by Eric Marotta

News Leader Editor

Akron -- It only took a few minutes of counting for the result to become obvious, as Stow Law Director Joseph Haefner repeated Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff's name over and over.

AArshinkoff was elected April 30 to the position of chairman of the Summit County Republican Party Central Committee. Of about 470 total members of the committee -- which staffs polling places and recruits electoral candidates and generally promotes the political party -- 378 showed up at the group's organizational meeting at Tangier Restaurant in Akron.

In the end, the initial vote, tallied by representatives of the party's two competing factions, showed Arshinkoff had a 260-115 majority.

The minority faction challenging Arshinkoff, the New Summit County Republicans, was organized by State Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls) and some allies. Its stated goal was to oust Arshinkoff, whom they alleged was ineffective, as well as to give more power to the party's central committee, open party finances to public scrutiny and push harder to elect Republicans to local offices.

"Now is the time for all good Republicans to pull together ... There are some personal things, but our mission here is to defeat Democrats," Arshinkoff said later that evening.

Late last year, Coughlin claimed his group had more than 300 supporters. He did not offer a precise figure after the March primary, where central committee members were elected to their two-year terms.

Arshinkoff claims majority

Both sides agreed it was apparent that turnout would be key to success at the April 30 meeting, where members were packed so tightly into the meeting room that party leaders decided it would be too inconvenient to ask the crowd to stand for the opening invocation.

In a surprise move, Arshinkoff's allies nominated him for election as central committee chairman.

The New Republicans had hoped to put Cuyahoga Falls Councilwoman Carol Klinger into Arshinkoff's seat. But that challenge wasn't expected to come until after their hoped-for majority elected central committee officers, voted on new party bylaws and picked its own slate of members for the party's executive committee, which has retained Arshinkoff as party chairman for the past 30 years.

Coughlin and Attorney Donald Varian, who the New Democrats picked to challenge Arshinkoff, objected to Arshinkoff's nomination on the grounds the party chairman is not an elected committee member.

They were overruled by State Sen. Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland), who served as the party's legal adviser for the proceedings.

According to Grendell, the central committee can elect whomever it wants as chairman, as neither state law nor the party's bylaws state otherwise.

Arshinkoff said he can remain party chairman as head of either the central, or executive committee, which is the group that has conducts most general party business.

That business includes maintaining party headquarters, executing contracts and hiring the party's chief executive and setting his salary. At the executive committee's last organizational meeting in 2006, Arshinkoff's salary was set at $6,000 per month.

'Not a debating society'

Arshinkoff's majority held after the initial secret ballot, as the committee then voted with shows of hands. After some attempts by the New Republicans to push its agenda, the committee overwhelmingly voted to accept Arshinkoff's slate of candidates for the executive committee, as well as a new set of bylaws proposed by Arshinkoff.

Arshinkoff and his allies did concede to negotiating amendments to the bylaws, with both sides acknowledging that some of their competing sets of rules were slanted to give their own side an advantage.

The amendments are to be brought to the central committee for approval some time before the November election.

"I give my pledge," Arshinkoff said, later adding he has been close to many members of the other side and hoped to work with them again.

"We're not a debating society, we're a vehicle to keep the two-party system alive," Arshinkoff later told the press.

In a statement released May 1, Klinger thanked her supporters and said she was "generally pleased with our showing."

She vowed to continue to "make the case for fresh new leadership."

"A significant block of committee members are in place who want to take our party into the future with new leadership," Klinger stated. "We will build on this success as we continue our effort. This campaign to change the party leadership started with nothing. We enter the next round with much more."

E-mail: emarotta@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3171