Arshinkoff get hits with jab .. after last week's cross

Mark the day February 29th on your political history calendar. Leap day is one thing .. but Alex Arshinkoff will be remembering this date for another reason altogether.

After the Secretary of State failed to renew AA to the Summit County Board of Elections -- a role he's held for 30 years -- AA had just a week's time to come up with a suggested replacement no later than today. AA and the GOP leadership recommended Brian Daley but today learned that Brunner shot him down as well .. and with time running out, she chose her own replacement -- Donald Varian (pictured right).

Now .. there's NO way to say politics aren't at play here. If you read my blog from Monday night, you'll see that I was noting Varian's role in the "New Summit Republicans" so for Brunner -- a Democrat -- to suddenly choose Varian like he's some random elephant roaming the wild fails the common sense test.

State Senator Kevin Coughlin, whose been leading the NSR charge to oust AA from the party leadership, has already sent out a release tonight telling the press how pleased he is with Brunner's decision. Think Coughlin knew it was coming?

The Plain Dealer took a hard look at the political torpedoes Brunner's been firing in today's story, highlighting that AA wasn't the only GOP player crying "you sank my battleship."

With an election set for Tuesday, and central committee seats up for grabs, the entire GOP landscape seems like it's suffered an earthquake. I'm just not sure whose going to be left standing when the shaking stops.