable in 2014."  Ummmmm....Careful, Matt,  that you don't peak too soon under that barn-and-silo logo  on your party's official media releases.

At Falls City Hall, little things can tell you a lot

Risking the wrath of Mayor Robart's Republican friends, his  fellow Tea Partyers,  evangelicals and County GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff,  I must  again question the sincerity of  his response to a certain earlier matter in his midst now that his huge campaign ads  so loudly boast of his uncommon expertise in serving as a watchdog  of his town's piggy banks.   "Without raising taxes," of course.

When the issue of whether to grant a family rate at the Natatorium to a same-sex married couple arose  in the spring of 2012, the mayor wiggled around  other opinions to resist the lower rate as a costly concession that the city could ill-afford. He coupled that silly notion with references to the state's ban on same-sex marriages even though the couple was married in Washington, D.C.

So that's one unseemly instance of how he's managed the city's finances? And although the rate change held the 6-5 Democratic majority on City Council, it would still have lost by a threatened veto by the mayor.

Even the city law director said a discounted rate would not  be a problem under state law.   It was already working in other places.  But that's how Robart saw it and he prevailed.

Should we be surprised  when such pathetic (biased?)  ways of governing  again turn up if he should win again on Tuesday. It is, after all, 2013.  Even in his cloistered suburban island.

Putting this single event in the context of a mayor's  many duties doesn't seem to be that important, you may say.  But you can learn a lot about the priorities of a  chief executive from it.

 It was the same Robart, after all, who put his faith in Rick Santorum's religious-based presidential fantasies.  Second choice:  Newt Gingrich, the dead-ender who wanted to fire all of the school janitors. With Robart, it's always possible that political options can exceed one's grasp.

Arshinkoff to drop the nuclear TV ad bomb in Falls mayoral race

Is Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff ready to drop the nuclear Cleveland  TV ad bomb on Tuesday's  mayoral race in Cuyahoga Falls?  A Republican source  tells me he is a little surprised that the boss hasn't spent more to prop up Tea Party mayor Don Robart and has saved the cash for the final week end assault on Democrats in several races that will doubtless include radio bursts.

There must be some anxiety in the Robart camp over polls showing he is in a tight race with Democrat Don Walters, the president of Falls City Council.  You may recall that Robart, now in his 27th year in the mayor's office, ran unopposed four years ago.

Robart continued his mystical hold on  the local media this year with odd endorsements from both the Beacon Journal and Cuyahoga Falls News Press, a weekly.  We say mystical because, as we've written, the mayor has never aspired to the BJ's goal of regional cooperation.  In fact, Robart has no bipartisan  ties with Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and has preferred to administer a municipal island in the county.

As for the News Press, it complimented Robart for an "exciting vision for the the city's future."

Some of that, oddly, will depend on federal dollars, scorned by the hard right, to pay for the excitement.  (I tire of reporting  that I attended a Tea Party Rescue America Tax Day rally in the Falls in which he welcomed the throng as the social, moral and fiscal conscience of America.  Right. They also help shut down the government,  as we have since witnessed.

As the Falls Press noted in its endorsement, "He also hopes to use federal money to upgrade vacant homes,  secure federal  funds to improve the streetscape  from Chestnut Boulevard south to the city limits and work with the schools to possibly increase the city income tax to help pay for construction of a new high school/middle school  campus." (Lord.  New taxes? More excitement!)

By the way, let the record show that the BJ editorial writers never had anything good to say about Arshinkoff's often unruly political hijinks -  the same party financier who is said to be preparing the nuclear TV bomb.

As for me, why can't I dismiss the fact  that Robart played his socially conservative card by successfully opposing a discounted family rate at the Natatorium to a gay couple, one of whom was a wounded Iraqi veteran who wanted to rehab at the Nat?

Personal note:  We moved out of the Falls 14 years ago.  As we grew older, we couldn't take the excitement.

As the BJ goes on endorsements, so goes the BJ

Were you surprised that the Beacon Journal endorsed Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robert for reelection?  Yeah, I was, too, sort of, given the problems that he and Mayor Plusquellic have had with each other over the years.  "They ended up not talking to each other again," one City Hall insider recalled about Plusquellic's anger over Robart's "breaking his word" on a water deal.  "It was basically a handshake deal, " the source said,  "and Plusquellic felt that Robart had lied to him".

Robart has long had the reputation of being a loner in the Falls who disdained cooperative approaches with others beyond his city's borders. As one of the last Republican leaders standing in Summit County,  he remains a favorite of Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, his financial  chaperone.

As for the BJ, its endorsements were a lot more effective in the days of Jack Knight than they are today,when it is calling for the reelection of a guy who has  been inimical to so  many other political entities and one  who is out of step at times with the BJ's views on urban policy.   Besides, when Robart tells a Tea Party crowd that the baggers are the moral AND fiscal conscience of America, you can see who is influencing his own decisions  in the second largest city in the county.

Robart to Mitt: You electrified me

Beacon Journal Columnist Bob Dyer's paean to Mitt Romney on Sunday cast  the candidate as a guy who pays his bills - and President Obama as a cheapskate. It  also offered Cuyahoga Falls  Republican Mayor Don Robart  an opportunity to crow over his third choice (Romney)  for the GOP ticket, (after Santorum and Gingrich).   Dyer's Romney-Obama contrast was drawn from the candidates'  visits to the Akron area in which Mitt's campaign picked up the costs but the Obama campaign didn't.

For  his $7,050 tab,  Romney was rewarded with this praise from the mayor via Dyer:

"I think it's self-evident.  [It tells you] who is accountable for their deeds  who isn't, who's accountable   for their  actions and who keeps blaming everybody else."  Oh?  As in this historic self-evident  non-sequitur  from Mitt: "The economy is getting better but Obama made it worse."?  The mayor  said Mitt's visit was"just electric."  

But I should not be so harsh on the mayor, whose hometown we once shared for nearly a quarter-century.  We've  watched  a once moderate operative settle comfortably into the farthest reaches of the Republican Right (Tea Party) on his politically fail-safe suburban island.  It's a small field compared to Akron,  but, look, it does provide a living for the mayor and joy for the Summit County GOP brass,  including Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff.

But before I get out of the way, I would mention to Dyer:

"Bob, anybody who reads my stuff would have no problem identifying the candidate I'm voting for.  Would you allow us one guess as to your choice?

Meantime, did I hear the mayor say,  "I am  Don Robart and I approve Dyer's message."?

There's an upside to seeing double in Falls

I know.  We offered this photo yesterday of Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart in a celebratory mood  and wondered (wrongly)  whether he was rejoicing over a half-million Federal grant to hire more firemen.

But today, the Beacon Journal is reporting that the Falls has received a new $1.135 million  grant from the Federal Highway Administration that opens the vault for a  a long-delayed State Road project.

As you know, the Tea Party embracing Republican mayor ("the fiscal and moral conscience of America,"'  he once greeted them) has not  had anything good to say about Federal spending and budget deficits and all, and here his town is with all that money arriving from Uncle Sam.

I know, again.  It will be argued that the project has been delayed for six years so the Falls has waited long enough to take a bite out of the Federal treasury.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised that the mayor is in Romney's quiet room (where Mitt believes only politically sensitive things  should be considered)  and happily humming the old Bill Monroe Bluegrass favorite, "Roll on,  Buddy....Roll on."  

Same-sex marriage: No kayakers at Falls City Hall

Cuyahoga Falls to tear down two dams next year; kayakers eager to tackle rapids unseen in 200 years  - Beacon Journal headline, December 11, 2011

Unfortunately, there aren't enough public  officials  in the Falls who are eager to tackle more meaningful  matters unseen in 200 years.

I refer to the defeat of a initiative to award a same-sex married couple a family rate at the Natatorium, a modest discount for the spouses, one of whom - if you can imagine that!  -  is a wounded Iraqi veteran
who was prepared to have his head shot off so that the Natatorium and other venues around America could live in peace.

The controversy  has plodded forward for months in what has become Republican Mayor Don Robart's Tea Party Central town somewhere just north of Akron.   It would have passed 6-5 on City Council , with all six Democrats supporting it.  But when the Mayor was heard to threaten a veto, it would have needed 8 votes to override his veto.  There was no hope of siphoning  two from the Republican side.

Tim Gorbach, the Democratic chairman of the Parks and Recreation Board, which oversees the Natatorium, tried various methods to create a compromise that would allow the couple to get the family rate.  But again, when the board met on Thursday, it was was defeated, 3-2, by the Republican majority opposing it.

I talked to two of the opponents on the board, Dick Sebastian and Debbie Ritzinger, both of whom insisted that neither  religion nor the mayor influenced their decisions, although both seemed less eager to preclude the mayor. They agreed that it was all about the money  the city would lose by extending the family rate to a same-sex couple.  But if they were a straight-sex couple, wouldn't the same cost factor apply at the family rate?  Would somebody please do the math for me?

Before your reach for you calculator, allow me to put it this way:  The only difference in the rates ($130 annually) was that one couple was gay.

In his haste to circle his own wagon, Robart first said the state's ban on same-sex marriages prevented the Falls from allowing the discount.  When his own law director said the discount would not be a problem under state law - Akron and Medina, for example would not prohibit equal rates - the mayor then switched to the cost factor.  But I wonder about that, particularly when he nearly soared off the stage at a recent Tea Party rally by praising the Teabaggers as the  "social, fiscal and moral conscience of America." Really,  Mayor?

There is further irony here in that the Falls is revving up for a bicentennial celebration in which there will be a lot of chest-pounding about the  whitewater beauties of the town's history.    Here's what the bicentennial commission has to say about it:

"The mission of the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Bicentennial celebration is to promote awareness to our rich heritage, encourage citizens and business leaders to plan, participate and sponsor events and activities, recognizing 200 years of the history and growth of  Cuyahoga Falls.

In view of the dismally regressive mentality at City Hall on the Natatorium , wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it a Centennial celebration instead and wait for the mayor's successor to bring the town forward to the 21st Century?  

Cuyahoga Falls: A friendly host to Santorum

WEEKEND ORTS:

I see that McRick Santorum will be speaking in Cuyahoga Falls Monday night. The suburb is becoming Republican Mayor Don Robart's petting zoo for GOP presidential candidates in the closing days of Ohio's elections. It was a campaign motorcade stop for President George W. Bush, when he was seeking reelection in 2004. Among other things, he charged his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, with wanting to expand the "power and scope" of government. It played well to his hosts, including those with powerful ties to politics and government. Indeed, county party chairman Alex Arshinkoff didn't hesitate to biblically describe the election as a "contest between good and evil." You know the rest of the story.

* * * * *

I again caught a glimpse of McRick Santorum roaring that "faith has been driven out of the public square" - which is puzzling since everything he says about faith is televised to the public square every moment of the day. I am even more baffled by the empty charge in a country with 500 religious radio and TV programs in a billion-dollar industry run by conservative religious groups. Among them: Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University; and Jerry Falwell Ministries, now operated by the late Moral Majority leader's two sons. These two mammoth operations alone account for more than $700 million in revenue, according to a report by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Hmmm...

* * * * *

More and more states and cities are rising to an understanding of what true democratic rights are all about in a free society. So it was good to read a Beacon Journal report this morning that Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, Canton Mayor William Healy II and Stow Mayor Sara Drew have signed a national Freedom to Marry resolution supporting same-sex marriage. They will doubtless hear from critics , but so what? Unlike the Republican pols who race around the country demanding that government get off the backs of individuals while also invading the very same personal lives, the mayors have qualified for the new enlightenment that says to Big Brother: Mind your own business in how we want to present ourselves at the altar.

Robart moment: Falls Tea party

WELL, THE folks at Cuyahoga Falls City Hall must be in a stage of extreme ecstasy today. A Tea Party event Wednesday evening drew thousands of protestors to damn the federal government and put an end to taxes, government programs, deficit spending and the Obama Administration. Republican Mayor Don Robart, one of the event's leading citizens as well as a government employe himself, told an interviewer that people are fed up with the "massive increase in government" and failed Obama programs like the stimulus package's "lack of effectiveness" and the "health care thing." He hoped the Tea Parties would continue to flourish.

From the reports I read, there was the usual amount of attacks on socialism, and a Hitlerian president, much of it inspired by medieval crackpots like Glenn Beck. But Robart was obviously out to inspire the crowd, without regard to the fact that he was biting the hand that has long fed his island-like political enclave. For starters there has been the flow of federal cash into community projects. And even his proud guest, the Cleveland Orchestra's summer visits to Blossom Music Center, depends on cash from the National Endowment for the Arts, for which it is ever grateful.

When the mayor starts obtusely condemning cash flow from D.C., he is clearly out of his league. He could prove me wrong, of course, and simply reject one more dollar from those...um... socialists in Washington.

FOOTNOTE: While the stimulus program was being declared DOA, two items might have caught somebody's attention when they weren't raising their fists at the Tea Party. Stimulus money created summer jobs for more than 13,000 Ohio young people. Oh, and Bill Seigferth, president of Akron Education Assn., reported that stimulus money opened 73 new teacher jobs in the city. And in the same batch, General Motors said the Cash for Clunkers program has been so successful that it will return more than 1,000 workers to their jobs in Lordstown.

The econmy isn't out of the woods yet, but are Robart and friends so blind not to see a little daylight that will mean a lot to other folks. The answer: Yes.

DeLay dancing with stars in his eyes, etc.

GRUMPY ABE'S THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY:

• After watching the painful evolution of a health care reform plan, I have concluded that there may be some things on Capitol Hill that money can't buy. But offhand, I can't think of any...
• Now that a desperate audience seeking TV world has invited Tom DeLay, a scoundrel of the first rank, to appear on Dancing with the Stars, may we next see a guest appearance by Sarah Palin on Jeopardy? I would pay to see Rush Limbaugh as a pole dancer at Tony Soprano's Bada Bing. Hokier than DeLay on Dancing with the Stars? I think not.
• How many more national sponsors must Glenn Beck lose before Fox owner Rupert Murdoch, always the bottom-line guy, decide to replace him with old Frankenstein movies to lighten up the fare?
• Wednesday evening's Tea Party on the Riverfront Mall in Cuyahoga Falls will doubtless have a lot of fussn' about government and taxes in general. As I have mentioned earlier, it is billed as "non political" even though Mayor Don Robart and a legislative candidate, both Republicans, are featured speakers. But considering how much federal and state money has touched down in the city, it might be unwise to complain too much about some of the hands that are feeding the Falls. One example: a $750,000 "neighborhood stabilization" grant from Uncle Sam. Well, as Nikita Khruschchev was fond of saying, "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable."

Plusquellic's forces girding for battle

THE 15 SUBURBAN mayors who joined  to oppose the recall of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic  were another indication of the riptide that's emerging against Walter Mendenhall's ill-conceived notion of democracy in action. Letters supporting Plusquellic by prominent Akron area achievers are appearing regularly in the Beacon Journal and it's looking more like a non-partisan effort to wave off the recall crowd.  I have a hunch this is only the beginning of the counter-attack that will grow in visibility as the recall election day approaches on June 23. (The glaring exception to the mayoral group was Republican Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls who said he didn't see any "upside" in the united action.  No surprise there.  Unlike some other Republican mayors, Robart has created his own universe in the Falls, thanks to the ineptitude of Falls Democrats to defeat him at the polls.) 

Plusquellic's  forces have already shown that they  will be a lot more aggressive than the lackadaisical 2007 Democratic primary  campaign against former city councilman Joe Finley that produced a low turnout.  It  gave his opponent an opportunity to show up better than anticipated and an opportunity for City Hall to reflect on the  political adage that nothing should ever be taken for granted. 

As for those 15 mayors,  I'm sure it occurred to some of them that this nonsensical recall effort could encourage similar costly and disruptive initiatives against any of them down the road for the dumbest reasons. As for Mendenhall. I was amused by his comment to the BJ that he was pleased a date had been set for the election.   To quote him as he envisioned the 6-term mayor being led to the gallows:  "After 22 years the city has  a chance of getting a new mayor." 

Wrong!   The voters have that chance every four years on election day.    

A diverting go at Don Robart?

 SHOULD YOU be looking for some political diversion in 2009 now that it seems highly unlikely that the anti-Obama crowd will seek a recount, I'd suggest that you get your tickets early for the mayoral campaign in Cuyahoga Falls. I know.  After a two-year presidential race, a suburban mayor's contest would seem to be no more than a  glass of warm milk at bedtime.  Well, maybe not.

The town has been the private domain of  Republican Mayor Don Robart's Administration since 1984.  It is the second largest entity in Summit County (after Akron) and the first largest dissenter in warring words with the Democratic mayor of Akron, Don Plusquellic.  The two administrators simply don't like each other.  Never have.  Never will. As such, Robart has pretty much had his own way within the confines  of his City Hall.  But that's another story.

His  long tenure in the Falls has received a helping hand from the Democrats, who have been known to  run some inept campaigns to oust him, a sort of concession that permits the Kurds to play by their own rules in northern Iraq without interference from Baghdad.  (Full disclosure:  I lived in the Falls for many years, so I know what I am talking about!)  

The landscape might change  because some Democratic operatives are saying they won't take "no" for an answer this year and will mount a strong offensive against the 63-year-old Robart.  The picture blurs, but excitingly so, because there is another  bounty hunter from Robart's own party who would like to retire him.  That, of course, is State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, an indefatigable tormentor of  the county Republican establishment who has already said he wants to run for governor and would like to somehow claim Robart's scalp along the way. With the Democrats and the endowed conservative Coughlin sharing designs on the mayor, it won't be a marriage made in bipartisan heaven, but it will have to do until somebody  has a better idea. 

At this non-climactic moment in the Falls' mayoral history, the Democrats still face the problem of putting up a willing candidate to defeat Robart.  Some whom I've talked to say Don Walters, the Falls'  Sixth Ward councilman, would fit their bill.  But Walters tells me that he  is quite happy as a councilman and fears that if he lost the mayor's race it would also cost him his council seat.  "That's something to think about,"  Walters says. "So I'm not committed to anything yet. I don't know that now is the time for me to do that."

So although we're talking here about a suburban mayor's race, it is shaping up more as a test of wills with old grievances writing the text.   Will the Democrats, all-powerful in most of the county, finally  find a way to  end their frustrations over the Robart fiefdom in the Falls?  Will Kevin Coughlin enhance his  chances  as a king-making mayor-maker by recruiting a candidate to challenge Robart in the Republican Primary?   And will the gathering storm be frightful enough for Robart to give up some days set aside for his regular rounds of jogging? 

It's early.  The filing deadline is not until June 25.  Still, just want you to have a head start before we all get too preoccupied with a new baseball season.