Gov. Taft's coucilman cousin a loser too (won coin flip,loses recount)

[Algorem]

Recount zaps out Gov. Taft's cousin

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1134121335194271.xml&coll=2

Friday, December 09, 2005

...Another recount may be necessary.

"We speculate this is a chad issue," Jane Platten, spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said in explaining why the new vote total may be different from the original.

She said it is possible that a ballot had a hanging chad - the tiny dabs of cardboard made infamous by the 2000 Florida presidential recount...

Taft, a second cousin to Gov. Bob Taft, said: "I was stunned. I don't believe the recount. It didn't work."


Coin flip settles tie in Pepper Pike council race

Thursday, December 01, 2005

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/ispol/1133457380181730.xml?ispol&coll=2

...Taft had won two previous elections by comfortable margins.

Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, a Fred Taft friend and politi cal ally who witnessed the coin flip, said the councilman's support may have eroded because of his family ties to the governor, whose popularity has plummeted in recent months - in part after a coin investment scandal.

"I don't think is warranted, but I think it is obvious," Akers said. The mayor called Taft to notify him of the coin flip victory and joked, "I can't call you Landslide Taft anymore."

Councilman Taft said in a telephone interview he is not sure why his political stock has tumbled but that he doubts it is be cause of the governor...