Al Teodosio, a man of peace (1924-2015)

During the years that Al Teodosio wore the badge of Summit County Democratic chairman,  he looked out at a local political landscape that was charged with internal combustion.  There were newly arriving party rivals seeking preferred honors as the city and county were  shifting away from decades of Republican control in the better offices.  It also was a time when unions jealously held powerful influence in the division of political labors.  A candidate, even at the City Council level, who ignored the fiery presence of URW chief Pete Bommarito, could  expect indecorous condemnation. Organized labor never failed to have its say.

That was the  state of being that Teodosio   inherited in 1976 when the party decided to have him succeed Robert Blakemore, himself a mystical 24-hour-a-day player in  moving Democratic candidates into his comfort zone.  But he did so quietly and with so little fanfare that most diners in the next booth hardly knew it..

So it was only natural that as a guy on the political beat at the Beacon Journal I met Al regularly with questions about his political health in the forever simmering environment where king-size egos where plotting at every turn.

To many questions he would respond with a tight-lipped smile that could be interpreted as pleasure or pain.  But as you got to know this dapper, trim-figured lawyer, you decided that he was good man and that was that.  Besides, I never knew him to lie to me, or even embellish a point.  It was the sort of honesty that doesn't  come easily to some politicians.

"He won awards by making peace," recalled State Sen.Tom Sawyer, one of Al's young disciples who went on to become Akron's mayor and eventually congressman.  "I have referred to Al as avuncular"-  not a household word to be sure,  meaning "uncle-like"

It was Teodosio, after all, who persuaded Sawyer to run for mayor in 1983.  Sawyer was hesitant because Robert Otterman had taken steps to be the party's candidate.  "Al assured me that even if there would be a primary contest, it  would not turn into a knock-down drag-'em-out fight and neither candidate would get hurt. Sawyer won and defeated Republican Mayor Roy Ray.

Actually offended by the muck of politics, Teodosio succeeded in upgrading the level of discourse  within his range.   "He was an all-time referee," Sawyer says today.

Al was sorely tested at times by the Republican chairman (and still is!) Alex Arshinkoff, whose political resume is  frequently ruptured by temperamental  outbursts.

So yes, Al Teodosio's passing at age 90 recalls a good man who cared about the sensitivities of others in carrying out his mission.

In Sawyer's precise words. a man who made peace.  May he now rest in peace.

The GOP CAN keep them down on the farm

A few people (probably Republicans) have  wondered why I frequently refer to the
GOPers running the Ohio legislature as "rustics". Being old-fashioned enough to believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, I again refer to the official photo logo adorning the top of every official press  release from the Ohio Republican Party as the symbol of the party of regressives.   I don't see a single skyline of an Ohio city nor an urban thoroughfare.    Simply a barn and silo.  Tell me that "rustic" doesn't befit the ordinary Republican politicians, even the ones who live in Upper Arlington or Hudson.

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Speaking of the Ohio legislature, the GOP sausage machine that   ground out the new budget also produced some of the  oddest defenses that edge out the best of  Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert,  today's gold standard of loony  utterances.   There was Rep. Ron Hood, the Ashville, Oh. Republican who introduced an abortion bill in mid-June that was augmented in the final hour as a  budget amendment.  Referring to the American Cancer Society's  rejection of the notion that abortion leads to breast cancer, Hood said he didn't think these issues needed to be stated as fact. Only, he said, as a possibility. Or not.

Then along came Rep.  Terry Boose, the Norwalk Republican, insisting that a state budget is a statement of numbers, not top-heavy policy.  But Democratic Sen. Tom Sawyer of Akron would have nothing to do with that kind of talk that stresses  numbers over policy.  "He doesn't know what he's talking about," Sawyer said. "The budget is 80 pct. policy and 20 pct. numbers".  Right.  Working from the same column of numbers, the budgeteers will find a way to inject their own policies. (Remember the adage that figures don't lie, but liars do figure!)

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Dear me. My copy of the Beacon Journal arrived Monday morning without a single word about the budget that Gov. Kasich signed (as a guy thing, no less) on Sunday evening.    The Plain Dealer, however, nicely filled the vacuum with a long piece that topped the front page.  So how much longer can the BJ sustain its motto of Informing Engaging Essential?  I'm not awaiting a reply.

The Morrison case: I think I'll wait for the movie

SURPRISE, SURPRISE! (And don't say I didn't warn you.)

The Ohio Senate has delayed action on a vote to decide whether Jack Morrison should be dumped from the University of Akron Board of Trustees. The Akron lawyer has found an ally in Sen. Tim Grendell, the hard-right Chesterland Republican and teabagger who was once described by the Plain Dealer as a voice of the "lunatic fringe." Grendell stalled action to allow more time for "fact-checking". That, of course, makes teabagger sense. After all it has been only four months since a court convicted Morrison on a couple of ethics violations - a period in which everyone from the governor to the secretary of state to legislative Republicans and Democrats have asked him to find another line of public work.

Among them are Akron Sen. Tom Sawyer, a Democrat, and Cuyahoga Falls Sen. Kevin Coughlin, a Republican. Sawyer says Senate President Bill Harris, a Republican, would like to resolve the issue promptly, but he's also trying to avoid an "unseemly" trial in the Senate that would embarrass the legislative body. Such a trial, Sawyer said, would be unprecedented.

"Bill Harris is a man of decency and honor," Sawyer tells me, "and although we have disagreed politically on some issues, I know that he is personally trying to avoid an embarrassing trial in the Senate to retry a case that has already been tried. Morrison has been found guilty in a court of law."

At the same time, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is pushing ahead to remove Morrison from his seat on the Summit County Board of Elections. In short, Morrison is standing pat on his argument that the state his trampling on his right to due process. Brunner doesn't at all think so.

What began as a routine case that would have been concluded for a person of less political influence and wealth has now become a running spectator sport as he holds a bipartisan army at bay.

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