Category: default || By jt3y

OK, because I bolloxed up the McKeesport Area School District race earlier today (the screwed up info has since been deleted), here's the correct information, courtesy the Allegheny County Division of Elections: The Democratic nominees are Wayne Washowich, Lori Spando, Dave Donato and Barbara Stevenson, while the Republican nominees are Donato, Stevenson, Spando and Washowich. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

All of the winners are incumbents. Aye, but here's the rub, according to Pat Cloonan in the News: The terms of two of the people running (Donato and Spando) weren't going to expire until 2007, but they ran anyway. In the process, they bumped two other school directors whose terms were going to expire (Harry Stratigos and Gerry Tedesco) off of the November ballot.

This is either fiendishly evil or devilishly clever. I'm not sure which yet, but I suspect it depends on whose side you were rooting for. (I don't live in the district, so I don't have a dog in the fight.) I do know that it offends my own sense of fair play, even if it's legal, and I'm sorry I missed the earlier coverage of this loophole; Cloonan writes that state Rep. Marc Gergely has introduced legislation to prevent this from happening again.

As best as I can figure, this also means that come December, the McKeesport Area school board is going to have two technically vacant seats --- the current terms of Donato and Spando. That means the seven remaining board members will have to appoint two directors to fill the remaining two years on their terms. I suspect this will set off a lovely round of political hair-pulling.

I don't understand people who say they don't care about local politics. Hell, watching local politics is more fun than cable TV, and it's free!

Well, OK, it's not free if you count the tax money you pay to subsidize this lunacy, but you get my point.