From Kasich, to Comunale, to UA

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?  

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.

Sen .LaRose: the non-maverick McCain maverick

ONE OF MY chores this week end was to clear out some of my paper files - the soaring pile of stuff often mindlessly hoarded from newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Still, it did offer a few items worth attaching to the moment. Of particular interest to me was the Oct. 4, 2010 Beacon Journal endorsement of a young Republican candidate for the state senate, Frank LaRose. (OK, guys, based on what I am about to write you can accuse me of hindsight, but the endorsement never made much sense to me from Day One and I wrote as much at the time.)

LaRose made it to the Senate. And here is how the BJ hailed his credentials to send him to Columbus as the candidate who would represent northern and western Summit County from Barberton to Cuyahoga Falls:

"What is appealing about LaRose is his fresh perspective on public life, his willingness to learn and his understanding about the importance of reaching across the aisle to advance the larger interests of the state.

"LaRose makes a point of wanting to get beyond the polarizing attitudes at the Statehouse....'' The editorial praised him for supporting a "prosperous economy" through investments in such things as education and public works.

But unless I missed something that occurred in the Senate between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., across-the-aisle LaRose has voted down the line with the ultra-conservative Republican majority on every major polarizing issue from concealed weapons in bars and Senate Bill 5 to drilling on state parklands and harsh anti-abortion measures - public hospitals would be barred from abortion services. (He also told the BJ that he didn't think it was time for cutting taxes, but end the estate tax anyway!)

LaRose spent his political apprenticeship working in the presidential campaign of John McCain, the alleged maverick. Whatever the case, LaRose hasn't shown evidence that he is one. He'a too deeply ensconced in Planet Kasich.

By the way, the editorial also referred to LaRose's Democratic opponent, Frank Comunale, noting that he "made a strong case for his candidacy".

The BJ endorses Comun...eh, Frank LaRose!

OH, HELL. AS LONG as we're at it, let me follow up on my post about the Plain Dealer's dysfunctional endorsement of John Kasich for governor by adding another sample of an editorial writer's mystifying disdain for a clear nod to its candidate of choice. It appeared in today's Beacon Journal for the Ohio Senate contest between Democrat Frank Comunale and Republican Frank LaRose. After saying some kind things about rookie LaRose - he would work across the aisle and shows a willingness to learn with a fresh political perspective - the editorial then told us that

"None of this should be read as diminishing the contribution of Frank Comunale to the community, from his services on the County Council to his work as a trustee for the Akron-Summit County Public Library" as well his emphasis on the need to invest in education, "protecting the poor and vulnerable, in bolstering innovation and job creation."

Of Comunale, the editorial opines, "He makes a solid case for his candidacy." (If all of that is true, Mr. Comunale, you never had a chance.)

Oh? As the editorial concludes, "Still, this moment is better suited to Frank LaRose..."

Well, all right, if that's the way it's going to be. Having spent some time at his request with LaRose over coffee, I found him to me a likeable young man even though he was one of Alex Arshinkoff's hopefuls to fill out the Republican ticket. LaRose told me that he had worked in John McCain's presidential campaign, another candidate who promised to work across the aisle. But that's another story.

Newspapers have long endorsed candidates. No argument there. I even wrote a few myself back then. But I must confess that I get a little dizzy tracking the logic of editorials that tell me all of the positive things about one candidate before endorsing the other. In football, that's when you throw the red hanky on the field.

State Senate race: Still thinnish broth

THEY'RE BEGINNING to stir up the thinnish  broth for the race to fill the 27th District Ohio Senate seat that's opening up with the forthcoming departure of term-limited Republican Kevin Coughlin.  So far, only Democratic County Councilman Frank Comunale has declared (unofficially to me)  his candidacy.  And despite what you may have read in comments to this blog, the GOP field is wide open.  The only name mentioned as a possible candidate is Frank LaRose, Jr., a scion of the House of LaRose family, owner of the  big  wine & beer distributorship in Northern Ohio

Although Summit County Republican chairman Alex Arshinkoff  believes LaRose would have some ballot appeal as a young Marine back from Middle East conflicts, he also cautions that the book is still wide open with several other "potential candidates" still in the mix.  That would include a Hudson industrialist who might run in the Republican District.

Although Arshinkoff doesn't precisely say so, the biggest determining factor will be, who can put up the cash for his or  her own race. Some of the  big Republican business and corporate contributors  are retreating from heavy commitments to any candidate.   "It's all the  bigger challenge to our party," he says, "because we're not in power anymore.    The other guys are running things at the state and national level. Today we have people who used to have $90 million, but only have $9 million now  because of the market and they don't think they're rich."  

Arshinkoff used to have the reputation as one of the state's most successful fund-raisers   but that's ancient history in today's economy.  Apparently the state Republican hierarchy is feeling the pressure on its treasury, too, during the Obama Era and is pressing the party's county chairmen to find new  mother lodes  to help its state and legislative candidates.  

That's not likely to happen unless the GOP starts minting it own cash to bail out its candidates. Or maybe arranging a loan from Limbaugh. .    

Frank Comunale, Ohio Senate candidate

YOU CAN expect an an official announcement soon from Democrat Frank Comunale that he will be a candidate for the Ohio Senate seat  now held by Republican Kevin Coughlin, a term-limit victim.  Comunale is a Summit County Councilman and will be running in the 27th Senate District that gerrymandering has well-protected the Republican interests.  "It's a daunting task," Comunale told me, saying he is currently going about the business of raising money for  the campaign.  One look at the 27th reveals a district that looks much like a Rorschack Test defined by a bunch of tipsy legislators on New Year's Eve.  Although it is heavily centered in Summit county, it also has a gaping  jagged gulf  in the middle left to Portage County, thereby eliminating a lot of Akron Democratic voters.  The last word from Republican chairman Alex Arshinkoff is that the party is looking  at several potential candidates.