Strange bedfellows, indeed

Democratic Fayette County commissioners Vince Vicites and Vince Zapotosky are running as a team, using the slogan that they are “getting things done.” Here in the patch, everyone at the fire hall figures this is because it would hard for Vicites to again trot out his “moving Fayette forward” theme since, well, someone might actually ask what he’s been moving forward.
It wouldn’t be the unemployment rate, which remains among the region’s worst. It wouldn’t be stemming the loss of population, since census numbers show that in the last decade Fayette County lost more residents than all but one county (Allegheny) in the state of Pennsylvania. And it sure wouldn’t be improving the overall health of the county residents who remain, as a recent national study out of the University of Wisconsin
pegged Fayette at 63^rd of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in that area.

Here’s what Vicites said in the Herald-Standard on March 6: “Commissioner Zapotosky and I are getting things done, and we are focused on helping the county. The county has been experiencing significant progress …” Vicites then went on to state that in the last four years, the current administration helped secure $75 million in state and federal funding, including funds for a new Masontown Bridge.
Does anyone really think that the funds for a new Masontown Bridge, which will be built with state dollars due to the hard work of state representatives and senators, only materialized because the Vinces played a key role? Someone in the media, please call state Sens. Rich Kasunic and Barry Stout, or state Reps. Tim Mahoney or Bill DeWeese, and ask them if that is the case. We at the fire hall can just imagine former Gov. Ed Rendell saying for the record, “You know, Rich and Barry and Tim and Bill really, really wanted that new bridge. But I was waffling until the Vinces called. By God, when they weighed in, that pushed me over the top.”
Actually, if you stripped out any project dealing with state or federal dollars that some other elected official really obtained, the biggest things Vicites and Zapotosky have “gotten done” on their own volition are give tax collectors a pay hike and also raise their own pay nearly 20 percent over six years, in the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression. Oh, and they also removed Beverly Beal from the Fayette County Housing Authority board of directors, making sure the last vocal watchdog was banished from that public agency.
That’s a nice little list of things to have gotten done.

In the same news story, Zapotosky is quoted as saying of his running mate Vicites, “It has been great to work with somebody who shares a positive vision.”
Luckily for us, the bartender at the fire hall kept an old copy of the Connellsville Daily Courier from May 14, 2007. That’s back when Zapotosky was teamed up with former Democratic commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh, and they were united in an effort to oust Vicites from office after three terms.
The Courier story was about whether negative campaign really works, and it mentioned that the Zapotosky-Cavanagh ad campaign zeroed in on Vicites’ record, including calling Vicites a “self-serving politician” and asking, “Can we afford to have Vicites serving as our commissioner another four years?”
Here’s what Zapotosky said about Vicites in that news story from four years ago: “We’re trying to show the voters of Fayette County that 12 years of Vicites is enough.”
Some of us here at the fire hall have heard about that new math and all, but none of us can figure out why Zapotosky thought that 12 years of Vicites was enough, but now he wants to help Vicites get 20 consecutive years in office, and that’s fine and dandy.

Most everyone in the patch knows what really happened in the Democratic primary in 2007. Most of Cavanagh’s supporters also voted for Zapotosky, but Zapotosky’s supporters did not do so in return. Because of this, Zapotosky wound up with the most votes, followed by Vicites and then Cavanagh. But without Cavanagh’s base, Zapotosky would have finished second or more likely third, well behind Vicites and probably Cavanagh.
And just how did Zapotosky reward Cavanagh for agreeing to become his running mate in 2007, and for spending his $100,000 war chest in a joint campaign effort that greatly aided Zapotosky?
Here is how: When Cavanagh submitted his name to the county commissioners as a candidate for the Fayette County Housing Authority board of directors, a nonpaying position for which Cavanagh, who grew up in public housing, was eminently qualified, Zapotosky said he had already committed his vote to someone else.
Wonderful fella, that Zapotosky.