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 • Council President calls Tony George's bluff; George blinks; Voters stiffed once again

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Citizens Group takes City Council reduction off the ballot to "study" issue

Clergy group rides to restauranteur's rescue

Groundhog Day came two days early in Cleveland this year as voters ready to speak truth to power once again had their ballots snatched away in last minute negotiations conducted at a table where they had no seats.

Two proposed charter amendments — one to reduce the size of Cleveland City Council from 17 to 9 members, the other to slash the pay of council members from about $83,000 to $58,000 — were all set to be on the ballot on the March 17 primary election, when Clevelanders First, the group sponsoring the charter initiatives, agreed to withdraw their petitions for the equivalent of $24.00, some moth-eaten blankets and two nose-bleed seats to a Monsters hockey game.

Reducing Council's size could lead to a realignment whereby for the first time in history, Cleveland would have a majority black council.

Restauranteur and Busi-
nessman Tony George

The deal was announced Friday afternoon by Rev. Aaron Phillips at a hastily-arranged press conference on Friday afternoon at Greater Abysinnia Baptist Church on the city’s east side. Phillips is executive director of the Cleveland Clergy Coalition, which he describes as an “amalgamation of most of the city’s clergy groups”. Clevelanders First, an ad hoc assembly of mostly west siders, was represented by its spokesmen and by businessman Tony George, who clearly runs the group. George funded the effort to secure the 22,000 petition signatures submitted to city council in December. Once the petitions were ruled valid by the Board of Elections, council was required to put the issues on the ballot.

Also present were east side councilmen Mike Polensek and Joe Jones.

Noticeably absent from the press conference and seemingly not party to the deal was council leadership: President Kevin Kelley, Majority Leader Phyllis Cleveland and Majority Whip Blaine Griffin.

George backs down

How and why this deal came together is not altogether clear. In fact, Phillips said on his Monday radio show that while he favored a resolution that would keep reduction off the ballot, he feared it wasn’t going to happen. By the end of the week, he was proclaiming its accomplishment. He also made some comments about race that bear scrutiny.

While the Clergy Coalition’s actual size and strength is not apparent, what is clear is that Phillips has become an important player in local politics. His political consulting firm, Engagement Consulting LLC, is regularly contracted for service, especially by white west side judicial candidates without bona fide crosstown community connections. His ability to get these candidates in front of black preachers adds to his credibility, if not necessarily to that of the ministers.

Phillips has also become an adept multi-platform communicator. He has a Monday drive-time radio show on WERE which he simulcasts on Facebook. Recent guests have lined up precisely with candidates endorsed by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who Phillips touts as the indisputable leader of the black community.

Phillips is also reputed to have a close relationship with George, who may have overplayed his hand in this council reduction issue. It was widely reported that George wanted Council to switch the city’s electricity contract from NOPEC to First Energy, and that Kelley’s refusal to go along led George to push council reduction as payback.

But as George himself acknowledged at the press conference, he pushed a similar council reduction issue back in 2008. Then-council President Marty Sweeney was willing to negotiate city charter changes that George thought reasonable.

Rev. Aaron Phillips, shown above with County Prosecutor
Michael O'Malley and County Executive Armond Budish, right,
at October 2019 fundraiser for the Cleveland Clergy Coalition.

George told me months ago that he was willing to negotiate this time as well, that he was open to a reduction in council size to perhaps eleven or thirteen. Kelley, however, was intractable, perhaps because one of George’s conditions was that Kelley resign from council, or at least step down as president. Kelley, who is expected to run for mayor if Frank Jackson ever retires, of course found George’s position wholly unacceptable.

Rev. Aaron Phillips with Cleveland City CouncilPresident Kevin Kelley at October fundraiser. The event was held at Crop Restaurant on Lorain Ave. in Ohio City. The restaurant is one of many owned by Tony George.

Phillips said at the news conference that a reputable organization, most likely Cleveland State University, would be asked to perform a comparative study to establish what council’s optimal size and configuration should be.

While George praised the idea as brilliant, and repeatedly thanked Phillips for the Coalition’s intervention, the study seems like a fig leaf to cover George’s total capitulation. When Kelley refused any deal, George chose to fold, despite holding what was likely the whip hand, given the voters’ rampant displeasure with City Hall. Speculation in some circles is that George didn’t want to fund a campaign that he had thought he could win for what it cost to gather sufficient petition signatures.

When George belittled Kelley and his leadership team at the press conference for their refusal to accept the deal whatever recommendations may come out of the study, his combative tone belied the fact of his total surrender. Neither Jones nor Polensek, the two councilmen who spoke at the press conference, is a staunch Kelley supporter; their presence seemed designed to suggest that George actually had a negotiating partner.

Winners and Losers

The obvious winners in this ballot issue cancelation are Phillips, council members, and Mayor Frank Jackson, who recorded two “e-newsletters” that essentially said cutting council in half would make council even more distant from the voters.

George was not the only big loser in this deal. Any Cleveland voters looking to reform a legislative body that has circumvented their efforts to secure a living wage, stop the unpopular decision to expand the Q [now Rocket Mortgage Arena], and had to be forced to address the lead poisoning crisis, by threat of yet another voter initiative, have once again been deprived of an opportunity to be heard. Their choice has been taken away, and this time they don’t even have a villain.

And possibly rubbing salt in the wound, the ballots are already printed so voters will see the two issues. If Clevelanders First follows through as expected and notifies the Board of Elections to withdraw the petitions, the board is required to post signs at the polls saying votes on the issue will not count.

Early voting begins February 19.

When is race NOT a factor?

With Cleveland’s hyper segregation, no discussion of representation can take place without considering the impact of race. In fact, when we spoke with black opponents of council reduction, they typically focused on the diminution of black power since there would be fewer black council members. They seemed not to consider whether a reduction process might lead to a realignment whereby for the first time in history, Cleveland might have a majority black council.

Both on his radio show last week and at the press conference, Phillips suggested that the council reduction issue would in effect lead to a race war between the east and west sides of town. This hoary argument apparently had some effect on the west side Clevelanders First, because they said they were unaware of these tensions and wanted to avoid them.

What’s more likely is that some black councilmen were ready to play the race card in order to scare their constituents into believing that council reduction was a strategy to contain black political power.

Implications for redistricting, 2021 mayor’s race

The 2020 census may prove us wrong, but we believe it likely to show some surprising demographic shifts in the city’s population. We suspect the city’s proportion of people of color has shifted westward in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis that hollowed out much of the city’s east and southern sections.

What this means for the redrawing of ward lines is totally unknown. Council presidents have usually had a large say in how this has been done in the past. But Kelley, who paradoxically is seldom challenged by his caucus, is not a strong president. In a secret ballot he likely would not be favored to retain his post. And if Jackson decides not to run for a record fifth term, Kelley is expected to run to succeed him. Will he be able to control the reshaping of ward boundaries in an election year?

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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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