Sarantou to run for commissioner - again

NewsTalk 1370 WSPD is reporting that Toledo City Councilman George Sarantou has announced his intentions to run, again, for Lucas County Commissioner. Sarantou lost to Ben Konop when he last sought this office in 2006.

According to the news broadcast, Sarantou is touting his financial background as an asset to the county and as a reason to elect him.

Of course, this flies in the face of reason.

You see, through all the recent financial issues the City of Toledo has faced, George has been chairman of council's Finance Committee. With Toledo facing huge budget deficits over the last several years, while George chaired the committee, and now facing a $48 million deficit for 2010, you'd think George would realize the irony of promoting his 'financial expertise.'

This is not to say that he isn't a good financial advisor. I have no idea about his work skills. I only reference his failure as the finance committee chairman and wonder how in the world he thinks that can be any sort of positive for his campaign against Konop (or whoever wins the Democrat primary for the position Konop now holds).

Maybe he's counting on the disillusionment of the voters who chose Konop over him last time. Konop certainly hasn't given them any reason to stay loyal. But George has failed to distinguish himself during that time frame as well.

Of course, neither Sarantou nor Konop may make it through the primary. Area voters seem to be in a 'throw the bums out' mood and both men may qualify as 'bums' in that respect.

But there is always The Blade to consider. Like it or not, they still buy ink by the barrel and have been very supportive of all of Konop's antics - providing plenty of slanted coverage for his ideas while rarely (if ever) covering the failure of many of them. Rumor has it that the Republican and Democratic Party Chairmen were told by the publisher not to run anyone against Konop. I'll emphasize that this is a rumor, but certainly a believable one considering the perception many people have of the publisher and his penchant for wanting to direct elections in Lucas County.

What this all means, though, is that we'll have an interesting time leading up to the May primary and then the November election.

Stay tuned!