Democrats might have done a favor for Republican John Kasich who’ll campaign for governor this weekend in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

That is, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday announced the resignations of Ohio Public Safety Director Henry Guzman (former Cleveland safety chief) and Ohio Highway Patrol Superintendent Richard Collins.

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Whatever happened to Glen Quigley, the former Newbury Township trustee who was elected as the Geauga County recorder?

Right. Former County Recorder Quigley was ousted last year by then-Burton Village Councilwoman Sharon Gingerich, who started this year in new county office.

Right again. The same Quigley this year is on the Nov. 3 ballot to run for one of two, yes, Newbury Township trustee seats.

So what comes around goes around.

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Maybe you saw all those lists of nobody, not even incumbents, even filing as listed Nov. 3 ballot candidates for maybe a village council, township trustee or school board seat in Lake, Geauga or Cuyahoga counties.

Four village council incumbents and not one filed by the Aug. 20 deadline; nobody filed, not even a challenger? Nobody filed for that township trustee seat up for grabs? Nobody filed for those two available school board seats?

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For those three Euclid School Board seats in the Nov. 3 election, the city voter can cast only one ballot under a federal judge’s decree to ban what she called racial discrimination.

So the Euclid voter can choose between School Board incumbents Angela Lisy, Kent Smith and Donna Sudar, and first-time elected officeseeker Evette Moton. The first three are white, and Moton is black.

Again, the voter can vote only for one of the four. The three victors will be the ones who get the most votes from all voters. All clear?

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So out of 88 counties in Ohio, now one’s been placed on upper-case Fiscal Emergency watch.

The first such county in Ohio history to be declared in such debility? It’s Scioto County (county seat is Portsmouth) in Appalachian country down there by the Ohio River.

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Is Ohio among the few states with elected county engineers and maybe to be the last of two such commonwealths with such canddidates on the ballot before voters?

Just like, so far, the Akron-based Summit County Council is the only such entity in Ohio with a voter-approved form of government change without many elected county officials. And Cuyahoga County might be next?

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So the Wickliffe School Board one day hires Matthew S. Schmittel, who’s a Streetsboro science teacher, as the Wickliffe Middle School principal, then asks him to resign within 24 hours in a district with a revolving door of administrators.

Why?

Because Schmittel "engaged in misconduct by receiving and sending inappropriate and/or pornographic materials on school computers."

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With Painesville Councilwoman at large Arlene L. Becks recently ruled ineligible for the Nov. 3 ballot due to errors with her nomination petition, it serves notice to candidates how important it is for them to know the details involved with filing for office.

It also begs the question of whether city charters should allow prospective candidates remedies to fix election petitions.

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Momentum 2010, the Ohio Women's Summit, maybe doesn’t literally mean what some might read into its slogan: "An Ohio where women and men work together to achieve gender equity."

But to get to the point and not skirt the issue:

You might've already read that Momentum 2010 is yanking its announcement that two Democrat guys, Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, would, uh, address the crowd in March as the feminists' honorary co-chairmen in the statewide forum to promote women's advancement and International Women's Day.

First Lady Frances Strickland and Peggy Zone Fisher (past prexy, Cuyahoga Women's Political Caucus) were to show up with their husbands as headliners next year. Same 2010 as when Lee Fisher runs for U.S. Senate.

For this magic moment, the four were invited by Momentum planner Dagmar Celeste, who was married to former Gov. Dick Celeste. Now Dagmar asks Strickland and Fisher to sit in the men's row at the back of the room or not show up at all.

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Former eastern Cuyahoga County state Rep. Mike Wise and Tom Florkiewicz, the general sales manager at Chlor-Alkali Technologies?

Both are running for the two Chagrin Falls Township trustee seats up this year.


Mike graduated from Chagrin Falls High, his wife Karen serves on the Chagrin Falls School Board and their kids attend those schools. Tom is the parent of two Chagrin Falls graduates.

--David W. Jones

As reported, three people, including a Willoughby Hills contractor, got indicted and pleaded innocent Friday on charges in a case of alleged scandal in bid-rigging, strip clubs patronage and trips to Vegas and Texas, all involving the Ohio Department of Transportation District 12 serving all Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga counties.

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