AROUND TOWN TODAY | Quick Takes on the Civic Scene

Black Philanthropy Summit • Black Citizenship in Action • Cleveland Rising! • Cuyahoga GOP

 By R. T. Andrews

The sixth biannual African American Philanthropy Summit takes place today from 1-3PM via Zoom. Registration is now closed but we will have a report for you.

If you are moved by what’s happening around the country and are wondering how you might get involved, here are two suggestions:

Read this compelling op-ed by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for a keen perspective on how to understand what's happening in our country today in the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Consider attending "Black Citizenship in Action Online" [BCA] today at noon. Discussion will center on how black people in this country gained citizenship rights and how that power can be used to create lasting community change. 

Jessica Byrd online during
Black Citizenship in Action

BCA includes local community outreach and mobilization opportunities and civic and voter engagement that help deepen black people's shared understanding of our rights as citizens and helps build the power needed to create a future that works for us.

Cleveland Rising!, the curious collective effort of certain Clevelanders concerned about our city's cratered condition, convenes this afternoon from 1-2:30PM via Zoom. Working groups formed at the CLE Rising Summit will share progress toward aspirational goals identified last fall. Virtual attendees, after watching the working group presentations, will have an opportunity to provide feedback.

 Register here.

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The Cuyahoga County Republican Party holds organizational meetings today  for its central and executive committees amidst unusual circumstances. State law requires political parties to meet within 15 days of the certification of the election of their precinct committee people, which occurred earlier this month following the close of primary voting on April 28.

Today’s meeting will be held at the Cuyahoga Heights City Hall but, given the restrictions on public gatherings imposed by the state in the midst of the pandemic, most of those attending will do so via Zoom. How this will affect voting is still unclear, a matter of both logistics and intra-party intrigue, according to party insiders with whom we have spoken.

Until last fall, Rob Frost chaired both the central and the executive committees. Sources told us there has been mounting dissatisfaction over the party’s operations and its ballot box performance in recent years. Frost yielded the chair of the executive committee at that time but retained control of the more powerful central committee.

Today’s vote will test how much power Frost retains. He is being challenged by Lisa Stickan, a city councilwoman from Highland Heights. Stickan is the daughter of Lucy Stickan, a long-time party activist in the county GOP and a high-ranking party official.

Frost still controls a lot of the party’s levers, so the outcome may turn on voting logistics and whether the vote will extend past today.

Peter Corrigan, who was named interim chair of the executive committee in December after Frost stepped down, is unlikely to be opposed and is expected to shed the interim tag and be installed as chair after the vote.

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Valeria McPherson, 90

November 2, 1929 — May 6, 2020

OBITUARY

 

Created space for herself and others in cosmetology, politics

By R. T. Andrews

Loyal and loquacious, Valeria McPherson could be counted upon to put her energy and her voice in service to the old-school values she espoused. A strong sense of community led to her enduring commitments to her fellow beauticians and to a Republican Party that faded and disappeared before she did.

McPherson passed away peacefully on May 6 at the McGregor Nursing Home.

Valeria was born Nov 2, 1929 to the late Ralph and Asilee McPherson in Cleveland, Ohio.  She was a retired Bailiff with Cleveland Municipal Court, a former member of the State of Ohio Board of Cosmetology and was very active in the Republican party politics in the Cleveland area. She started her working career operating a hair salon in Cleveland.    

She hailed from the “do for self” era that honored independent small businesspeople, barbers and beauticians and purveyors of retail goods and services who constituted the essential workers in the black side of Jim Crow America. She was driven by the belief that opportunity and independence for black people could best be advanced through cooperative efforts in the civic and commercial arenas.

McPherson’s dedication made her a dependable presence in Columbus where she could be counted upon to advocate for the black beautician she represented as president of the Ohio Association of Beauticians.  Her Republican bona fides enabled her to secure multiple appointments to the state cosmetology board where she continued her advocacy.

Dr. Brenda Holsey of Toledo, OAB’s current state president, recalls McPherson’s decades-long record of advocacy. “She was always trying to help, to share information. She wanted to add value.”

Back home in Cleveland, McPherson’s passions secured her a spot as a personal bailiff to then-Cleveland Municipal Court judge Sara J. Harper.

Wholesale beauty supplier Leroy Sharp and serial entrepreneur Vel Scott are among those who remember McPherson fondly. Scott and McPherson were frequent lunch companions. Sharp saw his friend as a staunch advocate for the people she represented even as she toiled in the minority.

Cuyahoga GOP chairwoman Lucy Stickan describes McPherson as a “pillar of the party” but said their relationship was so much richer than that. “She was wonderful”, recalls Stickan. “Loyal. Intelligent. Honorable. Kind. You were blessed to call her friend.”   

McPherson is survived by her brother Ralph (Ruthie) McPherson Jr, sister-in-law Juanita McPherson, and (13) nieces and nephews — Ellen Ruth McPherson, Michele Hauser, Sterling Hauser, Russell (Renee) Hauser, Sherrie Hauser Simmons, Reginald McPherson, Jeffrey (Donna) McPherson, Patricia McPherson, Karen McPherson, Teri (Kevin) Robinson, Marlon McPherson, Anthony McPherson, and Gregory McPherson — as well as a host of grand and great-grand nieces and nephews.

There will be a graveside service tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13, at 1PM at Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave [44106].

Arrangements have been entrusted to Lucas Funeral Home, 9010 Garfield Blvd. [44125].

# # ## # #

Getting harder in the Trump era to tell the players even with a scorecard

CPT | County GOP votes on endorsements today 

Things are seldom what they seem;

Skim milk masquerades as cream.

— Gilbert & Sullivan​

Cuyahoga County Republican executive and central committee members will gather this afternoon to make their endorsements for the May primary.

The marquee endorsement will come in the governor’s slot, where Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is expected to handily defeat current Ohio Lt. Governor Mary Taylor.

Last week the Ohio GOP endorsed DeWine by a thumping 59-2 vote. Still, Taylor has refused to concede either quietly or graciously. What’s interesting about this contest is the subtext behind it.

While party insiders all seem to back DeWine, Taylor is working to court Trump voters, and could be in a position to upset DeWine if she succeeds in connecting with the Trump base. She has the nominal backing of term-limited Gov. John Kasich but has done her best to disavow it, because Kasich is anathema not only to that base, but also to many others throughout the party for a host of reasons: Kasich has been a Trump antagonist dating back to 2015, very publicly declining to appear at the 2016 Republican Convention held here in his home state where Trump officially received the GOP Presidential nomination. Kasich’s decision to support Medicaid expansion over the express opposition of many of his own state legislators further alienated him from parts of the GOP.

All of this was backdrop to the ouster of Kasich ally Matt Borges from the chair of the Ohio GOP by Jane Timken early last year, with the support of the President. Kasich forces, we hear, now think they have a chance to retake control of the state party, which could be significant if Kasich does indeed mount a 2020 primary challenge against Trump.

But any chance for Kasich people — dare we call them GOP moderates? — to regain state party control would go out the window if Taylor becomes the state standard bearer this year. So one might conclude that even though Kasich has endorsed Taylor almost against her will, he would prefer to see her defeated by DeWine.

The battle for the GOP nomination for the right to challenge US Senator Sherrod Brown this fall also has national implications for the GOP. Both Congressman Jim Renacci, R-16 of Wadsworth and Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons are, like Taylor, touting their Trump bona fides. Renacci is claiming that the President encouraged him to switch from the governor’s race to the senate battle following the sudden and unexpected withdrawal of frontrunner and state treasurer Josh Mandel. But he may actually be US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s preference instead of Trump’s because he is likely to be far less of a maverick than Gibbon.

The takeaway from all this may be that the Ohio GOP is much less united at the top than the state’s Democrats in this election cycle. But we are a long way from seeing how that might translate in November. 

Meanwhile, at least one Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Cleveland mayor and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, believes he has a real shot to capture some 2016 Trump voters. He’s probably right, but in the today’s topsy-turvy political climate, the populist Kucinich was just endorsed this past week by the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus. That may have been largely a hometown boy vote, but it nonetheless points out the increasing inadequacy of labels as a guide to who stands where for whom and what.