The Florida Yankees

The Lackawanna County election has been finally decided and King Bob Cordaro has been dethroned. Cordaro and his running mate Brian Cashman got clobbered by the Democrats but are alleging some monkey business with the vote count. The official vote count is underway just in case the voters got it wrong on Tuesday but the ballots from Tuesday haven't all been counted yet.

The newfangled and expensive electronic voting machines were deemed unreliable by the state so 2 foot long paper ballots were used. They were all supposed to be fed into a scanner that should tabulate the results quickly but many of the absentee ballots wouldn't scan so a hand count ala Florida 2000 had to be employed. Three days after the election Lackawanna County has been compared to a Banana Republic.

The Lu Lac Political Letter has a breakdown of the dynamics of the race. To add to David's analysis I would say that the off the ballot/on the ballot adventure of Cordaro because of his incomplete financial disclosure and refusal to release his tax returns played a part.

And today he drops this bomb:

Cordaro claims deal on stadium

Why do we want to build a new stadium to replace a building that is only 20 years old? He claimed he has financial backing from the state but State Sen. Robert Mellow said he is blowing hot air. Some choice Mellow quotes:

Mellow said he hasn’t interacted with Cordaro in months and finds Cordaro’s comments “very offensive.

“He put us in a situation to have to build a stadium to keep a team,” Mellow said, describing Cordaro as “pathological.”

The franchise agreement approved by Cordaro includes a purchase option, which means the franchise could be sold and the area would lose its claim to house a Triple-A team.