CPT: Beachwood surprise, Progressive Caucus, precinct battles, Patmon redux

​June Taylor swearing-in highlights Greater Cleveland’s cultural challenge

June E. Taylor is sworn in
as member of Beachwood
City Council, Feb. 5, 2018

After June Elizabeth Taylor was sworn in as the newest member of Beachwood City Council last night, she took the citizen’s podium to thank her supporters and to share some thoughts about her life, her appointment, and her philosophy.

Her new council colleagues selected Taylor last week after an open and transparent process to fill the vacancy created when then-council president Martin Horwitz defeated longtime mayor Merle Gorden.

Following the November election, Taylor was among 17 people who responded to an open call for applicants. Every applicant was granted an 18 and 1/2 minute interview.

When Taylor finished speaking, there was little if any doubt among the 100 or so people gathered in council chambers that the best candidate had been selected. She thanked a small battalion of friends and mentors for their friendship and support. A few of the more recognizable names she mentioned and that we were able to capture illustrate the depth and breadth of the support she carries, both within the city and across the state — Mal and Barbara Mixon, Jim and Debbie Wert, Ed and Mary Crawford, Amy and Rob Frost [County GOP chair], Shontel Brown [County Dem chair], Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, Gov. Kasich]. 

New councilwoman June E. Taylor, center, is surrounded by well-wishers,
L-R, Leon Anderson, Patricia Anderson, Tayloria Anderson, and Flossie Brisker.

None of these were idle or puffed references. In addition to her day job as president of the tech company, MAC Installations, Taylor chairs the Ohio Casino Control Commission and sits on the board of trustees for Cleveland State University. The public agency positions are both courtesy of Kasich appointments.

Taylor was also profuse in her appreciation of her neighbors, her daughter’s friends parents, and a host of others, including of course her family. Her prepared remarks were gracious throughout, and by turns politic and direct. She spoke of her own family values — her remark about her father wanting her to be smart in terms of book sense, common sense, and dollars and cents found an audible responsive chord — including education, preparation and excellence. She showed a respect for the city’s public employees and her own understanding that she was now an official public servant.

Conspicuous by its absence was any direct mention of Taylor’s race. There were likely more African Americans in council chambers last night than perhaps ever in that city’s history, but I heard not one reference by anyone that Taylor is the first African American ever to sit on Beachwood City Council.

That is more than likely something traceable directly to the candidate. As some good church folk say, the new councilwoman is unmistakably and unapologetically black. But Taylor chose in her remarks to focus on personal relationships, values, and standards, and the room took heed from her stance.

James Pasch, council vice president, seemed to confirm as much in a telephone call following the meeting. He added that he felt Taylor came to the applicant interview extremely well prepared and full of creative ideas on ways to improve municipal performance.

It seemed a rare moment in the county's Byzantine politics, when matters of race and ethnicity were subsumed by discussion of standards and values and community benefit.

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Progressive Caucus holding forum today for eastside State House candidates

Group also preparing to file for 100s of Dem precinct slots; Bill Patmon files for District 21 Senate seat

The Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus continues what has become its leadership role in presenting candidates to the public at numerous public forums all over the county.

Today at 6p, the Caucus is sponsoring what it had announced as a forum for State Senate District 21 and House Districts 10 and 12. The event is being held at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center, 3450 Lee Road, in Shaker Heights.

The event may have broadened significantly because last-minute requests for CCPC endorsements have come in from State Sen. Kenny Yuko [D-25] and State Rep. Kent Smith [D-8].

A caucus spokesman said the deadline for seeking CCPC endorsement is tomorrow, which is also the filing deadline for candidates wishing to be on the May 8 primary ballot.

Yuko is Senate Minority Leader but was recently denied the Cuyahoga County Democrats’ endorsement in the primary, at least partially because of issues being churned by the unsettling alliance between US Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-11 and regressive political forces best represented by former county prosecutor Bill Mason and his allies, most notably Cleveland City Council president Kevin Kelley. 

The Fudge-Mason alliance seems to be clashing for primacy with new forces within the Democratic Party, represented in part by the Caucus and also with the emergence of new candidates who don’t always feel the need to kiss the rings of party elders. The results can be be seen in how the endorsements came down late last month and in the shifting of lanes in county judicial races that may continue until tomorrow's 4PM deadline.

And of course the ever-present elements of race, class, gender and geography are always a part of these party dynamics. It certainly makes for more exciting and complicated politics than the Republicans experience. For them, underneath all the high-falutin’ discussions of states’ rights, limited government, individual freedoms, and strict interpretations, it’s almost always just about the Benjamin$.

At least until the summer of 2015, when, thanks to a certain candidate, it began to be more about race, ethnicity AND money.

But tonight, there will likely be a steady effort by almost all of the candidates to introduce themselves or in the case of Yuko and Smith, remind their constituents of what great service they are providing. Rep. John Barnes, D-12, who is challenging Yuko for his Senate seat, told RDP he is in Columbus preparing for a committee hearing tomorrow and will not attend tonight.

The following candidates are expected to participate this evening:

Senate District 21: Jeff Johnson [his opponent, Sen. Sandra Williams, did not RSVP.]

House District 8: Kent Smith

House District 10: Kyle Early, Aanand Mehta, Andrew Schriver, Billy L. Sharp

House District 12: Yvonka Hall, Dmitri McDaniel

 Democratic Central Committee contests

Every four years, all precinct committee seats appear on the ballot. GOP central committee seats are on the ballot in even years, alternating with the Dems.

With the filing deadline for all races at 4pm tomorrow, insiders are looking closely at files for the roughly 920 seats available countywide. It is these central committee slots that can influence a party’s direction.

The Progressive Caucus may run as many as 200 candidates for these seats. And we are hearing that the Mason forces are up to their old tricks. When Mason served as county prosecutor, his office served as a political factory. Despite electoral promises made in 2016 by then candidate Michael O’Malley, we are receiving reports that Prosecutor O’Malley’s office is doing a brisk business circulating candidate petitions during business hours.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

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State Rep. Bill Patmon, D-10, who is term-limited from running for the House again this year, filed today for the 21^st District State Senate seat currently held by Sen. Sandra Williams. 

In other news, we hear Mueller Tire is doing a brisk business in retreads.

Local Democrats gather to swear in new officers

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Is it a new reality or just a new look?

Cuyahoga County Councilwoman
Shontel Brown is also now chair
of the County Democratic Party.
[Photo Credit: Eli Gibson] 

It was a smart decision by incoming County Democratic Party chair Shontel Brown to present and swear in her new cabinet at the party’s relatively new headquarters this past Tuesday night. More than 200 party regulars assembled for the event, surpassing its organizers’ expectations. The crowd was swelled by several newly elected officials like Michael D. Brennan, who will become University Heights mayor in January; Michael Nelson and Jazmin Torres-Lugo, victorious in their bids to become Cleveland Municipal Court judges; and Joe Jones, hoping that his narrow Election Day margin over Terrell Pruitt for Cleveland City Council survives an official recount.

Their supporters joined many others, most of whom were likely visiting Dem HQ for the first time ever. The event was typical of many Dem affairs: lots of hugging, plenty of back slapping. For those who like to track such things, we estimate attendance was probably about a 55-45 ratio between white and black attendees. Truth is, we saw a healthy mix, but the crowd dwarfed the space, and the festive mood encouraged such a crowd flow that a close estimate was hard to come by.

County Democrats gather Nov. 14 at party HQ at 3615 Superior Ave. for installation of their new officers.
[Photo Credit: Eli Gibson] 

There wasn’t much formality to the proceedings. Chairman Brown acknowledged her parents, and was sworn in by her pastor, Rev. Larry Harris of Mt. Olive Baptist Church. She then swore in each of her cabinet members successively.

Surely for the first time in history, a majority of the cabinet was both female and black. They likely seemed obscure to the majority of party regulars, with the exception of Cleveland City Council president Kevin Kelley and Warrensville Heights mayor Brad Sellers.

It is Kelley’s new party office as executive vice chair that has many party apparatchiks buzzing, especially those who are reluctant to see Brown as strong enough to handle a difficult job. Brown, a member of Cuyahoga County Council, is the first woman and the first black elected as sole party chair. A short list of the job’s requirements include raising a million dollars annually, recruiting candidates, and turning out large majorities in statewide contests to offset the GOP’s rural and exurban advantages. Not in the job description but critical to success: refereeing spats, fights, and duplicitous behavior in a host of minor fiefdoms.

Brown has no visible education, preparation or training equipping her to perform any of these tasks, which is not to say that she is incapable of discharging them.

The Party’s track record in these areas has not been good for decades, notwithstanding its dominance countywide, in Cleveland, and in many of the principalities that clutter the county with innumerable borders. President Obama’s electoral 2008 and 2012 victories in Ohio were due largely to his decision to build parallel electoral organizations that bypassed the local party structure. [An unfortunate consequence of that choice was his neglect of strengthening the party apparatus essential to long-term success. That was a national omission with dire unforeseen consequences.]

Winning local elections that keep Democrats in office is no measure of success in Cuyahoga County. Republicans often fail to put even token candidates forward in many contests. But the County is not as lopsidedly partisan as appears on the surface. The GOP exercises great influence through an array of establishment entities and individuals, as an examination of the forthcoming campaign finance records of Democrats Frank Jackson and Zack Reed will conclusively illustrate.

Still, it is on a granular level that local party contests are most critical: who sits on your school board and represents you on the local city council? Who understands and cares about your circumstances as they peer down at you in municipal court or deign even to consider you on appeal? Who has your interests in mind in the Ohio General Assembly?

Those elected officials, chosen in so-called “down-ballot” slots, often in so-called “off-year” elections, can impact your life more directly and more often than even the most narcissistic, unhinged, and ignorant President imaginable. And local parties are the launching pads for the candidates who seek and attain those offices.

This is where the rubber meets the road in intra-party politics, in particular where the black community’s voice often gets lost, long before names appear on the ballot in primary or general contests. Too few of us either understand the process or choose to participate in it. Far too few of our best and brightest run for office. Far too few of us make even token contributions to candidates, or lend other essential support. Weak community support participation generates inferior public officials resulting in poor public policies with corresponding consequences for community’s physical, financial and social health, education and welfare.

A look beneath the surface of Kelley’s selection as executive vice chair, for instance, raises several interesting questions. Kelley is a singularly unimpressive public official. Twice in the last couple of years he conspired with the Jackson administration to sacrifice principles of home rule, basic democracy and transparency, to thwart voters and petitioners who sought to make and check polices to raise the minimum wage and decide on the soundness of public expenditures [“the Q deal”]. Running to the state legislature to thwart what may have been an unsound policy initiative was bad enough. Participating in a bogus lawsuit under false pretenses in service to private interests was totally indefensible.

Party chair Shontel Brown swears in Kevin Kelley as
executive vice chair as executive director Lillian Sharpley looks on. 
[Photo Credit: Eli Gibson] 

Elevating Kelley to EVC is a queer signal for the supposed party of the people. It suggests a quid pro quo behind Brown’s historic but perhaps largely symbolic role as party chair. Several keen observers see Brown’s elevation as part and parcel of a deal between Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and forces arrayed around the potent political alliance of former county prosecutor Bill Mason and Bedford Clerk of Courts Tom Day, the latter of whom, we are advised, was the recipient of a steady stream of well-wishers almost as long as those who waited on line to share congratulations with Shontel.

If Brown as party chair is the core quid, then Kelley as vice chair is part of the quo.  A second part of the quo remains to be seen, and that is the potential replacement of Lillian Sharpley as party executive director by Paul Marnecheck. Following the swearing in, Marnecheck reaffirmed to this writer in a brief exchange his continuing interest in the position and indicated that some things are in the works. The executive director is the day-to-day manager of party affairs, is a paid position, and reports to the chair.

Sharpley’s interest in running next year for the state representative seat being vacated by Bill Patmon has long been known. But she has made few if any visible moves towards mounting a campaign. By contrast, Marnecheck is a ward councilman in North Royalton as well as a manager at the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the area’s most influential chamber of commerce.

Of larger consequence for the community is the question whether a Fudge-Mason alliance covers more than agreement over party positions. It seems clear that Mason’s early departure from office has not meant his removal from partisan politics. Indeed, as he is no longer even bound by the proprieties of office, his involvement in county politics may loom larger than ever.

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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.

Fasten Seatbelt, prepare for Lyft off and Uber-fascinating trip this year

There is so much going on in the civic space right now that it’s hard to know where to focus. Nearly two weeks in, Donald Trump is settling into a pattern of being Donald Trump: he is mercurial to the point of manic, self-referential to the point of obsession. He favors keeping everyone off guard not simply as a way of maintaining a negotiating advantage, but because he is untethered to any deep principles other than “winning”, which he defines as “Heads I win, tails you lose”.

Can his administration, Congress, the American public, the world, any of us, survive four years of being inside the Donald Trump pinball machine? Can we survive four months? That’s not purely a rhetorical question, given that he is rattling sabers in Iran’s direction. It’s hard to think that a Trump administration will ever be normal, but Americans must learn to react to the impulses of this President in a way that does not have us bouncing off the walls every time he pushes our buttons. And eventually we will find a way, first to coexist with the madness, then to contain it, and finally to sequester it, ideally somewhere outside the White House.

Meanwhile, stuff is happening here in Cleveland that demands our attention. Let us remember that the Chief Narcissist won the election not simply because of one campaign, but as a culmination of a series of campaigns and decisions made by ordinary people who at one time felt powerless. They organized themselves and got involved in the political process. After a while they became known as the Tea Party, evoking a call to the American revolutionary spirit. Perhaps we who aspire to a more progressive politics might also find a spark in another proud American tradition, and harness the spirit of the Abolitionists and become champions of freedom and equality.

Locally, a discussion focusing on possibilities of merger and acquisition between Cleveland and its original suburb, East Cleveland, took place Tuesday night on the Case campus. The panelists included Cleveland city councilmen Kevin Kelley and Jeff Johnson, along with East Cleveland councilman Nathaniel Martin. Kelley is president of Cleveland’s council, while Johnson’s heavily gerrymandered ward — which extends from near downtown almost to the city’s far eastern border with Euclid — bumps up against the East Cleveland municipal border in several places. Johnson announced two weeks ago that he is running this year for Cleveland mayor, so it was hard not to consider his every utterance against that backdrop. For the most part he came across as statesmanlike, although there were exchanges with Kelley that were unexpectedly heated. Johnson was honest enough to admit that there are tensions in Cleveland City Hall over the idea of the two cities becoming one. Both he and Kelley tried to be respectful of East Cleveland’s current, if tenuous, autonomy, but Johnson lapsed more than once into an attitude that seemed to say East Cleveland was an out-of-control neighbor whose problems did not stop at the border. He didn’t say East Cleveland had “some bad hombres” but you knew what he meant.

Interestingly, Johnson blamed some of East Cleveland’s distress on Cleveland’s leaders, saying that they had offered no help until acquisition became a topic of discussion. But he himself said there was little that Ohio law permits one municipality to offer in concrete assistance to a neighbor.

For the record, East Cleveland has been in a state of fiscal emergency for about 22 of the past 30 years, including roughly the past six. Most observers see this as largely the result of structural forces that have walloped the suburb, eviscerating its tax base, attended by a drop in its population from a high of over 40,000 to its current roughly 17,000 inhabitants. The problems are daunting on every level, but the City has been able to address none of them successfully because its toxic political culture keeps its public officials at each other’s throats all day long. Unhappy East Cleveland residents have forced the city to hold three recall elections since 2015; two months ago, the recall effort finally bore fruit when both the mayor and the council president were voted from office.

The leadership struggle continues however, and there is presently pending in the Eighth District appellate court a writ of mandamus that contests the legitimacy of the two newest council members.

At present the push to merge has no public champion in either city, so it’s a dead issue unless effective leadership arises, and that must happen, as both Kelley and Johnson noted, in East Cleveland first. Don’t hold your breath, but if you like the nitty gritty of seeing your local public debate from the warmth of your home, or the convenience of your mobile device, you can watch the proceedings in their entirety here or right here, in our previous post.

Meanwhile, the casual announcement on Monday night that Frank Jackson has decided to seek a fourth term has unleashed a flurry of responses that will make this year’s mayoral campaign the most fascinating one since at least the 1989 race that elevated Mike White into the mayor’s seat for the first of his unprecedented twelve years in office over three terms. Jackson, elected in 2005, has equaled that mark and now wants to break it.

He likely won’t have the cakewalk of his prior reelection campaigns. Johnson knows city politics at least as well as Jackson and has the ability to challenge the mayor on a number of issues where the latter has some vulnerability, including for starters, the police department, the minimum wage campaign, neighborhood stagnation, and public transportation policy.

If it were merely a contest between those two, the race might be interesting, assuming Johnson can raise the requisite funds to be competitive. He puts that amount at around $500,000 and thinks he can get it. Frank will have at least twice that much.

But what has suddenly made this race fascinating are two other candidates who announced mid-week. One is former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, who announced his candidacy on Facebook. You can read his opening salvo against Frank Jackson here, but if you eschew vulgarity, you may want to wait a few days until I can summarize it for you.

Brewer’s entry into the race had been bruited about for some time, with many wondering whether he would actually get in the race.  This week’s second announcement was a total surprise to most people. Brandon Chrostowski is running for mayor. His is certainly not a household name. He is a political newcomer better known in philanthropic circles than political ones. He founded and has run a growing operation in the Shaker Square area that provides opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons to re-enter society in a meaningful, healthy ways. In brief, he runs a training center that teaches people all levels from wait staff to top chef, the ins and outs of restaurant industry. They get practical experience working at a top-notch restaurant, EDWINS, tied to the training institute, and typically move on to other top restaurants in Cleveland.

The practical approach to problem-solving evidenced by Chrostowski’s enterprise has extended over just the last two years to establishing nearby residential centers for workers as well as a retail establishment. Chrostowski told me in a brief get-acquainted interview that he has thought long and hard about Cleveland’s issues and thinks his practical approach could work wonders for the city. He would also make neighborhood development a key part of his campaign.

Some other well-known politicians are known to be mulling entry into the race. Ward 2 councilman Zack Reed has promised a decision in the next several weeks. Term-limited state representative Bill Patmon is already in the race according to some reports; he had success eight years as a last-second filer in his state race, but that will approach will likely confer him no advantage if this race.

Whether Reed, Patmon or anybody else tosses a hat into the ring, it seems certain that the quartet of Jackson, Johnson, Brewer and Chrostowski guarantees the most exciting race in at least a generation. More importantly, the peculiar makeup of the race holds the promise that this will be a race about issues and ideas, of performance records as well as personalities. If that’s the case, the election may prove transformative.

How surprising after what we endured the past two years on the national scene! How appropriate this of all years, when the community is celebrating all year the careers of the Stokes brothers. It was 50 years ago, in 1967, when Carl Stokes became the first black person to be elected mayor of a major American city. The following year, older brother Louis was elected Ohio’s first black Congressman. 

Those two elections changed Cleveland a far better place politically and civically in countless ways. But the city has not enjoyed a robust political culture in many decades. The unique blend of veteran politicians, transplants, and newcomers among those already in this year’s race will make, we are certain, this year’s contest exciting on many levels from start to finish.

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