CANTON: In a historic move, the Stark County Democratic Party picked a Republican to fill a vacancy in an elected office.An overwhelming majority of 119 precinct committee members meeting Monday voted to leave Alexander Zumbar in office as county treasurer.County commissioners had appointed him interim treasurer on Oct. 19 after Democrat Gary Zeigler resigned. Zumbar had won the office in the November 2010 election, but was forced out when the Ohio Supreme Court reinstated Zeigler. Zeigler had been removed by a previous board of commissioners over thefts by a deputy treasurer.Although some spoke in favor of appointing a Democrat to the office, most followed the opinion of Carolyn Crites of Alliance.She said the treasurer’s office needed stability and that Zumbar had been mistreated.“We’re going to look like political hacks if we take him out now,” Crites said.Jan Schwartz of Hills and Dales compared the county to a crime victim who needs time to heal.The revolving door in the treasurer’s office started spinning in the wake of the loss of $3 million under Zeigler’s tenure.“We have a deep wound in our county right now,” Schwartz said.David Fischer of Jackson Township implied that bumping Zumbar could jeopardize chances for voters to approve a 0.5 percent sales tax for county operations on the Nov. 8 ballot.“We have a sales tax, folks, that has to pass or good Democrats are going to be on the streets,” Fischer said.Canton City Council President Allen Schulman and Jim Shannon, a retired sheriff’s department captain, said the party should appoint a Democrat.Shannon said picking a Republican is like saying, “We don’t have anybody.”Party Chairman Randy Gonzalez recommended the committeemen select Zumbar, noting the damage done to citizens’ faith in government by the scandal in the treasurer’s office.“The last thing I want to do is sign a paper appointing a Republican for anything,” he said.