Different Vince, same result

Fayette County voters may have dispensed with long-time incumbent county commissioner Vince Vicites on Tuesday, in favor of newcomer Al Ambrosini, but the Vicites tradition is likely to live on in the person of Vince Zapotosky.

It was a three-man primary with two winners, so it was a foregone conclusion that unless voters fell for the "getting things done" slogan, one of the Vicites-Zapotosky tandem was going to wave bye-bye to elected office.

Anyone hoping for a compete U-turn from the past is unlikely to see it if Zapotosky wins a spot in the fall. Part of the reason that Zapotosky and Vicites were able to forge such a close bond is that they are so much alike, especially when it comes to political governance and opportunism.

Take a trip down memory lane to the last county commissioner election, in 2007. Zapotosky had no qualms about forging a "team" with former commissioner Sean Cavanagh, who had been Vicites' arch-nemesis for the eight years they simultaneously served in office. Zapotosky said some pretty nasty things about Vicites, but when the dust settled, and after Zapotosky had won election using a pile of Cavanagh's campaign cash, a strange thing happened.

Zapotosky and Vicites became pals and allies. Here in the patch, we play by a different set of rules. Someone says something nasty about you, you don't forget or tolerate that. You sure don't consider that person a friend.

So why would Zapotosky, the trasher, want to be friends with Vicites, a guy that he obviously had a low opinion of? And why would Vicites, the trashee, even want to be friends with Zapotosky, who had bad-mouthed Vicites and just been allies with Vicites' top political foe, Cavanagh? The answer goes back to our theory that they easily could do so because they are so much alike.

They both make decisions based on their own political well-being and influence (cross reference their board appointees and campaign contributors, and you'll see what we mean). They both take credit for work done by someone else (state and federal legislators really provide the money for nearly all projects). They both have no problem in using others to accomplish their goals, then unceremoniously casting them aside (Cavanagh and one-time Vicites strategist Martin Griglak immediately come to mind).

Their philosophical kinship is perhaps best evident in the fact that they are both products of old-school Fayette County Democratic machine politics. In real-life political science, they have attended the same classes, shared instructors and graduated with the same degree. As a result, they approach elected office with the same world view, a view that has unfortunately governed Fayette County for at least the past 40 years.

Now that Vicites is leaving power, watch the bulk of his supporters and campaign contributors gravitate to Zapotosky, even though there was noticeable overlap already. Expect some of them to reach out to Ambrosini, as well, in hopes of influencing him to make decisions in their best interest. We'll be watching to see if Ambrosini takes that bait, but we're hopeful he won't.

If Fayette County is ever going to move ahead, for all its citizens and not just a few, it needs to move away from the type of politics that Zapotosky represents.