by Eric Marotta
News Leader Editor
Akron -- The battle for control of the Summit County Republican Party now involves the state's highest court.
Ohio District 27 Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls) who is leading an attempt to unseat party chairman Alex Arshinkoff and institute a number of reforms, filed a legal complaint Jan. 18 with the Ohio Supreme Court asking members to certify candidates whose petitions Coughlin said he feels were wrongly invalidated by the Summit County Board of Elections.
On Jan. 15, the Board of Elections disqualified 18 petitions of individuals seeking election to the party's central committee and Coughlin challenged petitions filed by 64 other individuals. The Board of Elections had set a Jan. 22 hearing to review petitions that remained uncertified after the Jan. 15 meeting; results of that hearing were not available at press time.
According to a letter Coughlin filed with the Board of Elections, most of the 64 petitions Coughlin claims are invalid did not contain the necessary five valid signatures.
At stake is majority control of the county Republican Party's central committee -- whose approximately 470 seats are up for election March 4.
Arshinkoff did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Coughlin said more than 300 party members are committed to the New Republican cause. About 170 of them are in contested races, while the remainder are in uncontested contests for seats on the central committee.
Typically, central committee positions, which are often left unfilled, perform few functions other than appointing poll workers to staff voting booths in their precincts. Coughlin said his group plans to attain a majority in the central committee, adopt new party bylaws and oust Arshinkoff, who has been in office since 1978.
Coughlin's group alleges Arshinkoff has failed to effectively challenge Democrats in recent elections and accuses him of living an "opulent lifestyle" at the party's expense, among other allegations.
Coughlin is also challenging the petition filed for a seat on the state central committee by Elections Board Chairman Bryan C. Williams. Coughlin alleges many of the signatories on Williams' petition are Elections Board employees who signed during regular business hours.
Williams, who was in a conference in Columbus, could not be reached for comment.
Coughlin has requested video recordings taken during business hours from all surveillance cameras located in the Board of Elections building for Dec. 20, 21 and 22, 2007.
Editor's note: Regional Editor Mark Potter contributed to this story.
E-mail: emarotta@recordpub.com
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