Frost out as county GOP chair after long run. Two women, including an African American, elected to lead

CPT • Cuyahoga Politics Today

Donna Walker-Brown, Lisa Stickan elected to head County GOP

By R. T. Andrews

Donna Walker-Brown is the new
chairperson of the County
GOP Executive Committee

The Cuyahoga County Republican Party has been around for 165 years or so. It has always been led by white men. Starting tomorrow, the chairs of both its Central Committee and its Executive Committee will be women. And one of them, incoming Executive Committee chair Donna Walker-Brown, is African American.

Lisa Marie Stickan is the new chairperson
of the County GOP Central Committee

Lisa Stickan, president of the Highland Heights city council and an attorney in the county court system, routed long time party chair Rob Frost by a decisive 2-1 majority. Her entire “Cuyahoga First” slate was also elected.

The vote was originally scheduled to take place in late March shortly after the expected March 17 primary. But Primary Day voting was canceled because of the statewide coronavirus shutdown and then extended in a vote by mail process that concluded on April 28. Those primary results identified new Republican precinct officials who were eligible to vote for new party leaders.

That election was also a hybrid process, with mail ballots sent out June 3. The incoming votes were tallied and announced this afternoon at the Rockside Road offices of accounting firm REA and Associates in Independence.

Stickan’s victory was not a big surprise, although the decisiveness of her victory was eyebrow-raising. Frost had led the party for 15 years and his star had been on the decline. “Frost fatigue” was evident among some party insiders last year when he was forced to relinquish his executive party chairmanship, though he remained as head of the central committee.

Another factor in the Stickan-Frost result may have been their relationship with the re-election campaign of President Donald Trump. Stickan is an enthusiastic Trump loyalist, while Frost is considerably more lukewarm.

In contrast to the clear-cut race between Stickan and Frost, the contest for executive committee chair was full of intrigue. Peter Corrigan, who ran for county executive in 2017, was named interim executive committee chair last fall when Frost was pushed out. He had been expected to run unopposed for a full term. But after Strongsville mayor Tom Perciak was nominated for the position, Corrigan nominated Walker-Brown, a close ally, and then withdrew his own name from consideration.

It was a tight race, with Walker-Brown winning by four votes.

It is unclear the extent to which national and local unrest may have affected the Walker-Brown vs. Perciak contest. A large proportion of committee members voted as early as June 4, just days after protests got out of hand in downtown Cleveland. Party headquarters were among the casualties of the demonstration, and graffiti writers reportedly scrawled a direct message for GOP officials: “You should have listened earlier.”

Stacey Polk, whose family have long been proud Republicans, thinks the national turmoil likely aided Walker-Brown’s candidacy to some degree. Polk, an attorney who for the past year has led the party’s Minority Outreach Initiative Committee, said it’s hard to imagine that precinct committee people could have been oblivious to the winds of change.

Polk, who is African American, said she had supported Walker-Brown in her primary contest for a position on the state central committee. Though she did not win the seat, the name recognition may have helped Walker-Brown in the contest for chair.

Polk praised Walker-Brown for her work with the Inner City Republican Movement that Walker-Brown founded and leads. And she described Stickan as “high energy, smart, politically astute, and culturally competent”.

Walker-Brown said her election was evidence of “God’s mercy and grace” and proof that “He is still in the miracle business”. She said that she would be moving forward on a platform of unification and growth.

As executive committee chair, Walker-Brown will direct the party's endorsement process, as well as preside over the party's elections to the county elections board. Frost currently holds one of the two GOP seats.

Stickan’s victorious Central Committee slate included Chris Corrigan as vice chair, Amanda Billy as secretary, Robert Bodi as treasurer, and Tierra Morrison as assistant treasurer.

Stickan did not respond to a request for comment. 

The new chairs assume their new roles tomorrow, July 1. Each position pays somewhere between $54,000 and $57,000, according to a party official.

• • •• • •

Cuyhaoga Dems & Repubs: Confluence and Contrast

  This week found me attending the annual dinners of both the Cuyahoga Democratic Party and the County Republican Party. I’m not sure if they typically fall in a four day-period but the contrast was instructive.

  It had been some time since I had witnessed a GOP function in the flesh, and as it was my first-ever Lincoln Day shindig, I was uncertain what to expect. 

  I was struck immediately by subliminal markers as I entered the GOP turf and moved towards the Grand Ballroom of the downtown Renaissance Hotel. First, all I saw were white people. A lot of them old. Thin. Wealthy in appearance. No identifiable Hispanics, or even Asians. There was a smattering of young professionals. 

  Whether I moved around or stood near a central vantage, I seemed invisible to most attendees. I was looking for either familiar or friendly faces but found only a few. One belonged to Bruce Akers, the ever-gracious mayor of Pepper Pike, a consummate political insider who is always ready to listen and engage in reasoned exchange. 
  Another friendly face belonged to Skip Claypool, an affably dogmatic Tea Partier from Geauga County.

  Once I received my media pass [the volunteer handling that chore was, to my delight, a regular reader of the irregular Real Deal] I moved around with a little more verve, confident that I would not be unmasked and expelled.

  I stationed myself at the ballroom entrance, the better to observe  the entering celebrants. Like the Democrats three days earlier, the main event was preceded by a VIP reception. The GOP crowd was more subdued, notwithstanding their  November victories that have them feeling entitled to remake Ohio. ["Give them an inch, they'll make it a mandate."] 
  There was a cash bar and a silent auction display that seemed to feature mostly Reagan adorabilia. Laura Bush seemed more popular than her husband, and there was a heavily discounted offering of books by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi donated by “a former Democrat”.

  There were about 750 people in attendance, about the same number as attended the Democrats’ bash. The room was much bigger, however, so the evening seemed less intimate and the attendees were in the main less gregarious. The evening’s loudest roar came when final passage of Senate Bill 5 was announced.

  New Ohio Treasurer and hometown boy Josh Mandel was given a prime opportunity to speak. There seems little doubt that he will challenge Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown next year, as Mandel went out of his way to address standard GOP hot buttons like abortion that have little to do with state finances.

  The evening’s featured speaker was former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who recently kicked off his campaign to be the Republican nominee in next year’s presidential campaign. While he was blunt, harsh, and direct in his assault on President Obama’s leadership, Pawlenty still managed to appear more reasonable and thoughtful than just about all of his rivals for the GOP nomination.
  Pawlenty denounced President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for not understanding that America is exceptional, and that “our place is to lead the world in everything”.

  I counted perhaps fifteen black faces in the crowd, exclusive of hotel staff, or about 2% of the nominal heirs to the party of the proclaimed "Great Emancipator".

• • •

  The foregoing account may fuel perceptions that I am race-obsessed. Rest assured that I did no racial counting at the Democrats’ bash last Sunday at the Intercontinental Hotel. The gathering was too integrated for that. In fact, by most demographic measure — race, gender, religion, geography — the Democrats were so thoroughly integrated as to render such considerations moot.

  A relaxed tone for the evening was set during the invocation by a priest who delightfully, naturally, enthusiastically and reverentially channeled his inner Father Guido Sarducci. Of course the mood of the Party was enhanced by numerous surprising touches initiated by new county party chair, Stuart Garson. There was  — gasp — an open bar [!], which adroitly shut down before relaxation could turn to mischief, and then reopened when the dinner ended exactly on schedule, as an inducement for attendees to continue mingling.

  The evening clearly reflected from beginning to end chairman Garson’s desire to obliterate any connection with the Party’s slovenly past, dominated by the hail-fellow-well-met atmosphere fostered by its disgraced former officials, Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo.

  On this evening the effort was a complete success. Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson was characteristically brief, but several members of Congress spoke, and all were on and off the podium in record time. There was a professional video that radiated pride in Democratic core values, and a total orderliness to the entire proceedings at the Inter-Continental Hotel. The impression fostered was that of a party focused on its mission.

  The dinner was a pricey $175, in contrast to the GOP’s $50 affair, but the Democrats need operating cash.

  Keynote speaker for the evening was Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who is the face of the new, leaner, inclusive, and effective party that Garson is intent on building. His demeanor — humble, professional, earnest, compassionate, and policy-oriented to serve county residents — seems to make him ideal for the role.