My View
By Don Sorchych | May 27, 2009
Election Pre-Postmortem
Cave Creek
Surprise, Creekers! While Jim Bruce won comfortably with 721 votes, Thomas McGuire and Adam Trenk are tied at 660 votes each in last week’s runoff election for Cave Creek Council. We are told a recount will be required and, if still tied, the result shall be “determined by lot” in the presence of the candidates.
I have asked the public whether they would allow the election to be bought and this result partially answers the question. Based on Trenk’s age, lack of local knowledge, a huge war chest, a sea of signs, strong connections to the Dark Side, automated phone messages to voters, six color flyers in postal boxes and a controversial family, he should have been buried, yet he is in a runoff of sorts. Add to all that Trenk’s expensive public record request of the town, which stupidly suggested the town and election department were in some kind of conspiracy, which is about as likely as a meteor hit in your chimney.
The question of why anyone would collect over $17,381 in donations to become a Cave Creek Councilman has never been answered. Don’t tell me about good citizenship and all that. It is clear he thought, as others have, that it would be a cakewalk to win here.
Then what? If Trenk is foolish enough to run for mayor against Vincent Francia, he is doomed and will have to move to the state legislature or try Congress. Washington is where he wants to be.
For those who think we picked on Trenk, we vetted all the candidates. No candidate had family connections involved in the array of legal issues this New Jersey family has.
A local business couple told me Trenk sat at their table at the Tea Party at Harold’s and said he was ‘effing’ everything. When asked who he was swearing about they said his opponents and others.
It is alleged he called a Cave Creek councilman “an ignorant redneck.”
My wife and I went to town hall at about 8:20 p.m. on election night to view the results. We chatted with Reg Monachino outside the town hall lobby. Trenk’s father walked out with a cell phone on his ear and went around the corner. Trenk came out with another man who stood next to me. I turned to my wife and said let’s go inside. As I turned back and took a step the tall guy drove an elbow into my side. I asked if he had a problem and he asked if I did. I said, “Yes, I have a problem when someone elbows me.” Trenk quickly said, “You ran into him.” I said, “That is what I would expect from a New Jerseyite.” Trenk could not see what happened from where he stood. My wife said the assailant raised his arms and when I turned to walk past him he dropped both arms sharply.
It was assault pure and simple and is being investigated.
On Thursday of last week when we received the final election information Linda Bentley received a call. “Hey Linda how ya doin?’ She answered, “Fine.” “So, you’re doin’ good?” said the eastern accented voice. “Who is this?” asked Linda. Click.
We are not being overly dramatic; it was an intimidating call and totally out of the ordinary.
Carefree
In Carefree, Peter Koteas hit a home run with 863 votes. David Schwan got 552 votes, Bob Gemmill, 528 and Kiwanis President-elect Susan Vanik, 509, beating John Traynor, a write-in candidate who received 498 votes, by only 11 votes. Jim Peirce, as a write-in, received 298 votes.
Proposition 404 to directly elect the mayor was a landslide victory with 764 (73 percent) yes votes and 279 (27 percent) no votes. This was a clear public spanking for town officials that clubbed Bob Coady for authoring the initiative. It was a sure step ahead to stop the Good
Old Boys (GOBs) in their tracks. The 2011 election will be interesting.
But the GOBs aren’t through. Kiwanis Director Michael Herrod, an attorney, is threatening Coady about the bank account used for recycling. Linda Bentley and I looked over Coady’s account and found it was fine.
The amounts concerned are insignificant anyway and Herrod won’t return my calls. His threats may have earned him a bar complaint.
Now who ambushed Coady again? None other than the soon to be past mayor, who resigned rather than allow the inevitable, a very public defeat by Carefree voters. Same subject, different player, recycling.
We are speaking of course of the very small Mayor Wayne Fulcher.
Fulcher filed complaints with the Attorney General and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office about Coady’s recycling account. How petty can Fulcher get? He has been petty his entire political career as was his predecessor, Petty Fast Eddie Morgan.
This is how a councilman is treated after nine years of building a first class recycling program? Herrod and Fulcher are to be commended for assuring future council members do nothing, which is what most do now.
I just had a flashback. Months ago, would be king maker and PAC leader Hugh Stevens was overheard haranguing Vice Mayor Lloyd Meyer at Kiwanis, by insisting Meyer lead the effort to remove Coady from recycling, saying recycling was the secret to Coady’s popularity.
Meyer didn’t say no nor did he say that would be inappropriate (especially at Kiwanis). He listened.
The council had already appointed Councilman Glenn Miller as a “babysitter” of Coady’s one-person, highly commended and popular recycling program. After Petty Fast Eddy left office, he suggested the council “look into recycling.”
To his credit Miller did not intrude, accepted Coady’s leadership and pitched in. Maybe that is why the public put Miller back into office during the primary election.
You can read the details of Fulcher’s letters to authorities in Linda Bentley’s article this week. But suffice to say, it is a warmed over version of Kiwanis Director Herrod’s witch hunt.
Now there appears to be a discrepancy in COINS’ version of total write-in votes.
Maricopa County Elections shows there were 819 write in votes, which is 23 more than Traynor and Peirce combined.
However, there could very well have been 23 write-in votes cast for people who were not valid write-in candidates.
I hear John Traynor will demand a recount. I hope he does.