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.

Debate-less Press Club series for state candidates

Through the combined efforts of the Akron Press Club and the Bliss Institute the  Akron area will get a closer view of some statewide candidates on the November ballot. Democrat State Rep. Connie Pillich, who is challenging Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel,  will open the fall series on Sept. 30.

Unfortunately,  there will be no political debates.  University of Akron political science professor David  Cohen, who does much of the  heavy lifting for the fall series, said the  process of setting up debates has simply become too complicated.

We experienced some of those complications when I served as the Press Club's program chairman.  Republicans simply  aren't keen on meeting  their Democratic opponents  on a debate  panel, particularly in Akron, where more than a few nitwits accused the Club of being a subversive Democratic hideaway.  (As Press Club president, I had at  least four Republicans on my board.) One critic even reported me to the national Veterans of Foreign Wars for catering to socialists!

In one instance,  we had succeeded in lining up a debate between Democrat Capri Cafaro, of Niles, Oh., and then-U.S.Rep, Steve LaTourette, a Lake County Republican.  We  later learned  that LaTourette had canceled his appearance for the age-old standby, a scheduling conflict. So Cafaro had the benefit of the entire program for herself.

The late U.S. Rep. John Seiberling, a towering Democrat who had  nothing to be gained from debates, agreed to more than a half-dozen encounters  with restaurateur, Mark Figitakis,  a Republicsn  running squarely and hyperactively  on the anti-abortion issue.  I covered the first one at the Tangier Restaurant  in which Seiberling calmly, cooly,  and collectively  left the Republican for dead.  (I told Seiberling  afterward that he  could debate as often as he wanted, but this was my first and last  one as a political writer.  He smiled gently and said he enjoyed  fulfilling his obligation to voters to debate, no matter what.)

Akron Mayor, Don Plusquellic, a Democrat , also accepted debate invitations from  the Press Club.   But over on the other side, Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff refused all attempts to haul him up to the debate panel against Republican Kevin Coughlin, who was challenging Arshinkoff for his job. The normally voluble  chairman flatly turned it down.    "I should have known," Coughlin told me.

I should have, too.

.

Against Coughlin, Alex opts for lesser of two evils

How painful it must have been for Summit County Chairman Alex Arshinkoff to join the elections board majority in its unanimous decision to hire former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner as an "elections expert." Her advisory assignment is to determine whether Kevin Coughlin, Arshinkoff's old Republican nemesis, should be granted a spot on the ballot as an independent candidate for Stow Clerk of Courts.

It was Brunner, you may recall, who dismissed Arshinkoff from his elections board seat for being a disruptive kind of guy. He's now back.  And had to choose between  Democrat Brunner, whom he despises, and Coughlin, whom he despises, in the current set-to at the Board.  A longtime poker player, Arshinkoff put his money on Brunner, now out of office,  as the minimally lesser of two evils and doubtless went to confession afterward to expunge the sin of ever supporting any Democrat.

Arshinkoff to Coughlin: Banana or orange?

Every now and then a precedent-setting moment occurs at an otherwise boring Summit County Board Elections Board meeting that could have a strong influence on how the Republican Party profiles color-coded  people to deny then a vote.

As reported by the Beacon Journal, it happened when Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, a board member, demanded that his old adversary, Kevin Coughlin,  produce a party-ID.  Coughlin, the Republican ex-state senator, was being screened as a nonpartisan candidate for Stow Municipal Clerk.

Arshinkoff, as is his wont, went directly to the gravity of the matter by asking Coughlin:  "Are you a banana or an orange?"

Well, now.  When was any politician ever  asked a provocative question like that? (For his part Coughlin said it didn't matter.)

There was a time back in the 12th Century when one might have been asked whether he or she was a Ghibelline or a Guelph, a life or death matter at the time. Or  a Hatfield or McCoy.  Or a Rino or Defender of the Faith.

But a  banana or orange from the guy who has long considered himself to be the county party's Top Banana since the days of U.S. Grant.?

We can only assume that the idea of such juicy metaphors was seeded in Arshinkoff's subconscience years ago when a disrespectful Beacon Journal editor referred to him as a "cumquat".  Alex didn't like the sound of the word even though he didn't know what it meant.

But be ready for a new line of questioning the next time you show up at  the polls.  If you are neither a banana nor an orange nor even a cumquat, be prepared  to spend long hours trying to define yourself as an ordinary voter.  For your convenience, a trash bin will be provided for the peelings and rinds.

P.S.  Whatever he is, Coughlin was denied a spot on the ballot.

The Senate race narrows, but to what?

STOP THE PRESSES! Or turn off the cameras. Ken Blackwell, the erstwhile ubiquitous Ohio secretary of state and gubernatorial candidate, now says he will NOT be a U.S. Senatorial candidate in Ohio this year. Does anybody really care?

The remaining field of potential Republican candidates challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, is now down to two: The newly elected state treasurer, Josh Mandel, who had assured the voters that he would serve a full four-year term in Columbus, and former State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, of Cuyahoga Falls, who reportedly (Plain Dealer) has been seeking Tea Party support.

This is supposed to get interesting. But so far it isn't.

The Arshinkoff/Kasich axis pays off in grand style

IT WAS A no-brainer, really. I refer to the arrival of Alex Arshinkoff's inheritance of a $120,000 (annual) job as a lobbyist for the University of Akron. The eruptive Summit County Republican chairman doubtless deserved nothing less rewarding after spending nearly a year with his tail wagging behind then-candidate John Kasich. He was hired to focus on UA by a Columbus lobbying firm that was already in the University's lobbying mix, thus satisfying his long ambition to be a somebody on the state political scene. Meanwhile, the public be damned!

So here's to your health and newly acquired wealth, Alex!

But why was there such crouching in a defensive mode to make the deal sound like the ties between between Kasich and Arshinkoff were hardly more than a brief encounter at the office water cooler? The ecstatic chairman insisted that it would be a straight player deal with no shifty add-ons. Telling the Beacon Journal that he expects no favors from the Guv, he added: "I expect to be able to make my case for my client. If they agree, fine. If they don't, fine. That's the way the system is." Oh?

Some of the people around town have a different view of the system. Former Republican State Sen. Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls and some other Republicans were hardly impressed by the transaction. "He knows nothing about policy," Coughlin, a longtime adversary of Arshinkoff, said on the phone. "He can't open any doors that a hundred others can't open in Columbus. It's like throwing money down the toilet."

UA board member, Jane Bond, a Democratic appointee, is outraged. She said she had no idea that Arshinkoff was part of the deal when Sean Dunn, head of the Columbus lobbying firm that hired Arshinkoff, presented his plan to the Board. "I first knew of the connection to Alex when I read about it in the paper. His name never came up, because if it had, I would have voted against it. The whole thing is a perversion. This is going to damage us with every constituency in town."

The Beacon Journal's editorial settled on the term, "Influence peddler," in expressing its displeasure over the cozy deal. Could the influence have been assured by the $150,000 that the Arshinkoff Summit GOP Party gave to Kasich during the campaign - a hefty contribution that led all other counties by a mile?

What's going on here? Why the protests over a hiring that would have never drawn such attention if it was anybody but this county chairman?

Arshinkoff's emotional outbursts over the years have been well documented in the media so this isn't the place to revisit the landscape. Rather, the most fitting description of his political journey - often as a self-described victim - that led him to the winner's circle, such as it is, can be compared with what Mitch Miller once said of Frank Sinatra: "Frank had to do his suffering in public, so everyone could see it."

Arshinkoff once described politics to me in the simplest terms: "Politics is all about money." And who better than Alex is around to prove it?

Arshinkoff, Robart gang up on Coughlin

AS ANYBODY who has given no more than cursory attention to this blog could safely assume, outgoing State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, a conservative Republican, and I were seldom on the same page politically. Still, in the years that I've known him, I always found him to be accessible. articulate and willing to go the mat to defend his positions. So it was of particular interest to see a couple of longtime Republican opponents gang up on him in the Beacon Journal's front-page report on his exodus from the Ohio Senate.

The comment that shot from the page was issued by Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart, whose room and board at City Hall have gotten convenient long-term shelter from county GOP chairman Alex Arshinkoff. "He [Coughlin] is a very vindictive person He tried to hurt us...", the mayor opined.

Given the fact that his partner Arshinkoff has a long history of vindictiveness that was once aimed at one of Robart's top cabinet members, I do think that the mayor could have found a more plausible account of his displeasure with Coughlin. Alex has spent most of his career spreading ugly rumors about his opponents, even taking on a major Akron law firm - Roetzel and Andress - as being nothing more than a Democratic cell. The same is true of his whispering campaign against Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. Or his harsh treatment of some of the workers at the Summit County Board of Elections. Don't' get me started.

And please, let's hear of no more boasts by the chairman that he led the county to sweeping victories in November, a Republican day in which Donald Duck could have been elected across the state.

Alas. In some cases, he was.

Coughlin: Morrison's a "tenacious lawyer"

TO FOLLOW UP: Kevin Coughlin, one of two Akron area state senators who are calling for the ouster of Jack Morrison (see previous post), says Morrison has a reputation of being a "tenacious lawyer" who is unlikely to gives seats on the University of Akron Board of Trustees and the Summit County Board of Elections without a fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's how Coughlin viewed the political ramifications of the issue when I spoke to him:

Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff (never any love lost between Coughlin and Alex) has convinced others in his grasp that if Democrats take over the majority of the trustees, "everybody gets fired - including Ted Mallo [UA vice president and general counsel] and Ted Curtis [vice president of capital planning, architect]. Coughlin further maintains that if the full Senate votes on it, Morrison loses. His prediction: The issue will be resolved by Dec. 1.

Although Morrison is Arshinkoff's lawyer, Alex has repeatedly told me that he is a mere bystander in the Morrison case, but he has acknowledged that it would be a setback for the party if Republican Morrison left a vacancy that would permit the governor to appoint a Democrat. Coughlin agrees that Arshinkoff isn't in the driver's seat on this one. On the other hand, Coughlin sees a greater setback for the party if the issue drags on. "The Democrats will have a big issue to use against the Republicans, just as they did with Tom Noe." Noe, you may remember, was the powerhouse Ohio Republican fund-raiser who was convicted in the so-called coin-gate scandal of several corruption charges in 2006 and sent off to prison.

Unlike old soldiers, funny how these matters neither die NOR fade away at election time.

Coughlin bows out. That's news?

SEN. KEVIN Coughlin's withdrawal as a Republican gubernatorial candidate should have surprised nobody. He was never in the game, even before ex-congressman John Kasich blustered his way onto the GOP's A-list with deluded promises to cut taxes. Tax reduction is no longer a serious policy matter with GOP candidates. It is simply feel-good politics, like telling the voters that you were late for a town hall meeting because you were busy delivering groceries to an elderly couple. It has a nice rosy glow to it even if it is a fool's paradise in a time of desperate revenue needs.

Interestingly, it would be hard to distinguish the ideological differences between the two men. Both are crackerjack conservatives, and you can take it from there. The only difference, I'd guess, is that Kasich, being a Central Ohioan with more than a few dimes in his pocket as a former Wall Streeter, has earned more Brownie points from the GOP's front office in Columbus than did Coughlin, who allows that he may try again someday.

Still, it must be said that his decision to forgo a gubernatorial campaign was the fastest exit since the late Sen. Oliver Ocasek decided his chances for winning the Democratic nomination for governor in 1978 were none and none. I doubt whether you will find any mention of Ocasek's clandestine candidacy in the political annals, but for a short time at least he was an eager warrior. His ambition was carefully nurtured by his good friend and Summit County Democratic powerhouse Robert Blakemore, who believed that Ollie had toiled long enough as a leader in the Ohio Senate to build a statewide constituency . Blakemore assembled a group of labor, education and political activists in private meetings around Mansfield, Oh., to discuss an Ocasek candidacy.

When I learned of it as a political writer for the Beacon Journal, I wrote something to the effect that Ocasek, though a decent man, was on a wild goose chase inasmuch as another Democrat, Richard Celeste, had a huge head start in raising cash. Always the gentleman, Ollie called to say that he was deeply hurt by my article and would prove me wrong. He took off around the state, meeting countless township trustees, school officials and political friends, certain that his campaign would rise to any challenge. But, alas, when he returned to Akron several weeks later, he arrived in our office with a one-line statement: He had decided not to run after all. He was in shock, really, that for all of his good efforts as an Ohio state senator, he was given so little encouragement -and cash - to fulfill his dream. He also sustained the theory that nice guys don't win pennants.

Recall leftovers:a turkey without the trimmings

AMONG THE MANY disconnects - and there were many - in Warner Mendenhall's failed attempt to eliminate Mayor Plusquellic short of Medieval poison, were his frequent references to democracy. It was a little surprising to me, at least, that a fellow with a law degree could find so little case history to justify his motives other than it was "democracy" in action. Having never spent a minute in a law school class, I can only refer to the cautionary words of John Ciardi, the late poet and poetry editor of Saturday Review and truly civilized human being:

"The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself."

Trouble is, Mendenhall was costing taxpayers a lot of money while he was trying to perfect his obsession against the mayor (another disconnect because he argued that his recall campaign was nothing personal against Plusquellic!).

Well, for all that, it ain't over yet. Mendenhall and his understudies are giving evidence that there is much more to come as he morphs into Batman's ever-troublesome Joker. His wife Kelly will run for council-at large and a couple of other seats will be challenged by Plusquellic haters. I don't have any problems with that. That's what regular elections are all about, a point lost in Mendenhall's haste to fast-forward a mayoral challenge with a recall election.

But given the failure to make Mendenhall's briefcase issues drive out Plusquellic, we can only wonder whether they will be revived in the council races. Wonder? Of course they will.

** * * *

On Monday night, I happened to tune in to this fellow Tom Erickson on WNIR at another person's request. Glad I did. It's pure comedy. Erickson, like some other right wingers on the station, is driven by demons that, among other bits of sophistry, try to raise doubts about the legitimacy of Plusquellic's Democratic primary victory in 2007. Erickson thinks conspiratorially that it should have been investigated. In a discussion about Akron's debt, an issue raised by his buddy Mendenhall, he declared; "Debt is a crime." But the real fun began in earnest when one woman caller complained that she didn't know whether she could vote in the recall election because she didn't know where she lived; and another caller expressed hope that the recall would fail because the governor shouldn't be kicked out.

Well, there's a lot of this crap going around these days, inspired by right-wing talk show hosts who merely tease their listeners into questioning such long-resolved matters as whether President Obama is actually an American citizen or, for God's sake, whether he is socialist-communist-underground Muslim-etc.etc.etc. And I would simply ask the anti-tax crowd to stay off the paved roads. My taxes paid for them.

* * * * *

Among the first orders of business in the post-recall hours should be finding a way to raise the threshold on the number of petitions to set up a recall election. It was the work of mice and politicians and unless it is dramatically improved, Akron may again find itself in a mayoral recall campaign. The current situation is as dumb as term limiting, which is costing legislators their jobs rather then letting the voters decide who will stay and who will go. The restriction cuts across party lines, of course, and even affects conservative Republican State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, of Cuyahoga Falls, who isn't thrilled with the limits, and must look for other work that doesn't require heavy lifting when his current term expires.

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.  

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.  

Only one senator at a time, please

I TOLD YOU THAT it would be fun to watch!  I mean, within a day of  Republican Sen. Kevin Coughlin's unofficial announcement that he would run for governor,  the curtain went up on Act 2.  Mark Naymik, the Plain Dealer's politics writer, reported Thursday night that the scene would be played by two Coughlins: Kevin and his wife Anne.  Naymik says Anne, a physical therapist in real life, took out papers at the Secretary of State's office that would permit her to raise money for a campaign to succeed her husband in the 27th Ohio Senate District while he casts his sights on a statewide job.  (Coughlin,  of Cuyahoga Falls, will be term-limited into civilian life  in 2010.)

The only certainty with the Coughlin tandem is that Summit County GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, whom Coughlin tried to kick out, will be working with his cavalry 24/7  to retire the conservative senator, once and for all.  And if you're one to paddle into political speculation, how about this scenario:  Coughlin resigns his seat early enough to have his wife fill it for some legislative experience.  All of this is not an original ploy, but Republicans really don't have much else going for them these days.  

When politics become fun to watch

WELL, THE word  that has been whispered about for months or more is now a matter of public record.  State Sen. Kevin Coughlin is running for governor.  How do we know?   He passed the word to the Beacon Journal, which chose to publish it as the day's top story if you overlook the steady  diet of LeBron stories boldly commanding the upper right corner of the front page.  

In some ways, Coughlin's ambitious attention grabber isn't surprising.  It's the political version of Project Runway.   The Cuyahoga Falls arch-conservative Republican will be term-limited out of his seat in  2010 and faces severe  unemployment unless he finds another way to succeed in the political world.  You may recall the fuss he stirred up last year when he led the failed effort to unseat Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff.  That was the subtext - there's always one in politics, as I've mentioned before - to establish his credentials with the significant number of  Arshinkoff-haters in the party. 

But he faces a much greater challenge at the state level.  Although the Republican Party gives a lot of evidence of drifting still farther into Coughlin's comfort zone on the right, the Browns may score their first touchdown before he sets foot into the governor's office. But the Coughlin Saga doesn't end there.  What better way to signal to the state GOP brass that you believe you are perfectly competent to hold a statewide job than to announce plans to seek the top job?  

So now he will be in the mix when the governor's field is mentioned, as it will be this year. Plenty of free exposure that will earn him media interviews and invitations to chicken dinners.  

Later, as all of the other state races are sorted out this year, might not he be wedged in somewhere down the ticket?  For anyone inclined to dis this logic,  I would offer this caution:

There is no perfect time to look for a python in the tall grass.