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The new
chairman, Dennis Duffey, struck a typically defiant attitude
upon taking over for Irish. Duffey will continue to advance
the conservative, white-guy stranglehold that has ruled the
roost the last few years at 1817 Madison.
As we
surmised last week, when the Dems are no longer divided, the
party that wins in
Lucas County is The
Blade party. Through pointed stories and repeated
endorsements, if needed, The Blade convinces voters that
their candidate is the one to support. We have seen such
tacks work well with the candidacies of Ben Konop and Joe
McNamara.
The very
next guy who will benefit from the favor of The Blade
undoubtedly will be Joe Kidd. Kidd will be rehabilitated
politically in the next few years by The Blade. In my
opinion, this will be payback to Kidd for dropping a dime on
Tom Noe.
Clearly,
Kidd’s spilling the beans on Noe led to a great run of
stories in the Blade which helped lead to a regime change in
Columbus, a virtual state-wide sweep by the Dems and many
kudos for Blade writers. They came very close to garnering
another Pulitzer. That deserves payback and, believe me,
Kidd will get it.
You may
remember the silly stories about how attractive Joe McNamara
was to some voters? Well, put on your galoshes because it is
going to get real sticky around here. Kidd, start running a
few marathons if you really want to get some good print! Too
bad for Ed Cichy, Karen Shanahan and the other three dozen
or so candidates for the District 2 City Council seat. It’s
going to be Joe Kidd!
The
African-American Festival parade brought out candidates in
full force. Richard Brown did a good job with his supporters
as did Harold Mosley. But Brown walked on both sides of the
street shaking hands as did Chris Myers who worked the
parade route with just one supporter who wrote down
information.
Later, at
the Polish Festival, Brown stole the show with his workers,
in T-shirts, working the ticket tables on the north entrance
near the Zablocki Center. Very impressive. Brown has tapped
into a group I will call black Greeks since many of the
young men and women helping him are members of black
fraternities and sororities. Those guys don’t normally
engage in structured political activities.
Tom
Morrisey and friends were at the Polish Festival seeking
signatures for the recall of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. Tom, I
was joking when I said, in that dry, deadpan manner, that I
did not break into your house, Really, it was not me.
With
Irish’s scalp on his belt, McNamara can now move up in the
2009 mayoral race. Watch out Finkbeiner and Wilkowski.
Remember, they have a 29-year-old mayor in the Block’s new
hometown of Pittsburgh who is doing a pretty good job. Step
up the biking and jogging, Keith.
Back to the
golf outing. I thought I read that Irish was going to donate
that $1,200 of the proceeds to the YWCA as penance for the
scandal. Yet, I read further that in fact $1,700 was donated
by the “girlie” industry. What happened to the extra $500?
By the way, do any of us really think this was the first
time industry money came into political coffers? C’mon, the
hypocrisy in this deal is huge.
And Wade
Kapszukiewicz is still slow in doing the right thing. He was
slow in reporting the Bob McCloskey envelope and a little
slow in getting indignant over the girls on the golf course.
And did not
Kapszukiewicz make nice with Irish, Montalto and Duffey just
a few years ago after they knocked me off?
Contact Jack
Ford at
jack@thetruthtoledo.com
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