Ohio Sen 24th: Spada (R) to Vacate Seat?
The Cleveland Plain Dealer blog Openers hints that term-limited State Sen. Bob Spada (R-North Royalton) may be hired to replace Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Michael Vu, rumored to be on his way out as early as next week. That would allow the interim appointment of outgoing State Rep. Jim Trakas (R-Independence) to Spada's seat, so that Trakas can run as an incumbent in 2008. Another possibility mentioned for Spada is running for the mayor's office in his hometown of North Royalton.
posted by Jeff @ 5:20 PM
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And this is why I've said all along that scapegoating Michael Vu was a huge mistake. Unless Bob Bennett was ousted, the board of directors would simply replace Vu with a more agreeable, and perhaps more partisan and less experienced, tool. And if this is true, they've found one.
Unlike Vu, Spada has no experience in administering elections, and he's held office as a Republican, something Vu did not, whatever his personal politics may be. It would be disgraceful to allow such a partisan and underexperienced individual take the reins of running the Board of Elections in the county with the largest bloc of Demcratic votes. The Ohio Democratic Party should raise a huge outcry about this. The Republicans would never stand for it if the reverse were happening.
Also, it seems to be the opinion of many knowledgable elections people I've been talking with that the problems with the Cuyahoga County elections in May and to a lesser degree November, were a result of unclear and untimely directives and inadequate resource allocations by the Secretary of State's office. In other words, Vu was doing the best job he could with what he was handing, which has been my impression too.
Personally, I hope the board holds off on any changes until Jennifer Brunner becomes SoS and the problems can be investigated and their real source located and repaired. Tossing a BoE executive director overboard and replacing him with a Republican partisan because Blackwell didn't do his job makes no sense.
Wouldn't Trakas make a more likely pick to the Board of Elections spot? Why would Spada run for his leadership position in the Senate again if he was leaving?
This all sounds like Trakas beating the bushes.
Both Vu and Bennett should be ousted from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Start fresh and maybe something good will come of it. Cuyahoga can't get any worse than it is now.
This Northeast Ohio playground for Diebold needs to be sanitized.
Jennifer Brunner should do a lot more than she did in reaction to the 2006 primary Diebold debacle. Simply writing press release statements will not solve Cuyahoga's issues. Jennifer Brunner should prepare to roll up her sleaves and get her hands dirty.
Jennifer is not in office yet. From what I understand she is gathering information and making plans but for her to jump in and start making a lot of noise without authority to do anything yet — or even to get her hands on actual nuts-and-bolts insider information about what happened — would be incredibly premature.
Trakas was supposed to get the board of elections job. Its a 6 figure salary, but it is a job that is built for failure. Spada hasn't even talked to the Board of Elections people yet.
What is really going on here is that Jim is afraid Rep. Tom Patton (R-18th district) will run for Spada's seat in 2 years and Jim is praying he can con Spada into taking the elections job and then Jim will take Spada's seat now to run as an incumbent if there is a primary in 2 years.
Jim's a douche bag and I would not be surprised if he was the one who leaked this story to help his dream become a reality.
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