Cuyahoga County Democratic Party losing executive director

Cuyahoga County Democratic Party executive director Ryan Puente has stepped down after two and a half years on the job. 

Puente, who announced the move simultaneously via Twitter and Facebook, says that he is leaving "to pursue another opportunity".

With a number of high profile races on tap for 2021, including the Cleveland mayoral race and a likely Congressional race, the timing and vagueness of Puente's statement on social media is sure to fan speculation about his next move.

There have been rumblings Puente will soon sign on to run a campaign. More than one person has linked him to political newcomer Justin Bibb, who made a splash recently with the announcement his committee had banked to close $180,000 in less than three months for a likely run for Cleveland mayor. 

It is hard to imagine better preparation to run a mayoral campaign than Puente has acquired over the past few years as the go-to person for virtually every Party activity. He has worked closely with both party officials and rank and file, earning kudos from all corners for his dedication, knowledge, and professionalism. 

In a recent letter to Party members, Chairwoman Shontel Brown wrote, “Ryan has been outstanding in his role as Executive Director, I can’t begin to tell you how many positive comments I have received about Ryan and his commitment to the job. He is so very responsive to everyone, and he juggles so many things at once. He has credibility in the community which says a great deal about our organization.”

Cleveland city councilman Blaine Griffin, commenting on Puente's exit, described him as "one of the most talented people I've run across in the political arena."

Puente's exit comes at an especially critical time for the party. While he has been acclaimed as the high efficiency engine behind many of the organizing and campaign successes local Democrats have enjoyed recently, county and city Democrats have also been roundly criticized for low turnout, especially among Cleveland voters last month. Among those criticized for poor effort have been state party chair David Pepper, who has stepped down, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who was announced earlier this month as President-elect Joe Biden's choice to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Should Fudge be confirmed by the Senate, she would resign from Congress, leaving a vacancy to be filled in a special election around the same time as Cleveland's mayoral campaign will kick off.

Party chair Brown is among the announced candidates for Fudge's 11th District seat if and when it becomes open. Former state senator Nina Turner and former Cleveland councilman Jeff Johnson have also tossed their hats into the ring.

Given that the party's endorsement in the primary will be highly sought, questions of party leadership are sure to receive added scrutiny. Puente told The Real Deal Press that the short term plan will involve the Party's hiring a part time office manager until his replacement is found.

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CPT | Garfield Hts. councilman in half-black district makes race-baiting FB post I Emilia Sykes wins national award

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Sometimes you can’t tell the players even with a scorecard

By R. T. Andrews

Vulgarity, racism, and misogyny in politics didn’t begin with the beyond shameful man in the White House known as 45, and it won’t end with his departure.

Poor taste and limited self-expression are not the province of any one political party.

For proof, we offer the recent Facebook post, shown here, by Garfield Heights ward 2 city councilman Charles “Chuck” Donahue Jr. [Donahue appears to have removed after fellow councilman Mike Dudley Sr. unfriended him on the social media site.]

It’s unlikely that Donohue recognizes the extent to which his post reveals his antiquated lens on black people, women, and patriotism. Several people with whom we spoke say that Donahue has long spewed venomous posts on FB.

Garfield Heights councilman Charles Donahue

Once we chanced upon the post, we scrolled through other posts on Donahue’s page. If we didn’t know he was a Democrat, we’d place him in the GOP camp. He is clearly more aligned with Trump and Pence than with Pelosi, underscoring the reality that many Cuyahoga County Democrats, including numerous elected officials, would be Republicans if they lived elsewhere.

All politics is indeed local.

The abundance of Donahue-type Democrats in our county renders absurd any notion that the local party is a unified left-leaning political machine. The party is neither unified or leftish, and it is certainly no machine.

Donahue Democrats would likely be among the first to decry as “identity politics” the demands of women and minorities for seats at the table that have for so long been the exclusive preserve of white men. DDs are the reason that so many black people, who are anxious beyond measure to remove the nation’s racist-in-chief from the bully pulpit in the White House, back Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.

Demographic data for Garfield Hts. is not readily available by ward, but it appears that roughly 40-45% of Donahue’s constituents are African American. Donahue was recruited to run for the seat in 2019 by the suburb’s old guard when it appeared that Tenisha Mack, a black woman making her third run for the seat, would likely defeat incumbent Charles LaMalfa, who barely held her off in 2017.

LaMalfa, while stepping aside for Donahue, nonetheless ran several nasty ads against Mack, citing some indiscretions from 20 years ago that had her on the wrong side of the law.

Mack, who has a master’s degree in criminal justice, is finishing up her doctoral studies in criminal justice, lost to Donahue by 28 votes margin 2019, the identical margin of her 2017 defeat.

Garfield Heights is in the throes of reprising a familiar pattern in our hyper-segregated county. The process has unfolded in past decades in East Cleveland, Warrensville Heights, Bedford Heights and Maple Heights. In each of those communities, strong ethnic political machines held sway long after demographic changes would have supported a shift.

One suspects that the city’s longtime mayor, Vic Collova, would welcome more of a racial détente than presently seems to exist. This past February, for example, he was a proud participant in the city’s first ever municipal Black History observance, a tri-city event at the Garfield Heights Performing Arts Center co-hosted with Maple Heights and Bedford.

Collova gets good marks from black politicians. Mike Dudley, Sr., the city’s senior councilman who represents the city’s historically black neighborhoods, says he respects Collova, acknowledging that Collova operates within certain political constraints. County Councilman Pernel Jones calls Collova a “straight shooter”.

Garfield Heights remains a very white town in terms of its city administration, its police and fire departments, and all of the top positions in city government. It seems only a matter of time before there are some major breakthroughs. Last year, the school board gained a black majority for the first time in its history. When Shayla Davis won a council seat in November, it gave the city two black council members for the first time.

While some of the tension represents the natural flow of population and power, the transition is seldom smooth in Cuyahoga County where race is involved. Black people are too often received as immigrants from an alien culture, instead of as people just trying to improve their circumstances and secure a piece of the American dream.

And so, once again is heard the echo of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without demand.”

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Statehouse News

State Rep. Stephanie Howse announced Monday on Facebook that she has contracted coronavirus:

Stephanie Howse

Yesterday at 4:04 PM · 

Hey Beautiful People, wanted to let you know that it was just confirmed that I have tested positive for the coronavirus. My symptoms (cough, lost of taste and lost of smell) are pretty mild and prayerfully I will make a full recovery.

I’m in isolation right now in my bedroom, so I’m taking it easy and staying hydrated. Love y’all and I’ll keep you posted on my status #StephRonaLife #WearAMask

She posted video here.

Akron’s Emilia Sykes is EMILY's List 2020 Rising Star

State Representative Emilia Sykes, D-34, the Ohio House Minority Leader, is the 2020 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star, an award bestowed by EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest fund-raising resource for women in politics.

In a statement released along with the announcement, EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock called Sykes “a phenomenal legislator and champion for civil rights, … a leading voice on racial health disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic and [someone who] passionately calls out systemic oppression of the Black community. … We are proud to celebrate Emilia’s fearless leadership and we could not be more excited to see where her work takes her in the future.” 

Sykes grew up in Akron as the daughter of two elected officials. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kent State University and has both a law degree and a Master of Public Health from the University of Florida.

The Rising Star Award celebrates an extraordinary woman serving in state or local office. Previous honorees include former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams in 2014, then Boston City Councilwoman and now Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley in 2015, and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in 2018.

The award will be presented at the virtual We Are EMILY Conference on July 27th and will feature remarks by Giffords, a former congresswoman from Arizona.

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CPT • Brancatelli defenders reluctant to accept a new day is dawning

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Sour grapes campaign maligns judge and her supporters

Councilman’s defenders unwilling to accept “there’s a new sheriff in town”

By R. T. Andrews

Judge W. Moná Scott

Attorney W. Moná Scott’s defeat of incumbent housing court judge Ron O’Leary has not been well received in certain parts of our town. The reasons are worth looking at.

First, some facts.

Cleveland’s housing court, a special division of Cleveland Municipal Court, was established in 1980. It has jurisdiction over criminal cases involving violations of Cleveland’s housing, building, fire, zoning, health, waste collection, sidewalk and agricultural and air pollution codes. It also hears civil cases involving landlord and tenant disputes.

Arguably, it is the most powerful of Cleveland’s municipal court seats, not just because of its jurisdictional portfolio: it has also has about sixty employees, and the housing court judge has the power to hire and fire most of them.

The court’s activities have become more consequential since the Great Recession of 2008 and the formation of the County Land Bank in 2009.

When longtime housing court judge Ray Pianka died suddenly in early 2017, then-Gov. John Kasich, picked a fellow Republican, attorney Ron O’Leary, to replace him. At the time, O’Leary was director of the city’s building and housing department. In November 2017 he won a relatively short campaign to retain the seat for the balance of Pianka’s term, defeating Moná Scott in a three way race by less than 400 votes.

Scott challenged O’Leary again last year, this time defeating him in a two-way race for a full six-year term. It’s interesting to note that while Scott’s received 246 fewer votes in the second race, O’Leary’s vote total fell by 4,284. Scott won by a decisive 55.6% to 44.4% margin.

Let’s also remember that Scott’s credentials are at least on par with O’Leary’s. She is a former Cleveland fair housing administrator for Cleveland, and a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, with prior experience the prosecutor’s tax foreclosure division. Unlike either O’Leary or Pianka, she ascends the bench with actual trial court experience.

Cleveland is a majority black city, and most of the city’s municipal court judges are black. In fact ten of the 13 city municipal court judges are women, and nine of the judges are people of color [8 black, one Hispanic].

So what’s the fuss about?  

The complainants are publicly grousing through their media connections[1] that Scott won because voters ignored qualifications and blindly voted “D”, and that she then vindictively pursued a complaint against councilman Tony Brancatelli, a Democratic ally of the Republican O’Leary, based on long-established Democratic Party rules.

We’ve already addressed the qualifications issue; that is not substantial issue. We would add only that Scott reportedly spent part of her childhood living in public housing. That’s a credential that likely resonated with many city voters.

As to voters following the “D” in hypnotic fashion — a trope gratuitously pushed and hyperbolically extended in this Plain Dealer hit piece, obviously sole-sourced in the Brancatelli camp — let’s recognize that O’Leary only became a judge because he is an “R” and was able to extend his initial appointment tenure only by virtue of a short campaign in a three-way race he narrowly escaped with less than 40% of the vote.

We’ve not spoken with either candidate or their official representatives, although we have reached out to supporters on both sides.

What we do know is this:

First and foremost, Judge Scott is not a part of the old boy network. She is the first woman to serve as housing judge in the court’s 40 year history, and the second African American [the long forgotten Clarence Gaines was the first].

Second, Brancatelli knew his public support of O’Leary was in violation of Democratic Party rules that he, as a party official, has regularly taken an oath to uphold. Further, while he angelically denies being an active supporter of the O’Leary campaign, he delegated that role to at least one key member of his camp. His various stated reasons for supporting O’Leary in 2019 are suspect because he also actively supported O’Leary against Scott in 2017.

It is thus understandable that Scott pursued her intraparty complaint against Brancatelli; how else does one deter a repeat violator?

The Democrats’ Party Unity Review Committee [PURC], which reviews complaints of this type, is worthy of a separate discussion. Suffice to say here, Brancatelli openly and knowingly violated the rules, and is now recruiting megaphones to complain on his behalf.

That may be one of the reasons that even before his punishment was meted out by PURC, Brancatelli lost in his own ward caucus for the position of ward leader by a more progressive activist in his hard-scrabble community. When you can’t fend off a challenger on the home turf you’ve ruled for more than a decade, you likely should be looking for your next job.

We think the real reason Judge Scott’s name, temperament and qualifications are being tarnished is that she has disrupted the white boys club. It’s a stark statement but one supported by the evidence. It’s most obvious in the tone of Brancatelli defenders who think Scott couldn’t possibly be deserving of the position, though she checked every darn box, including the most important one: she got 55% of the vote.

Those on the losing side have argued, and their minions have echoed, that Scott somehow knew she was unqualified because she failed to participate in judge4yourself.com, the establishment blessed gauntlet for judicial candidates. That attack fails in the light of what is increasingly being acknowledged: the judge4yourself process contains some inherent biases that must be addressed before it is worthwhile for many black candidates to participate. As we reported this past week, other organizations have stepped up to initiate new judicial candidate vetting. We will report on their initial results tomorrow, assuming they adhere to their previously announced schedule.

Scott’s success has disrupted the cozy network established by the former regime. It’s what happens when seats change. Brancatelli wasn’t the first to be PURC-ed [party regulars pronounce it “perked”] for violating the rule and he shouldn’t be the last. Incidentally, black Democrats will face the same dilemma this fall when deciding whether to support the highly competent appellate judge Ray Headen notwithstanding his “R” credential.

Cleveland in many ways sits at a crossroads. All the signs say that change is coming. The results of this year’s Census will be a huge element. The voters’ decision whether to amend the city’s charter to reduce the size of council from 17 to nine is another immense choice point. And whether a challenger will arrive to convince the Mayor not to extend his administration to twenty years is another crossroads moment.

What will not help us progress is playing three-card monte with principles and rules, and then claiming foul when the card that comes up isn’t yours, and it’s your turn to — if not rise and fly — then at least open up the table to a new player.

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[1] The Neighborhood News, Brancatelli’s ethnic neighborhood newspaper, wrote a rare front page editorial decrying his modest punishment by the Party. It read, in this reader’s eyes, like a call to return to an era when black people knew their place.

Fudge fumbles again in local judicial endorsement process

Congresswoman's endorsements carrying less and less weight

Almost two years ago to the day, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge attempted an “ill-conceived and ineptly concealed private maneuver” to shape the outcome of the local Democratic Party judicial endorsement process. The botched effort to secure endorsements for two black women candidates, which we reported on here, brought to the surface the uneasy racial tensions that infects so much of local Democratic politics.

But if you thought the Congresswoman would be deterred from long distance interference, you were sadly mistaken. Last month she endorsed five candidates for county judgeships.

Despite there being several competent black women candidates, including two sitting municipal court judges, all five candidates Fudge chose to endorse are white.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge chairing hearing on
voting rights at Cuyahoga Community College
on April 25, 2019

Not a single one of the Congresswoman’s choices won the endorsement of the party’s Executive Committee.

What does this mean? For starters, it says that Fudge, who has represented Ohio’s storied 11^th District since 2008, wields astonishingly little influence within party ranks. Her choices gain little benefit from her announced support, and those who run against her candidates do so without political cost.

Our highest ranking elected official is essentially impotent when it comes to advancing our political interests.

This is a disastrous state of affairs for the black community. The political weakness of our Congressperson may not be apparent if one looks only at the election returns every two years. But after this year’s Census, Congressional districts will be expanded and redrawn, and there are lots of factors at play that could mean that the 11^th District seat may no longer continue as a safe preserve of black representation.

Signs of discontent are beginning to emerge within the District over the current state of affairs. The Cleveland NAACP recently joined forces with two political action groups to organize the Unified Endorsement/Ratings Process [UERP]. The three groups plan to vet candidates based on specific criteria of special import to the black community. Judicial candidates will be examined, for example, for their understanding of cultural competency, their appreciation of implicit bias, and their commitment to systemic reform.

The focus this year will be on judicial candidates, expanding over time to include legislative and executive races on local, county, state and national levels. The process launches this week with interviews scheduled for tonight and tomorrow from 5p-9p at the Harvard Community Center, 18240 Harvard Ave. [44128].

This initiative arose out of concerns that the judge4yourself.com process, while well-regarded, nonetheless had some flaws best addressed by this new process. A representative of GPAC, which is comprised largely of activists and clergy, and is a NAACP partner in the UERP process, says its work will complement, not displace, judge4yourself.

The third partner in this new effort, FIINPAC [Formerly Incarcerated Individuals Necessary Political Action Committee], has distinguished itself in years past with some productive voter registration efforts.

A unique feature of the UERP process is that while the NAACP will limit itself to rating candidates, FIINPAC and GPAC intend to endorse candidates and to extend campaign support to those it endorses.

Signs of Clergy Unrest

A more ominous indication that Congresswoman Fudge could be out of step with her constituency arose yesterday when she appeared at the weekly meeting of United Pastors in Mission. UPM, originally formed as an association of young activist pastors, has now matured into a collective of some political sophistication, with regular programming that has become part of the bipartisan campaign circuit for state and local public officials.

Fudge was there to tout her slate of judicial candidates but got pushback from several clergy members on at least two counts. Attendees wanted to know why she did not endorse Joy Kennedy, a well-qualified black attorney, for Domestic Relations judge. Fudge’s answer seemed to indicate surprise that Kennedy had remained in the race.

More problematic for Fudge by far was her avowed support for Gabriella Rosalina, whose father, Basil Russo, gained local renown as a ward leader and city councilman representing Little Italy, eventually rising to majority leader. before becoming a judge, first in Common Pleas, and then the Court of Appeals. Along the way, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor 1979.

Russo has long been a formidable ballot name county wide. Basil’s brother is chief judge of Probate Court. But another brother, Frank, tarnished the family name when he resigned as County Auditor in 2010 after pleading guilty as a ringleader in the county corruption scandal.

Basil has been pulling out all the stops to get his daughter the nomination, making contributions and pledges of financial support left and right, along with calling in old political favors. Some combination of these efforts was apparently enough to win Fudge’s support, along with that of 14 out of 17 Cleveland city councilmen.

Candidate Rosalina, however, has an undistinguished record as an attorney and is clearly uncomfortable on the campaign trail. She was the proverbial doe in headlights when seeking the party’s endorsement last month, which went to her opponent, Lisa Forbes, by such a surprisingly wide margin that Basil reportedly felt double-crossed.

The sense that Rosalina is an inferior candidate and that Forbes handily won the party endorsement led some UPM members to question Fudge’s game plan.

Part of the Congresswoman’s problem is the absence of any discernible criteria for what it takes to win her blessing.

An opaque process, resulting in an announcement of support without an accompanying rationale, followed by the proffer of zero resources beyond perhaps a played out radio commercial, and no consequence for ignoring or contravening the endorsement, have reduced a once-prized 11^th District endorsement to little more than a trinket.

The extreme political weakness of the black community has been developing for several years. As we head to Black History Month we’ll talk about why that is and what the future may hold.

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