Fudge expected to endorse FitzGerald for Governor today
There has been an inordinate amount of
chatter around town about the dismal prospects of presumptive Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald. Much of it turns on rumors that he is
hostile or insensitive to various unidentified black interests. Some go so far
as to accuse him of being racist, claiming animus in his tenure as Lakewood
mayor or his work to date as Cuyahoga County’s first-ever County Executive. And
they top it off by citing the indifference of our area’s two most prominent
black elected officials, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and Cleveland mayor Frank
Jackson.
We thought the evidence was scant for
these claims even before it was announced that Fudge would join FitzGerald this
morning for a “major” campaign event that is all but certain to be her
endorsement of the FitzGerald-Kearney ticket. * And we would bet a reasonable
sum that Jackson will endorse the ticket as well, though probably not before
2014 actually arrives.
Politics is fascinating because it often
confounds linear models except when they count the ballots. The Republicans are
favored in all of next year’s statewide races and they should be. They have the
advantages of incumbency, will likely raise more money, and will be running
against a ticket of newcomers to statewide elections. These are huge factors.
But there are always wild cards. How the economy is performing is certainly
key. Creeping unemployment is a potent threat to Gov. Kasich’s claim of Ohio’s
miraculous economic recovery, which if it has occurred at all, has been neither
wide, nor deep, nor lasting.
A second wild card is likely to be the
status of the Affordable Health Care Act next fall. Will voters be totally
turned off by the administration of this historic legislation? Or will they in
sufficient numbers come to appreciate the beginnings of a new health care
system that promises to be more rational and equitable than the old regime?
Will Kasich be able to use his Medicaid expansion leadership to make headway
with black voters? Or will they instead remember the draconian cuts to local
schools and services occasioned by his state budget cuts, and his overreach in
support of labor union strangulation?
And the biggest wild card of all may be
Ohio’s antediluvian Tea Party. Will they support the GOP ticket, sit on their
hands, or find a third alternative?
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* The FitzGerald-Fudge event is scheduled
to start at 10AM at the Memorial-Nottingham branch of the Cleveland Public
Library, 17109 Lake Shore Blvd Cleveland, Ohio 44110.
