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Sunday, March 16, 2003 Page: 3A
The odds have been calculated. The field has been set. The supporters are
lining up at the rail.
They’re off. And the mud is flying, as another exciting season filled with
down-to-the-wire races gets under way.
I’m not referring to the harness racing season at Pocono Downs, which began
Saturday night and continues through Oct. 19.
This is something that lasts even longer, gets even dirtier and involves
much greater stakes than any old horse race.
It’s a good-old fashioned mud-slinging election, conducted Luzerne County
style.
About 600 candidates have mounted campaigns for dozens of municipal and
county government seats up for grabs this November. The final fields will be
set in the May 20 primaries.
Already, stories of spies and double agents, as well as allegations of
private detectives dogging a candidate, have surfaced.
Cries of party betrayal and negative campaigning have echoed in the
hallways of municipal buildings and the county courthouse. And the primary
election is still two months away.
It will get worse.
Campaign signs will be stolen. Government meetings will turn into candidate
forums. Thousands of dollars will be solicited and spent as some candidates
sell their souls for contributions, and try to buy an election. Even those
promising positive campaigns are likely to fire back when fired upon.
Some of the early intrigue seems to have been choreographed.
Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom McGroarty managed to milk a lot of media coverage
out of putting his name on the ballot by waiting until the final hours to
announce his campaign, and the final minutes to file his nominating petitions
Tuesday.
It was great acting, in an election that already has plenty of star power.
Former Miss Pa., ex-jocks ready
A former Miss Pennsylvania, Linda O’Boyle Zaneski, thinks she has a talent
for politics, and has no intention of being First Runner-up in her bid for a
seat on Edwardsville Borough Council.
And a former Golden Gloves boxing champion – Jack “Irish Jackie” Smith –
has answered the bell, and hopes to score a surprise knockout over McGroarty
and City Council President Tom Leighton in the Democratic primary election for
Mayor of Wilkes-Barre.
There’s also a former professional football player running for a Luzerne
County commissioner seat.
Greg Skrepenak, a 6-foot-8 Democrat, threw his 300-plus pounds around for
years as an offensive lineman in the NFL. Now he thinks he’s got what it takes
to run with the big boys.
So do nine other hopefuls in a crowded Luzerne County Commissioner Derby
field. It’s a wide-open race after incumbent commissioners Tom Makowski and
Tom Pizano came up lame, and limped off to the political glue factory. It’s
going to be interesting.
I’ve yet to handicap the fields, but I have picked a favorite in a Foster
Township Supervisors race.
His name is Fury Giovannucci. I’ve never met him. But if anyone has what it
takes to win an election in Luzerne County, it’s a guy named Fury.
Call Jones at 829-7215 or e-mail caseyj@leader.net.