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.

• • •

CPT • Turner candidacy upsets local political apple cart

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

Candidate’s return home will raise District’s profile, heighten the stakes 

By R.T. Andrews 

Nina Turner announcing from her home in Cleveland's Lee-Harvard neighborhood that she will be
running for Ohio's 11th Congressional District seat if Rep. Marcia Fudge vacates the office upon her
confirmation as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. [Screenshot by R. T. Andrews]

She hasn’t won an election for anything in over a decade, and the last time her name appeared on a ballot was in 2014, when her candidacy for Secretary of State was part of a statewide ticket that cratered from top to bottom, but if you watched the rollout of former state senator Nina Turner’s declaration of candidacy for a Congressional seat that is not yet vacant, you know that star power has come to Cleveland and its 11th District.

Turner left town in 2015 in bold and shocking fashion when she very publicly shifted her allegiance from Hillary Clinton, the presumptive favorite for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, to the insurgent Bernie Sanders, because his campaign more closely aligned with her principles. 

If I say many of her fans felt betrayed and effectively burned her political jersey in effigy, then you know what’s coming next. Turner took her native political talents to the national stage where she performed under the brightest lights, the harshest scrutiny, and against the toughest competition. She performed in leading roles and was regularly center stage in the high stakes production of two national political campaigns. In between, she headed a dynamic national political organization for several years and spent frequent time as a commentator on national television networks. 

Long story short, Turner left town on a mission, learned what it takes to compete at the highest level, sharpened her skills, developed a team of loyalists, and in the process built a national fan base. 

Yesterday, flanked virtually by a carefully selected array of former legislative colleagues, current public officials, and Hollywood star power in Danny Glover, Turner announced from her home in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard community, that she was running to succeed Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who will vacate the seat if confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for the incoming Biden administration. The event was impeccably scripted, the production values were tight, the presentations were succinct, coordinated, and on point, and the candidate was at her most radiant, composed, and centered. (She obviously understands the suburban voters she will need to win over to broaden her base.)

Clearly, like another prominent prodigal Northeast Ohioan, Turner has returned better equipped to pursue the brass ring. 

By law, Gov. Mike DeWine would set dates for special primary and general elections if Fudge resigns. The winner of the special general election would serve until December 31, 2022. 

Turner, 53, joins county councilwoman Shontel Brown, 45, and former state senator and ex-Cleveland city councilman Jeff Johnson, 62, as announced candidates to succeed Fudge. The field will undoubtedly expand when and if a vacancy in fact occurs. 

Make no mistake: Turner’s candidacy, while anticipated, irreversibly changes the dynamics of the race in many ways. 

First and foremost, Turner’s presence assures the race will be about policies and ideas. Atypical of most local politicians of any stripe, the Turner brand is associated with big policies and big ideas. She will force discussion of critical issues like healthcare, public education, affordable housing, food insecurity, living wage, income inequality and public transportation in any candidate forums. The candidates who have not prepared themselves adequately to debate these issues will likely find themselves exposed, if not overwhelmed. 

Notwithstanding Turner’s presence in the race, she is by no means a shoo in. Her presumptive status as front runner in an incomplete field will have no value when the votes are tallied. 

Indeed, Turner herself may become an issue. A passionate person who inspires many, she also incites fierce opposition on both personal and policy matters. Some suburban white women may never forgive Turner for her perceived abandonment of gender solidarity when she left the Clinton plantation for Sanders. Businesspeople who applauded Turner’s courage as a solitary African American advocate for county reorganization in 2009 will be appalled by the prospect of an unapologetic leftist representing the District. And Cleveland’s staid black political establishment, a low expectations bunch, are unlikely to appreciate Turner’s disruptive force. 

So, assuming that Fudge leaves office in the next 45 days or so, expect the following: 

· The race to succeed her will draw the most national attention to a local political contest since Carl Stokes was elected mayor in 1967. It’s already begun.

· Anti-Turner forces will coalesce around an ABT candidate. (Anybody But Turner) 

· Many disengaged eastside Cleveland voters, who once comprised the District's heart, will find their concerns center stage. 

· A spirited special Congressional contest will impact next year’s mayoral race in Cleveland, possibly accelerating a wholesale changing of the guard.

And in a wild off the cuff prediction: do not be surprised if northeast Ohio’s original prodigal child, who now reigns in Los Angeles, but whose childhood home is part of the District’s crazy Akron tail, and who has become widely respected for his willingness to speak out politically from his platform of fame and fortune, finds a candidate to endorse in the race.

• • •• • • 

Cleveland in dire need of a mayor with energy and fresh ideas; one candidate has both

Now is the time

Clevelanders will go the polls tomorrow to decide which two men will advance to the November election that will determine the city's next mayor.

Tomorrow's nonpartisan primary takes place in the most dynamic and fluid civic environment this city has seen since the election of Carl Stokes precisely one half-century ago.

In the eyes of some, the primary election will be a referendum on the twelve-year run of Frank Jackson and his administration. He is clearly running on his record, one that has many commendable and noteworthy accomplishments. He steered the city firmly through several tough years of the Great Recession that began in 2008. He has presided over what is slowly becoming a more vibrant downtown. He worked smartly with Republicans to bring their national convention here and helped create the conditions for its smooth execution.

Jackson is seeking an unprecedented fourth four-year term that would make him the longest-running mayor in Cleveland's 221-year-old history. When he announced he would again be a candidate, he said he was running because there was no one else who was both qualified and willing to run.

what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

That claim was untrue. The names on tomorrow's ballot would be very different had the mayor declared his intent to retire. The mayor's decision to run again was essentially a declaration that his leadership is indispensable.

It isn’t.

What's more, the voters know it.

After 12 years, Jackson fatigue is rampant throughout the electorate, and a major reason why he is apt to receive a small slice of tomorrow's vote.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. 

If voters act on their anger and despair, which more than 20,000 of them did when they signed petitions protesting the giveaway of tax monies to expand Quicken Loans Arena, here's the real question they should ask before marking their ballots: what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

Cleveland has some glitzy bells and whistles. We’ve got a marvelous Playhouse Square, cool chandelier, captivating pro sports teams, a bevy of world-class institutions, and the incomparable University Circle.

But we are consistently mired at the bottom of every quality of life index, in large measure because we are bamboozled into offering public support for private gain and bragging about our charitable nature. We presume ourselves to be liberal because Democrats are everywhere in office, though liberal policies prevail nowhere. We are stuck in conservative trickle down bootstraps muck.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. That energy comes, believe it or not, from the people. Citizen energy is what propelled Carl Stokes to victory fifty years ago.

Mayor Jackson waves at cars
along MLK Blvd. last month

Frank Jackson may still call the Central neighborhood home, but he has become a captive of downtown interests, isolated from the daily struggles of most citizens. His distance from the city is illustrated by the most iconic image of his campaign: the mayor standing detached at intersections in tailored clothing and waving at passing traffic.

Not by coincidence, Jackson detests the two candidates most identified with the people's energy: city councilmen Zack Reed and Jeff Johnson.

We like Zack. He's the hardest worker on city council, and along with the ageless Mike Polensek, the most impassioned. His report card on the failures of the Jackson administration is by far the most biting of all the candidates' critiques. But Reed's signature issue is safety, and student of government that he proclaims to be notwithstanding, he hasn't the foggiest idea how to pay for any of his proposals.

We like Jeff also. We believe in redemption and second chances. But, sadly, Jeff's time passed long ago. He followed Mike White into city council and then into the State Senate. He should have run to succeed White in 2001 but he was fresh out of federal prison. He got back on track but the train had left.

We think the fourth major candidate in this race is the under the radar Brandon Chrostowski. He's lucky in that his typical male indiscretion occurred early enough in life not to derail him. And he was smart enough to learn from it and find his passion in public service.

Four years ago Brandon started a series of nonprofit entities that most famously includes a French restaurant that offers fancy food with zealous service at high prices. It's become a multi-million dollar operation with impeccable accounting from which he extracts only a modest income.

Brandon Chrostowski at the 2d annual
Northeast Ohio Re-Entry Business Summit on April 21,
an event he founded to provide opportunities for returning citizens. 

But the most important product of his enterprise is not satisfied customers; it is redeemed lives. Edwin's Restaurant and Leadership Institute helps people reclaim their lives. It invests in people who have been convicted of felonies and sent to prison. They learn soft skills and marketable skills in the food service industry, find jobs, become productive members of society, and stay out of jail. Their recidivism rate is under 2%.

•

We have attended several mayoral forums and listened carefully to all nine candidates. (Madalone skipped the ones we attended but we tracked him otherwise.) Chrostowski, a white guy, is one of the only two candidates we heard express actual belief in the potential of Cleveland citizens. This is huge in a city with a population that is largely black and brown, disproportionately under-employed, over-policed, poorly educated, ill-housed, malnourished, in bad health, trapped in dangerous environments, with diminished transportation options, and too often denied opportunities because of these circumstances or past conditions.

If you don't believe in the people you profess to be helping, then guess what: whether you are on a public, private or nonprofit payroll, whether you work in the ‘hood, in corporate, or in Congress, you are less than honest in what you do, and the people — be they addicted, infirm, or just stuck at the bottom of the ladder — know it.

A smart truck driver I know likes to remind me of a verse from the Gospel of Luke. It may be the only one he knows, but it should give comfort to those who may be see Brandon’s resume as slight:

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much..." [Luke 16:10].

Chrostowski's campaign has been ground level in message and method. He sensibly would fire Flask and McGrath, who epitomize the indifferent or hostile shadow of public safety in Cleveland lurking behind the police chief. He would establish a series of job training centers around town that would focus on making residents more employable. And his third priority is to address public school performance and to accelerate Cleveland's lagging pace towards becoming a universally savvy tech community.

Chrostowski is not an ordinary politician. He voted for neither Trump nor Clinton. But he has taken an old-fashioned approach to campaigning, crisscrossing the city with a dedicated team targeting likely voters. He tells me he's been in every ward knocking on doors.

Mike White used a similar approach in 1989 to finish a surprising second in the primary and launch his twelve-year mayoralty. It would be good for Cleveland if Chrostowski can follow that route and help to end one.

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# # #

EIGHT candidates file to enter primary against Frank Jackson

Choose your metaphor: politicians and would-be politicians smell blood in the water and are primed to attack a man they perceive to be vulnerable after being the dominant fish in the pond. Or voter discontent with the status quo is so widespread that Minnie Mouse could have secured enough valid signatures. 

Either way, it is clear that Frank Jackson's stewardship as Cleveland's mayor over the past twelve years will be dissected and vivisected mercilessly over the summer leading up to the nonpartisan September primary that will reduce the field to two finalists for the job Jackson would like to retain for a record fourth 4-year term. 

The top two primary finishers will face off November 8.

I write this in transit 30 minutes after the Board of Elections released what is likely to be the most hotly contested mayoral primary since Carl Stokes first ran in 1965. Four candidates have had their petitions validated by the Board so far. They are social entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski, Cleveland  councilman, Jeff Johnson, State Rep. Bill Patmon, and Dyrone Smith, likely the least known candidate in the race. Election officials are checking the petitions of the last minute filers: former East Cleveland mayor Eric J. Brewer; incumbent Jackson; Robert M. Kilo, who previously challenged the mayor; businessman Tony Madalone; and Cleveland councilman Zack Reed.

Fasten your seat belt after you bolt your chair to the floor. The ride to Sept. 12 is likely to contain more than a few twists, turns and loops.

Absentee voting starts August 8, a mere 40 days away, a schedule favoring the best-known and most organized candidates.

CPT | Latest on status of the Q deal referendum drive, Ward 14, Marcia Fudge, Jeff Johnson

CPT: Cuyahoga Politics Today

Confrontation looms as citizen’s coalition files more than Twenty Thousand Signatures to put Q deal on ballot

City Council leadership signals legal strategy to avoid referendum; issue may soon be in court

UPDATE: Today’s lead item was written with the understanding that a citizen’s coalition would file petitions today so that Cleveland voters could decide by referendum whether or not to support the Q deal. Before we posted it, word came to us that City Council leadership, meaning the mayor and those who call the shots in town, had refused to accept the petitions on the grounds that the City has already signed a contract to go ahead with the project and that it would be an unconstitutional interference with property rights to allow for a referendum at this stage.

Council's clerk subsequently received the petitions but the City's position is now clear. The battle lines have now been more sharply drawn and the matter will undoubtedly be decided in court. The importance of Councilman Cummins’ 12^th vote in favor of the deal now stands in sharper relief: it is clear that the insiders’ strategy all along was to shut down the people’s right to vote on the Q deal.

I won’t venture an opinion on the outcome of the impending lawsuit, but the brazenness and contempt of our public officials for the voice of the people is evident. I expect that attorneys for both petitioners and the city began weeks if not months ago to prepare for the coming battle.

We have thought for months that the Q expansion deal would heighten interest in this year’s citywide election for mayor and all 17 council seats. Today’s action guarantees it.

___

CLEVELAND — This morning's filing of over 20,000 signatures of registered Cleveland voters moves into a new phase the very public discussion on whether the public should spend $282 million to expand Quicken Loans Arena.

Proponents of the deal cite the necessity of maintaining the competitive status of the publicly owned facility and the Q's importance as a major driver of local economic activity.

Opponents say by and large they don't oppose maintaining and even improving the arena but have major reservations — economic, pragmatic, and moral — about this deal, which appears to have been agreed to with great nonchalance by city and county officials, most especially County Executive Armond Budish, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and their respective council presidents, Dan Brady and Kevin Kelley.

While downtown interests are all in for the deal, most city voters are troubled by the sense that these glittering large scale projects have few if any benefits that trickle down to their neighborhoods.

Typically, and this deal exemplifies the process, the little folk have no seat at the table, are not even in the room, and in fact have no knowledge a deal is even being cut until the fancy power point slides have been created and the sleek website designed. Testimony at early county council meetings seemed to suggest that the negotiations were even more of a charade this time, with little if any energy expended by the public's representatives to secure any community benefits.

This might be baffling if it weren't simply the extension of a well-established pattern. Entrenched power has a natural appetite for expansion until it meets resistance. When resistance appears, it is usually episodic, unorganized, inchoate, marginalized, bought off, or otherwise rendered ineffective. 

That business would proceed as usual was no doubt the expectation at the time of the mid-December press conference rollout announcing the deal, which was presented as a fait accompli, all wrapped up and tied with a big red bow in keeping with the festive holiday season. Pictures of the occasion showed participants still basking in the aura of our World Champion Cleveland Cavaliers, contemplating the promise of a new season, the super-sizing of a downtown jewel, and even the cherry on top of an NBA All Star game. Tipped off in advance, the Plain Dealer obligingly had a full color spread celebrating the inevitable success of this project, the latest pearl in a string that included the NBA championship, the 2016 GOP convention, the remaking of Public Square, the Indians' World Series run, and a spate of new hotel and restaurant openings.

But over on the side, a voice could be heard, asking questions, expressing concerns, urging caution, and framing the deal in a larger context.

That voice was dismissed. As I write this, it is showing up at City Hall with 20,000 + signatures calling for a vote, saying we will be heard.

A new phase in the dialogue now begins. Stay tuned.

###

Speaking of new voices, and petitions, we believe this Q debate is pivotal for our community in ways both macro and micro, communal and individual. When the dust settles, the landscape will be different.

A harbinger of that change may come tomorrow at noon over at the Board of Elections where Jasmine Santana will file to become a certified candidate for Cleveland City Council. She has her sights set on the Ward 14 seat currently

Jasmin Santana

held by Brian Cummins, who is a part of City Council's leadership team and who, by virtue of his very public and critical flip on the Q deal, whereby he became the crucial 12th vote in favor, perhaps claimed the biggest bull’s-eye on his back for incumbent council members.

Santana, at 38, would likely reshape Council chambers in several ways. If elected she would be the first Latina on city council, and the first Hispanic to serve in that body since council was reduced to its present 17 member size. Hispanic leaders with whom we have spoken see her as an agent of change in a City Hall that clearly needs it.

And while ethnicity is no reliable predictor of change or politics — some of City Hall's most ossified fixtures are African American — Santana's election would likely mean that persons of color would hold a majority of council seats for the first time in history.

###

Speaking of color, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge made several ear-catching statements over the weekend. One of the most intriguing was her reference to the commonplace but erroneous assumption that black members of Congress represent only black people. She noted that her district was at 50.1% just barely majority black. She repeated that statistic later when she suggested she might be the last black person to represent the 11th District.

Fudge was participating in a community conversation sponsored by the Western Reserve Chapter of the Links in conjunction with their 30^th anniversary.

###

Finally, the petition challenging the legality of Councilman Jeff Johnson's right to run for mayor owing to his 1998 conviction is on the agenda for tomorrow's 3:30pm Board of Elections meeting.

CPT: Cuyahoga Politics Today: Jeff Johnson and Dan Gilbert

Jeff Johnson and Dan Gilbert: Peas in the same pod?

CLEVELAND — Roldo Bartimole, who even in his senior senior status remains by virtue of his long institutional memory and his ability to follow the money the scrivener scourge of the local ruling class, recently revisited some of Cleveland's sordid political history. It was an effort to provide context to Brent Larkin's weird column last week. Larkin expressed a false empathy for the struggles of Councilman Jeff Johnson to distance himself from his extortion conviction nearly 20 years ago. But halfway through the piece he abruptly switched to his true topic, a direct assault upon the SEIU and the Greater Cleveland Congregations.

SEIU and GCC just happen to be the leading voices in the ongoing struggle to achieve justice and equity for this city's poor and largely minority residents.

Nobody stands in opposition to the desires of our local oligarchy to recreate our shrunken city into a hip burg with cool eateries, a bustling downtown, a high tech vibe, an immigrant magnet, and world-class entertainment venues.

But some of us do look around and see people working two and three jobs trying to make ends meet, amidst Third World infant mortality, thousands of vacant and abandoned structures, a malnourished public transportation system, public schools under relentless attack from private profiteers, real job opportunities separated by insurmountable barriers to entry, and a police force infected with a rogue and reckless deadly virus that has been out of control for generations.

All that makes some of us wonder whether Clevelanders should pay to transform an arena far newer than just about all of our shelters.

We need to have real change in our community, not just the ‘transformation’ of a serviceable public building. When will we stop rearranging and painting the deck chairs and have a real conversation?

• • •

A sit-down I had yesterday with an aspiring young office seeker has surprisingly led me to have some sympathy for Cavs' owner Dan Gilbert. With the light afforded by Roldo's column, I can now appreciate how Mr. Gilbert could have come to town and, after observing how the elites here operate, said to himself, “I can excel at this game.”

He was right! We soon gave him two casinos for life, in our hunger and low self-esteem excusing his promise to build a fabulous new casino on our crooked river.  We bestowed adulation upon him when he first dissed our home boy LeBron for taking his talents elsewhere and then later embraced the return of that enhanced talent in a way that further filled the Quicken coffers.

Given that sort of uncritical and generous treatment, along with the renewal of our regressive sin tax for his sports fraternity, why wouldn't he think that we would happily fork over another $282 million or so just to keep him around another seven years?

GCC and its burgeoning alliance are saying "Let's slow down. Let's be equitable. Let's talk about this."

Whoever advised Gilbert not to have that conversation should be put on irrevocable waivers.

Dan Gilbert has the clout to convene, directly or otherwise, the dialogue of community powers responsible for creating the ecology he so comfortably slid into. He cannot be pleased that GCC and others are raising a ruckus, but he would be wrong to blame them for giving voice to the voiceless. His upset should be directed to his peer group and their political intermediaries, who clearly were caught unawares that even gravy trains have cabooses.

 

Unless there is a community dialogue that can forge a new and true community partnership, proponents of the ‘Q Transformation’ will likely hear their plan end with a Referendum Serenade that is familiar to basketball fans everywhere: "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey, Hey, Hey! Goo-ood Bye!”

Not the best theme song for the Rock and Roll Capital of the World!

• • •

P. S. Tonight in Boston, game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals! GO CAVS!!!