Wednesday Politics RICHMOND HEIGHTS: Longtime mayor to face opposition

Wednesday Politics

RICHMOND HEIGHTS: Longtime mayor to face opposition

[Editor’s Note: Technical difficulties prevented our posting yesterday. We couldn’t get online.]

This is the first of a series of periodic snapshots on local 2013 municipal election campaigns.

This blog took a big leap forward in May 2011 when we followed our curiosity to Richmond Heights and its sociocultural struggles as they were being played out in its high school basketball program. Over the course of the following nine months some of our most widely read and circulated pieces covered key developments in the small but significant bedroom community [See here, here, and here].

Sometime this year we will return to the Richmond Heights school district to catch up on how the district is faring educationally. We can report today however that, thanks to a nearly complete turnover of the district school board, the costly shenanigans rooted in cronyism and race have pretty much disappeared. Only one member remains from the Board’s January 2011 organizational meeting.

Richmond Heights Board of Education, from left: Carmela Carter, Frank Barber, Linda Pliodzinkas, Tamitra Peavy and Bobby Jordan Sr. Jordan is president, Barber is vice president.

In reporting on Richmond Heights schools we came to understand the ways in which the district’s issues were only a part of the city’s underperformance. The city was in such financial straits that it would have been placed under fiscal watch in 2011 had the current standards of the State Auditor been in place at the time.

Perhaps this is the reason that the city’s longtime mayor, Daniel Ursu, in office since 1989, stopped giving "State of the City" addresses after 2010. His office told us today that he is working on an SOC this year.

Richmond Heights has four municipal races this year: mayor, council president, and the two council at large seats. These are held, respectively, by Ursu, David Roche, Miesha Wilson Headen, and Donald O’Toole.

Eloise Henry
Ward 3 Councilwoman

Miesha Wilson Headen
Councilwoman at Large

Whether Ursu pursues his seventh four year term may turn on whether he relishes a challenge from at least one and perhaps two or more city council members. While ward 3 councilwoman Eloise Henry is telling friends that she is in the race “no matter who else is running”, Headen faces a choice between running for reelection to the seat she won four years ago in her first try for public office, or going up against her colleague and perhaps others in a mayoral bid. The answer will likely depend on how much money she thinks she can raise.

Council president Roche told us that he is leaning towards running for re-election as opposed to seeking the mayor’s seat. Likewise, O'Toole says that he expects to run for re-election.

Ursu has yet to announce his plans.

Candidates can begin circulating petitions on June 8 and must file them by August 7. Richmond Heights offices are nonpartisan. The city has no primary.

Gender Gap between parties is growing

Prof. Karen Beckwith

Political scientist Karen Beckwith will lead a discussion this Friday on why Democratic women in Congress outnumber their Republican colleagues by such a hefty margin and what significance this may or may not have.

Beckwith, the Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University, will be the featured guest at this week’s Public Affairs Discussion Group from 12:30 to 1:30PM in the Kelvin Smith Library Dampeer Room. The library is adjacent to Severance Hall.

Eighty percent of female senators and more than 75 percent of female representatives are Democrats.

All-but announced 2013 State candidate Nina Turner to speak in Shaker Heights

State Senator and Minority Whip Nina Turner, D-25, who delivered impromptu remarks that fired up a diverse crowd of Democratic activists two weeks ago when state party chair Chris Redfern was in town, returns to the same location tomorrow. This time the microphone will have her name on it, though she didn’t need it last time.

Turner is the presumptive frontrunner as her party’s nominee to take on Secretary of State Jon Husted next year. Husted is a prime target for those upset by the restrictive voting procedures he has sought to impose since he won the seat in 2010. She is expected to talk about voting reforms but it’s a fair assumption that her talk will be anything but dry.

The program begins at 7PM at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center, 3450 Lee Road.

The event is open to the public and refreshments will be provided. Sponsors include the Cuyahoga Democratic Women's Caucus, Beachwood-Woodmere Democratic Ward Club, Bedford/Walton Hills Democratic Party, Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, Ohioans for Democratic Values, Shaker Heights Democratic Club, South Euclid Democratic Club and University Heights Democratic Club.

Note to Republicans: we know some of you read these posts. We will be pleased to report your events in this space, as we have done in the past. Send your announcements to us here.

County Executive to speak in Cleveland Heights next week

Finally, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald will be at Grace Lutheran Church, 13001 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, at 7PM next Thursday, February 28 for what sponsors Cleveland Stonewall Democrats and Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus are billing as a “conversation”.

Free; open; refreshments.

Video online for Cleveland Heights gun debate panel

Last week we wrote here last week about a forum in Cleveland Heights [“Crowd fires questions at Cleveland Heights gun debate panel“] that focused on gun violence, gun rights, and gun safety. The post drew a higher readership than normal and we promised to notify you once the video of that evening became available online.

The video has just been posted and you can find it here.

• • •

From time to time we remind our readers of the following:

1.    Send item about your nonprofit to us at nonprofits@cuyahoganews.net. We report on the Cuyahoga nonprofit scene here every Thursday.

2.    There is a comment link on this site that follows every post. While we are always pleased to hear from our readers directly, using the comment feature is more likely to foster the kind of community dialogue that we so sorely need in these parts.

The Curse of Cleveland

I have a friend from college who grew up in Philadelphia but has some old family ties to Cleveland. He seems to have retained an affinity for Cleveland’s version of major league baseball developed in the days of Larry Doby, Luke Easter, and Dave Pope, pioneer black professional athletes in the early days of baseball integration. 

Cleveland’s baseball and football teams were leaders back then in understanding that casting a wider talent net was good for business. Kids like me were unaware of the deeper social change that was going on but we knew it was cool that Bill Willis, Marion Motley, Pope and others lived in our neighborhood. We didn’t understand of course that they had no choice: every suburb in the county was closed to them as a potential residence. I was just glad to be able to say that I was Dave Pope’s paperboy.

Anyway, my Philly friend keeps bugging me out of his own childhood memories to update him on the Cleveland club’s 2013 prospects. The team has been awful the last several years but they have taken several steps to improve and with any luck should be at least in the middle of the pack [did you hear that, Sam?].

I’m like my Philly friend in a way. Baseball is something that was imprinted on me as a kid. It has to do with my personal and social history. I was a fan of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella and Willie Mays before I knew what a Negro was. I played catch with my father during his rare free moments between work and work, or work and school [his, not mine]. And sometimes we went to games on languid summer days. Doubleheaders were especially great!

It’s hard for me to enjoy baseball in Cleveland these days. It’s not so much because the team is lousy; I can pick my spots. Last year for instance, I went to see Cleveland's Masterson duel Verlander on a scorching hot weekday. The Detroit ace was throwing 100 mph in the eighth inning. The homies scored the game’s only run on a first inning Shin-Soo Choo home run that landed not far from me. Great game!

The reason I visit Progressive Field infrequently is that damn butt-ugly racist mascot. It tweets a nonstop message to the world that we are a backwards, narrow-minded community. It’s a banner ad symbolizing our community's social intelligence, sort of on par with having a high school knucklehead like Jimmy Dimora at the helm of our government. 

It undermines the best efforts of Global Cleveland, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Case Western Reserve University, and our world-class medical community to project Cleveland as a progressive, forward-thinking community.

Baiju Shah, R. Steven Kestner, David Franklin, Barbara Snyder, Robert E. Rich Jr., Toby Cosgrove, Alfred M. Rankin, Jr., Monte Ahuja, Sam Miller: you guys run in the same circles as Larry Dolan. Please tell him that red-skinned, gap-toothed bigheaded Chief Wahoo brands us "City of Yahoos". He should be banned from your parking lots, windows, and employee attire. 

Consider it your contribution to improving our public mental health.