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From Jimbo to Jimmy, it was quite a year
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Yeah, Christ-mas is a lot of fun as is New Year’s Eve. But I was referring to year-in-review lists.
Overall, 2009 was one of the quietest political years in the Mahoning Valley, but there were some memorable moments.
Worst Use of an Egg McMuffin: Former Trumbull County Commissioner James Tsagaris succeeded in convincing a federal judge that he was too ill to serve time in prison for his two fraud convictions.
U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi initially sentenced Tsagaris to house arrest for a year. Tsagaris was allowed to leave his house to go to church, work and doctor appointments.
Tsagaris was seen at a cigar store, driving his sister to a doctor’s appointment and at a local McDonald’s — all violations of his house arrest. The judge sentenced Tsagaris to nine months in federal prison for the violations.
I doubt Tsagaris is singing, “Bah, dah, bah, dah, daaaah, I’m lovin’ it,” in his prison cell.
Most Amusing Barack Obama Local Ad-Lib: Obama visited the Lordstown General Motors complex on Sept. 15, becoming the first sitting president to visit the area during an odd-numbered, non-election year.
While introducing the various elected officials in the audience, Obama had some trouble pronouncing Ohio Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro’s name. Obama spotted her in the audience and realized he mispronounced her name. He momentarily stopped reading his prepared speech and called to Cafaro: “How are you? She’s a fireplug. I remember her.”
A fireplug is essentially another name for a fire hydrant — not the most flattering reference. I assume the president meant either a spark plug or a firecracker.
Worst Traficant Comment: Where to begin?
Ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. was released from federal prison Sept. 2 after serving more than seven years for a variety of felonies. Known for his outrageous and often exaggerated statements before going to prison, Traficant didn’t disappoint anyone with his statements after his release.
His complete ignorance of the Central America Free Trade Agreement during a September radio appearance, including saying “I would have voted against SAFTA for damn sure,” was funny.
Also worthy of mention was his comment last week that “I’m proud of being an ex-con, by the way.”
The winning comment was also uttered last week. “As you can see, I’m a bitter man.”
Worst Local Campaign: This was a dull election year. But the attempt to pass a permanent 0.5-percent sales tax in Mahoning County stood out, and not in a good way. The committee that promoted the passage of the tax spent $24,100, nearly all of it in the final three weeks leading to last month’s general election. Most of that money was used to buy local television network air time.
Also, some county officials — most notably Commissioners David Ludt and Anthony Traficanti and Prosecutor Paul J. Gains — blasted the county board of elections for the issue’s ballot language, saying it was deceptive. The language came from legislation written by the prosecutor’s office and approved by the commissioners, and accepted by the Ohio secretary of state
With that campaign strategy, it should be no surprise the issue was soundly rejected by voters.
It also leads to another award.
The Silliest Criminal Political Investigation: A clerk at the county board of elections forgot to send the commissioners the language for the sales tax before the election, a long standing policy for any entity with a tax issue on the ballot. Some county officials believed it was a conspiracy by the board to sink the sales tax — the same sales tax that funds the elections board. It led to a criminal investigation by the sheriff’s office. It turns out the clerk failed to send ballot language to every entity with a tax issue.
Despite the obvious mistake, the investigation continues.
Who’s the Leader of the Club?: With a line to write in a candidate for Youngstown mayor, some people had fun. Traficant, who lives in Poland, received 12 votes. In second place among cartoon characters was Mickey Mouse with 4 votes and among clowns, Bozo finished second with 2 votes.