Thanksgiving opened political floodgates

I typically take a week of vacation around Thanksgiving figuring it's a good time to be with family and it's usually a very slow time for politics.
At least I got the first half of it right.
My vacation started Nov. 23, the same day Denny White announced he was resigning as Ohio Democratic Party chairman.
This came as no surprise with White putting out a statement a few months ago saying he was thinking of leaving the job. White spent months trying to become deputy director of the Franklin County Board of Elections. When that fell into place, White was gone.
White left for financial and job security reasons. With all the corruption, scandals and in-fighting in the Ohio Republican Party, White had a golden opportunity to have the Democrats reclaim the state in next year's election.
The party has some strong candidates running for key positions running in 2006.
But some Democratic leaders didn't have faith in White's ability to be in charge. They point to President Bush beating Democrat John Kerry in Ohio last year, and the failure of the 2002 Democratic statewide slate.
White shouldn't be faulted for either failure. Kerry's campaign people had little interest in hearing from Ohio Democrats about winning the Buckeye State. As for the 2002 Democratic statewide candidates, White inherited that motley crew from his predecessor, David Leland.
Leland was pushed out of the chairman's position because of his ineffective leadership in 2002. Incidentally, Leland is now finance director for the gubernatorial campaign of U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland.
My vacation ended Tuesday, the same day Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman announced he was no longer running for governor next year.
This was a bit of a surprise because Coleman had good polling numbers, and was expected to do well in the state's biggest cities against Strickland.
Strickland will still have a Democratic primary, but will have absolutely no trouble winning that election and being his party's gubernatorial nominee.
Also, Strickland won't have to spend nearly as much money on the primary with Coleman out because he won't have any legitimate competition.
Ex-state Rep. Bryan Flannery, who unsuccessfully ran as secretary of state as part of the 2002 Democratic motley crew, is in the race.
State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, who lost every one of Ohio's 88 counties in last year's U.S. Senate race against incumbent George V. Voinovich, is considering a gubernatorial run. If Fingerhut runs, he needs to bring back his lame chant of "I say, 'Finger,' you say, 'Hut.'" There isn't enough comedy in politics.
Fingerhut, one of the most intelligent politicians I've met, and Flannery don't stand a chance of beating Strickland. Based on recent history, Fingerhut and Flannery don't have the organizational or fundraising skills to run statewide campaigns.
So things weren't quiet on the state political scene while I was gone, and the same can be said on the local level.
The return of former county Auditor George Tablack as the director of the county's Office of Management & amp; Budget was a shock to say the least.
Tablack probably knows Mahoning County's finances better than anyone -- just ask him.
No matter how he and county commissioners Anthony Traficanti and David Ludt spin this, Commissioner John McNally IV is correct that the hiring process wasn't handled well.
McNally was informed about Tablack's return a day before the commissioners voted to hire the former auditor. Also, the commissioners interviewed other candidates for the job and opted not to hire any of them.
While salary is always negotiable, it's a safe assumption that anyone but Tablack would have been offered an annual salary comparable to the $62,000 the former director received.
Tablack is expected to get about $80,000 annually. The field of candidates probably would have been stronger with the higher salary. But with Tablack interested in the job, it didn't matter who else wanted the position because he has the undying support of Ludt and Traficanti.
My next vacation begins Dec. 22 and runs through the end of the month. God only knows what political fireworks will occur during that time.