NORTHEAST OHIO Clarett to take job with builder

The field rep is going into construction management.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A controversy at the Mahoning County Board of Elections led to a golden opportunity for the Ohio Secretary of State's field representative for Northeast Ohio.
Michael G. Clarett, 45, submitted his resignation last week, effective May 7, as field rep for Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. He's held the position since September 2002.
Clarett will be the vice president of operations for the Caffey Corp., a Youngstown residential construction firm.
Clarett said he has known Tim Caffey, who owns the company, on a casual basis for the past 10 years.
"His business has picked up so much that he needs someone to run the day-to-day operations," Clarett said.
What occurred
Seeing Clarett on television and hearing him on radio when the Mahoning County Board of Elections decided, before the primary, to deviate from past practice and open absentee ballots a few days early caught Caffey's eye. Clarett said the elections board had done nothing wrong and observed the opening of the remaining ballots.
"He told me, 'If you can handle politicians that way, I want you to work for me,'" Clarett said of Caffey. "He made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
Clarett has no experience in the construction field, but he said that doesn't matter because he has a great deal of organizational and management experience.
Clarett received some criticism from some local election officials when Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell hired him nearly two years ago.
Some said they would question advice given to them by someone who was removed from the ballot on two occasions because of mistakes with his nominating petitions.
Local election officials say Clarett won them over with the job he did.
"We're going to miss him," said Thomas McCabe, Mahoning elections board deputy director. "It's been a good relationship over the past few years. He did a good job and proved himself."
Norma Williams, Trumbull elections board director, said Clarett was always available and helpful to her.
Background
Before Blackwell hired Clarett and four other field representatives for Ohio, the Secretary of State's Office had been without them since 1990.
Carlo LoParo, Blackwell's spokesman, said a search to replace Clarett will begin shortly.
Clarett will continue to be a big supporter of Blackwell, who is planning to run in 2006 for governor. The history between Clarett and Blackwell, both Republicans, goes back several years.
Blackwell hired Clarett five times: once as his field representative, twice as a paid staffer for his secretary of state campaigns, once as a paid employee for his treasurer's campaign, and when Blackwell was the U.S. Census Monitoring Board's co-chairman, he named Clarett as its Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia field representative.
skolnick@vindy.com