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Tallmadge politician switches partiesMay 03, 2010 (The Akron Beacon Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Voters in Tallmadge's 3-A precinct will see City Council President Jack Sarver's name on their ballots today as their only choice for the Democratic Party's central committee. The only problem is Sarver is now officially a Republican. Sarver -- an 11-year veteran council member and acting mayor for the city of 16,000 during most of April -- announced Monday that he was switching parties. Echoing President Ronald Reagan's famous explanation for becoming a Republican in 1962, Sarver said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me." Sarver said that if he is elected today to the Democratic central committee, he will resign the post. "I didn't think it was appropriate to resign [Monday] because I haven't been elected yet," Sarver said. "But tomorrow or the next day, I'll call down there and say, 'Hey, how do I get out of this?' " Sarver became the acting mayor on April 2 when Christopher Grimm, resigned to become chief deputy of Stow Municipal Court. Sarver declined keeping the job after determining he didn't have as much support from the community as he wanted. After making his announcement, Sarver said, he received lots of encouragement, but by then, another candidate had emerged, Service Director Dave Kline. The Tallmadge Democratic precinct committee on Thursday selected Kline to be mayor and the Democrats' candidate on the November ballot to complete Grimm's term through 2011. Grimm's resignation came too late for the office to appear on the ballot in today's primary election. Tallmadge Republicans have not yet selected their candidate for the November election, but Sarver said he was not recruited to run for mayor as a Republican. "I am not actively seeking the nomination to be the Republican candidate," Sarver said. "That's not the reason I changed and I am not interested." He said there are many qualified Republicans who could run for mayor. "I am not bold enough to think that I can switch parties and all of a sudden be the leading candidate," Sarver said. Summit County GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff said Sarver is a welcome addition. "We're happy that Jack has become a Republican and now that he is a Republican, we'll be looking at him and whoever else is interested in running for mayor," Arshinkoff said. "The central committee in Tallmadge will have to choose its candidate for mayor just as the Democrats did." Sarver, the retired chief executive of TeleCommunity Credit Union, said he'd been thinking about the switch for a few years. "I can no longer support such a party or its so-called leaders, who pile up mind-numbing deficits and find new excuses to tax any Ohioan or American lucky enough to still have a job," he wrote in a news release. Summit County Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Jones said Sarver was not recruited to run for the Democratic central committee. "He wasn't very active in the Democratic Party anyway," Jones said. "The only thing he did was vote in the Democratic primary. That was his activity as a Democrat." Sarver said he helped Tallmadge Democrats in their elections and sponsored a table at an annual Democratic Party fund-raiser. But Sarver said he isn't surprised by Jones' comments. "I was told that before and I expected that kind of response and that's part of the reason I'm leaving that party," he said. John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or [email protected]. Read the education blog at http://education.ohio.com/. To see more of the Akron Beacon Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ohio.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |