The Black Mall Experience

I’m out of town today and was not planning to post until tomorrow, when I want to share some thoughts engendered by the local Democrats’ recent judicial endorsement process.

But when the flier below arrived belatedly in my inbox, I wanted to pass it on.

We write a lot about local politics because of its importance in shaping our quality of life. But we firmly believe that developing supporting Cleveland’s black business and entrepreneurial community is of equal importance.

We share this notice in that spirit and encourage you to do the same. Copy this link and forward it to three friends.

Hopefully some of you will attend and let us know of your experience.

Kasich appoints new justice to succeed O'Neill

New Justice joins Ohio Supreme Court 

Mary DeGenaro, appointed as the 159th justice of the Ohio Supreme Court by Gov. John R. Kasich, was sworn in today by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor for a term beginning Sunday.

Justice-designate Mary DeGenaro

Justice-designate DeGenaro, who has served nearly 17 years as a judge on the Seventh District Court of Appeals in Youngstown, will begin serving on the Supreme Court on Jan. 28, filling the remainder of the term being vacated by the resignation, effective Friday, of Justice William M. O’Neill.

The appointed term ends Jan. 1, 2019. The seat is up for election this November for a full term beginning Jan. 2, 2019. Ohio Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms.

“I am mindful of, and humbled by, the responsibility you have given me on behalf of all the citizens of the state of Ohio,’’ Justice DeGenero, 56, told a statehouse news conference today with the governor. 

DeGenaro's appointment means that Ohio's highest court is now all-Republican. O'Neill, the only Democrat, is stepping down tomorrow to seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. His resignation will leave U. S. Senator Sherrod Brown as the sole Democrat elected to statewide office.

Effective next week, the Court will also be comprised of a majority of women.

DeGenaro began serving as a judge on the Seventh District Court of Appeals on Feb. 9, 2001. During her tenure, she sat by assignment with the Ohio Supreme Court and other appellate districts. Prior to her judgeship, she served on the Poland Village Council.

DeGenaro has served as an adjunct faculty member for the political science department at Youngstown State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. She received her law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where she interned with U.S. District Judge George White.

She currently is vice president of the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.

She was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1986.

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Political Consultant Jerry Austin in Beachwood tonight; Wyatt Tee Walker and Hugh Masakela leave us

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Renowned political consultant tells compelling tales

​I read Jerry Austin’s True Tales From The Campaign Trail: Stories Only Political Consultants Can Tell pretty much in one afternoon.

That wasn’t my expectation when I started in on it, but the stories have a crescendo effect. Each one made me want to read the next one. Since they average only a page or two, the book almost had a hypotic, slot-machine effect.

Political consultants appear to be a small self-selected group. They seem to enter the field through different doors but I suspect it’s the same few themes that draw them inside the hidden walls of campaigning.

One of the common traits of the best of them, it would seem, is a wry sense of humor. I wouldn’t call many of the stories Austin shares “funny”, but several have wrinkles that remind you of our common humanity.

In its heyday, Reader’s Digest magazine had a feature that I loved called “Life in These United States”. As I remember, the feature consisted of eight or so vignettes depicting incidents in the lives of a handful of folk with whom we millions of readers were sharing national borders.

Austin’s compilation of stories from his friends, colleagues and competitors evokes that feeling along a narrower trail. The cumulative effect is to give readers a sense of what it’s like to be inside a political contest, to appreciate the vagaries of candidates and campaigns alike.

Among the highlights of Austin’s career are directing Dick Celeste’s two successful Ohio gubernatorial campaigns and managing Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.

Austin will discuss his book and career at Beachwood Public Library tonight from 7PM-8:30PM. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. There are sure to be a number of political junkies in the audience.

Beachwood Library is a branch of the County Public Library located at 25501 Shaker Blvd.

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The following tribute is from a social media post by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

A MIGHTY OAK HAS FALLEN

The Reverend Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker

Civil Rights Icon • Prophet • Pastor • Scholar
Genius • Renaissance Man • Gentleman

Thank You for...

• Providing Leadership to SCLC under MLK

• Developing the Strategy for Birmingham in 1963

• Smuggling out of Dr. King’s cell the “Letter from The Birmingham Jail”

• Pressuring the World Council of Churches into taking a stand against Apartheid in S. Africa

• Showing us the African Roots of Black Sacred Music and Sounds

• Picking up the mantle from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the Prophet of Harlem for all those years at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ

• AND SO MUCH MORE...May You Now Find Rest

Wyatt Tee Walker was a key strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, a confidant of Martin Luther King, and a leading pastor and civic leader in Harlem. He died yesterday in Virginia at 88.

The following is from the New York Times article reporting his death:

In 1989, speaking from the pulpit of Riverside Church in Manhattan to celebrate Dr. King’s 60th birthday, he said that the establishment of a national holiday to honor King had “seduced us into becoming too comfortable.”

He added, “It is insufficient for us to come together on his birthday, sometimes in an artificial way, white and black together, and sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ and hold hands and get a warm feeling and then go back to business as usual in white racist America.”

We recommend your reading the entire article. We also commend this resource on Dr. Walker.

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The great jazz trumpeter Hugh Masakela also died yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 78. His death and life were reported here (NPR) and here (NYT).

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CPT • Fudge directs pushy gavel to get — at most — a costly endorsement wash

 Cuyahoga Politics Today

Fudge involvement in judicial endorsement process likely to carry stiff price for dubious gain

The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee met this past Saturday at Euclid High School amid high drama and intrigue.

Let’s say a couple of things right up front. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge imposed her will to secure a victory at the meeting, albeit a short term, narrow and costly one. She got one of her endorsed candidates, Andrea Nelson Moore, endorsed by the party leaders, an unlikely outcome but for Fudge’s intervention.

As we have been discussing here, here, here and here this past week, Democrats have a poor track record when it comes to supporting qualified candidates of color for office in majority white districts. It is highly unlikely that the Congresswoman’s heavy hand is going to impact that dismal record favorably. In fact, in the short term, she may have made it worse.

Here’s why.

Of the handful of black and Hispanic candidates seeking judgeships in one of the coveted “open” slots (i.e., no incumbent in the race), those who theoretically started with the best chance were Moore and Deborah Turner, each a familiar ballot names. But from the beginning the African American candidate with the inside track has been Karrie Howard, the ex-Marine and former federal prosecutor.

Howard started earliest, has worked the hardest and smartest, been the most strategic, and would seem to have the most money, in part because he hasn’t run recent exhaustive races, as have Turner and Moore. From the evidence he seems also to have been the only African American candidate who worked countywide. As a result, even after the scorched earth tactic Fudge put in place the night before, Howard fell only a couple of voters shy of securing the party endorsement. In that sense, he was a Fudge casualty, deprived of a significant advantage he had labored to win for more than a year.

But what is potentially worse for the community is that Howard’s campaign could now attract new opponents drawn by the turmoil that Fudge has created. Absent her involvement, the black community was going to have at least one endorsed Democratic judicial candidate – Howard – for an open seat. With her intrusion, there is still one – Moore – who may pay a price in the primary for the bare-knuckle way it was achieved.

Moreover, the Fudge camp cannot have endeared itself to the collateral damage suffered by incumbent State Sen. Kenny Yuko, D-25 and judicial candidate Emily Hagan, each of whom failed to garner what would normally have been a routine endorsement, but for the overt racial pall the Congresswoman introduced into the proceedings.

Democrats nationally have a lot to sort out as their separate wings do battle in the wake of what would seem to both interparty and intra-party realignment in this fluid political turmoil. Republicans are doing the same thing internally as they grapple with whether Republicanism going forward will mean only white nationalism.

The judicial endorsements were not the only ones of consequence at the recent Dems. In addition to the Yuko race, notable results included Marty Sweeney’s eyebrow-raising lopsided victory over Nickie Antonio in a battle of state reps looking to be the Dem nominee for State Senate in District 23; Lakewood councilman Tom Bullock handily defeated former State Rep. Mike Skindell in their endorsement battle over in District 13.

State Sen. Sandra Williams, D-21 easily bested the Fudge-supported challenge of former Cleveland councilman Jeff Johnson.

Also coming away with endorsements in contested primaries were state rep. hopefuls Terrence Upchurch [District 10] and Juanita Brent [District 12].

We leave for a future post the comments of party chair Brown, who decried the “broken” judicial endorsement process. You can see a portion of her statement here.

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Single Payer Healthcare

US Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is leading a town hall meeting tonight on Medicare for All. The program is expected to look at the: 1. current state of health care in the US; 2. possible economic impacts of single-payer system; and, 3. how universal health care works in other countries.

The event will be live-streamed by a number of online outlets, including NowThis, ATTN, and The Young Turks, in addition to Sanders’ own social media accounts.

The town hall is set to run from 7-8:30PM tonight.

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#MeTOO

Laverne Gore and Jack Boyle co-host one of the few local talk shows that we know about that seek to discuss important public issues. Tonight, their “Race Relations in America” program will discuss the #MeToo movement.

The program airs Tuesdays from 6-7PM on WERE/1490 AM.

We have not yet had a chance to listen to this show but we’d love to know what its listeners think of it. Also, if there are other locally-produced substantive programs out there dealing with the intersection of race, class, and/or culture issues, let us know at rta AT theRealDealPress.com.

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