CPT • Change is Coming to Ohio's iconic 11th Congressional District — Part II

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

The 11th Congressional District is endangered as a fount of black power — Part II

Hollowed out central city, state’s slow population growth, along with altered political culture, are diminishing black community’s grasp on former stronghold

By R. T. Andrews

The Cleveland Browns were synonymous with excellence almost from the very moment they burst onto the pro football scene in 1946. From the beginning the team was exceptional, so routinely dominant as to play for a league championship ten consecutive years.

In eastside neighborhoods like Glenville, where future NFL Hall of Famers like Marion Motley and Bill Willis lived unpretentiously alongside their neighbors in the city’s ghettos, the Browns were beloved, a source of pride. The team became such a part of the town’s fabric that even when they sank into competitive irrelevance — their lakefront  home relabeled as the Factory of Sadness, it was inconceivable to think of our town without them.

Then one day they were gone, leaving only the team colors and faded scrapbooks featuring such team legends as Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Paul Warfield. [On the west side of town, the revered names were undoubtedly Lou Groza, Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli and Dub Jones.] Under team owner Art Modell, they made bad decisions, suffered financial reversals, mortgaged the future on bad short term bets, and proved themselves thoroughly inept at making the organizational and management changes required for success in the constantly evolving world of the NFL.

While the city got a new team three years later, the new Browns are only now  escaping the shadows of institutional incompetence that have dogged their rebirth.

Don’t look now, but a deft redrawing of political boundaries by Ohio’s rightwing General Assembly could mean that a Congressional District that once seemed institutionalized as the bedrock of black Cleveland politics could vanish after a half-century run as swiftly as those Browns did 25 years ago.

Ohio's 11th Congressional District

Dismal turnout by black Cleveland voters in recent elections will make it harder for a black candidate, especially one without the benefit of incumbency, to win either a primary or a general election campaign for the seat. 

Cleveland’s black community — the place that gave the country its first elected big-city black mayor; the home base of a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; the birthplace of the Twenty-First District Caucus, once so powerful as to show urban Democratic political machines that there was a drastic price to pay for disrespecting the black community — could lose its grip on a Congressional seat?

Yes.

Consider the following:

• When the District was drawn in 1968 to comply with Constitutional principles, the vast majority of Cuyahoga County’s black residents were crammed into a handful of neighborhoods: Central, Hough, Glenville, Fairfax, Mt. Pleasant, and Lee-Harvard. All of the first ring suburbs that today have significant black populations and are part of the Congressional District — Euclid, Maple Heights, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Bedford Heights, Richmond Heights, South Euclid, Garfield Heights, to name a few — were hostile to integration; collectively, they had less than five percent of the county’s black residents.

This concentrated black voting power was what the Ohio General Assembly kept a lid on through racial gerrymandering, until federal litigation and legislation — Baker v. Carr, the “one man, one vote” case decided in 1962; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — helped lay the groundwork whereby an impressive cadre of local black attorneys and some staunch white allies, finally secured citizenship rights supposedly guaranteed one hundred years earlier by the Civil War Amendments. 

• Today, most county municipalities are at least nominally integrated, as are most of Cleveland’s west side wards. Black outmigration from the central city has seen substantial numbers of black families move across county lines, establishing homes in communities as varied as Streetsboro, Macedonia, Willowick, and Hudson.

The decennial redistricting that follows the Census every ten years is impacted by these migration patterns. Indeed, the current “Cleveland” district represented by Marcia Fudge snakes a narrow path down to north Akron to pick up several neighborhoods of black residents to pack into the 11^th District. That was a Faustian bargain struck at George Forbes’ house with then-Speaker of the Ohio House William Batchelder that benefitted both Republicans and the black Democratic establishment.

In several of her relatively rare public appearances in the district over the past few years, Fudge has referenced the dwindling margins of her majority minority district, pegging the percentage of black voters in the district somewhere around 50.5%. (We always found such hyper-parsing of her constituency curious: it made us wonder how it influenced her constituent relationship management, how she viewed her ability to win the support of nonblack constituents, etc.)

• In recent decades, Ohio has ranked among the nation’s ten worst states when it comes to Congressional district gerrymandering. In May of last year, voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 1, a compromise measure designed to limit the grossest excesses of gerrymandering. It is unclear how that will play out in the upcoming line drawing. The estimable Dr. Larry Brisker, the Tri-C professor whose analytical skills informed redistricting negotiations in ways that looked out for the black community’s political interests, has gone on to higher reward. Who is capable of assuming that role? 

• The willingness of the black state legislators to play footsie with their GOP legislative overseers a decade ago and create a second district more or less tailor-made for a black candidate — Joyce Beatty’s Third District seat in Franklin County —  could affect the State’s need to maintain the protected status of the venerable 11^th. Ohio’s 11-12% black population may warrant one majority minority district out of its soon-to-be 15 seat allocation; Beatty’s district may lessen the obligation of legislators to preserve a second such district. 

Are Ohio’s black and Democratic legislators willing to lay it on the line to preserve the 11^th District? The answer is not a clear yes, even before considering that House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, a rising star, is likely maneuvering to support drawing a district that could be conducive to her own healthy ambition for a Congressional seat.

• And most significantly, dismal turnout by black Cleveland voters in recent elections will make it harder for a black candidate, especially one without the benefit of incumbency, to win either a primary or a general election campaign for the seat. Some informed estimates suggest that Cleveland’s 52% Census response rate means its city council will be reduced by at least six, and perhaps eight, wards. This will translate into fewer black elected officials than the already too aloof ones who populate public office now. This is not a recipe for enhanced civic engagement.

A few days ago, cleveland.com published a piece by retired political writer Brent Larkin that purported to list a half dozen likely aspirants to succeed Fudge. We saw it as a disservice to the black community. Too many of the names are retreads from an era of black politicians who never grasped the idea of elected officials as public servants.

Over the past few weeks, we have had numerous chats with community members regarding the District’s future, and sought suggestions of people who, blessed with a future outlook, could help guide the district into a new era of politics while echoing the best of our past. We will share those names  in the final installment of this series. But next, Part III will invite reflection on what qualities we would like to see in our next Congressperson? What should be the job description? 

Meanwhile, we invite you to share your thoughts on these questions, and to suggest names of potential candidates, whether they have previously run for public office or not. If you wish to share your suggestions in the comments, please use your real name. If you prefer to remain anonymous, email me directly. [It won’t be helpful to have Bill Neverwas anonymously float the name of Bill Neverwas.]

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County-by-county COVID-19 response ‘will not work,’ Harvard epidemiologist says

By Jake Zuckerman

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

A Harvard epidemiologist cast skepticism on Gov. Mike DeWine’s emphasis on forming “COVID defense teams” to respond to the pandemic on a county-by-county basis.

Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said a “patchwork approach” of uneven policy applications is doomed to fail.

“As long as we’re doing this in a haphazard, individual district-by-district way, it simply will not work,” he said.

He said the virus pays no attention to political constructs like county lines, and that communities cannot control the virus with an “asynchronous” response — if community A drives case counts down, it’s only so long until community B’s more relaxed approach bleeds over.

On Thursday, DeWine said he was calling on county leaders in every community to form “COVID defense teams.” He said they’d be comprised of mayors, commissioners, hospital executives, business leaders and others.

This comes as the epidemic in Ohio has soared to new heights — more Ohioans were infected with COVID-19 this week than any other during the pandemic. Similarly, more Ohioans are in the hospital Sunday with COVID-19 than any other point in history.

The county COVID-19 defense teams will focus on what resources are available in the community, where its problem lies, and what can be done to turn things around, DeWine said.

“Things happen at the local level,” he said. “Somebody at the local level who might not think they should wear a mask is a lot more likely to listen a neighbor than they are to me, or than they are to (Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert).”

Responding to Mina’s criticism, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said the teams are a supplement, not a replacement, to work the state is doing.

“We’re asking for more players in the field,” Tierney said.

DeWine said contact tracers and local health authorities are sounding alarms that they’re seeing spread at events like family gatherings, funerals, and weddings, more so than regulated spaces like bars and restaurants.

State policy, to be sure, drives much of Ohio’s COVID-19 response. The Ohio Department of Health, part of DeWine’s administration, has mandated masks, restricted alcohol sales on site at bars and restaurants, and implemented mass gathering and capacity restrictions on a statewide basis.

Significantly, however, it has left decisions on schools to local communities.

DeWine has repeatedly said there are no lockdowns or government responses of similar character looming, although he has said he wouldn’t rule them out entirely.

The ranking Democrat in the state House of Representatives, Emilia Sykes, criticized DeWine’s announcement Thursday.

“A county-by-county, city-by-city plan is no substitute for the statewide COVID response,” she said. “I understand delegation, but this is a dereliction of duty. This will not end well for Ohioans.”

‘A long winter’

Mina, speaking to reporters, warned the pandemic is moving in the wrong direction in the U.S.

The virus overcame “seasonal barriers” and continued to spread this summer. Now, colder weather is driving people inside, where the virus is more likely to spread. Plus, transmissibility increases as humidity decreases, all making for a deadly confluence.

“Unfortunately, we are, I think, in for a long winter,” he said.

Ohio and other states missed the chance to drive down case counts in June, July and August, he said, which could have set them up to confront the winter from a better position.

This, coupled with large scale rallies for President Donald Trump that continue to occur, could force states into uncomfortable positions if current trends continue.

“They’re going to be forced to shut down,” he said.

In Ohio, at least 219,000 residents have been infected with COVID-19. More than 19,000 have been hospitalized with the disease. More than 5,300 have died.

This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here

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Ohio Minority Health Strike Force issues final report, recommendations

DeWine announces plan of action to "advance equity"

By Susan Tebben

Ohio’s Minority Health Strike Force released its final report last week, laying out both how disproportionate the health care and economic lives of people of color are across the state, and ways to deal with it. 

The strike force was empaneled to collect information on COVID-19’s effect on African Americans and other minority populations, along with the racism and trauma that leads to worse health outcomes for those communities.

According to state numbers, African Americans represent 14% of Ohio’s population, but represent 24% of positive COVID-19 cases, 32% of hospitalizations and 19% percent of deaths from the disease.

The group’s report notes the most important framework needed to advance equity are the categories that make up social determinants of health, those things that make up the overall health of a person and community.

In order to advance equity, “racism must be dismantled,” the Strike Force members said, and that must include action in three categories: health care and public health, the social and economic environment and the physical environment.

The first recommendation from the group is a statewide, government-wide and community-wide acknowledgment of racism as a public health crisis.

Ohio’s legislature already has a resolution in both the House and Senate declaring racism a public health crisis, but neither have successfully passed through committee. The House version didn’t see a hearing before the body went on summer break.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine made several statements during his Aug. 13 press conference about the report, including stating outright that he believes racism is a matter of public health.

“There are racial disparities in Ohio … certainly in health, education, housing, and we could go on and on,” DeWine said.

The sponsors of the Senate’s proposed resolution said the governor’s comments further underscore the need for the measure.

OH Sen. Hearcel Craig

“We have a duty to protect the lives and freedoms of all Ohioans, and that starts with addressing the glaring inequities in our health care, housing, education and justice systems,” said state Sen. Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, in a statement. “Governor DeWine was right when he said that history will judge us for how we choose to respond to these disparities.”

House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, was a part of the Minority Health Strike Force, but criticized the lateness of the final report, and the lack of action by the governor.

OH House Minority Leader
Emilia Sykes, D-Akron

“For thousands of Black workers and Black families, it’s too little, too late — the damage is done,” Sykes said in a statement. “The governor and his team moved quickly to address some issues but not the ones that dealt with Black and Brown lives.”

Several of the strike force’s recommendations focused on creating cultural competency and health literacy, along with urging equitable representation in government and the private sector and a health equity lens for policy.

“The state of Ohio should support the recruitment and retention of an equitable representation of Ohioans of color in health care and public health professions in all established workforce development programs,” the report stated.

Through better representation, the strike force hopes to target those social determinants that cause increased mortality rates and comorbidities in people of color.

Comorbidities are health problems such as hypertension and heart disease that exacerbate or expand into bigger diseases. Racism and discrimination of all kinds can lead to trauma and stress, and social determinants like poverty can impact immune systems, and overall health, the strike force said.

“Comorbidities render communities of color more vulnerable to COVID-19 complications and death,” the report reads. “While protective factors, such as supportive family and caregiver relationships, social connections, and economic security can mitigate these risks, the impact of trauma and toxic stress often persists.”

Health disparities were a problem for people of color long before COVID-19 began ravaging the state and country. “Preexisting disparities” like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease were already prevalent in Black and other minority communities, and were only made worse by new traumas, the report said

With that in mind, the strike force also recommended new policies and services to address safe and affordable housing, broadband funding, access to public transportation, and criminal justice reform.

“State government leadership should formalize a partnership to identify policy reforms to reduce community violence, police brutality, and bias in policing, sentencing and other aspects of the criminal justice system,” the report stated.

In response to the strike force report, DeWine enlisted his cabinet in a “plan of action to advance equity,” which proposes an entirely new study group, the Governor’s Equity Advisory Board to “assist the state’s efforts to dismantle racism and promote health equity.”

In addition to Sykes, task force members from northeast Ohio included physicians Lolita McDavid, M.D. MPA [Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital] and Charles Modlin M.D., MBA, FACS [Cleveland Clinic]; business owner Andrew Jackson [Elson International, Inc.]; agency executive June Taylor [Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging]; Cleveland State Professor Ronnie Dunn, Ph.D.; and public officials Jamael Tito Brown [Youngstown mayor] and Alisha Nelson [director, RecoveryOhio], who served as co-chair. 

A full list of task force members can be found here.

This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.

Additional reporting contributed by R. T. Andrews.

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CPT | Garfield Hts. councilman in half-black district makes race-baiting FB post I Emilia Sykes wins national award

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Sometimes you can’t tell the players even with a scorecard

By R. T. Andrews

Vulgarity, racism, and misogyny in politics didn’t begin with the beyond shameful man in the White House known as 45, and it won’t end with his departure.

Poor taste and limited self-expression are not the province of any one political party.

For proof, we offer the recent Facebook post, shown here, by Garfield Heights ward 2 city councilman Charles “Chuck” Donahue Jr. [Donahue appears to have removed after fellow councilman Mike Dudley Sr. unfriended him on the social media site.]

It’s unlikely that Donohue recognizes the extent to which his post reveals his antiquated lens on black people, women, and patriotism. Several people with whom we spoke say that Donahue has long spewed venomous posts on FB.

Garfield Heights councilman Charles Donahue

Once we chanced upon the post, we scrolled through other posts on Donahue’s page. If we didn’t know he was a Democrat, we’d place him in the GOP camp. He is clearly more aligned with Trump and Pence than with Pelosi, underscoring the reality that many Cuyahoga County Democrats, including numerous elected officials, would be Republicans if they lived elsewhere.

All politics is indeed local.

The abundance of Donahue-type Democrats in our county renders absurd any notion that the local party is a unified left-leaning political machine. The party is neither unified or leftish, and it is certainly no machine.

Donahue Democrats would likely be among the first to decry as “identity politics” the demands of women and minorities for seats at the table that have for so long been the exclusive preserve of white men. DDs are the reason that so many black people, who are anxious beyond measure to remove the nation’s racist-in-chief from the bully pulpit in the White House, back Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.

Demographic data for Garfield Hts. is not readily available by ward, but it appears that roughly 40-45% of Donahue’s constituents are African American. Donahue was recruited to run for the seat in 2019 by the suburb’s old guard when it appeared that Tenisha Mack, a black woman making her third run for the seat, would likely defeat incumbent Charles LaMalfa, who barely held her off in 2017.

LaMalfa, while stepping aside for Donahue, nonetheless ran several nasty ads against Mack, citing some indiscretions from 20 years ago that had her on the wrong side of the law.

Mack, who has a master’s degree in criminal justice, is finishing up her doctoral studies in criminal justice, lost to Donahue by 28 votes margin 2019, the identical margin of her 2017 defeat.

Garfield Heights is in the throes of reprising a familiar pattern in our hyper-segregated county. The process has unfolded in past decades in East Cleveland, Warrensville Heights, Bedford Heights and Maple Heights. In each of those communities, strong ethnic political machines held sway long after demographic changes would have supported a shift.

One suspects that the city’s longtime mayor, Vic Collova, would welcome more of a racial détente than presently seems to exist. This past February, for example, he was a proud participant in the city’s first ever municipal Black History observance, a tri-city event at the Garfield Heights Performing Arts Center co-hosted with Maple Heights and Bedford.

Collova gets good marks from black politicians. Mike Dudley, Sr., the city’s senior councilman who represents the city’s historically black neighborhoods, says he respects Collova, acknowledging that Collova operates within certain political constraints. County Councilman Pernel Jones calls Collova a “straight shooter”.

Garfield Heights remains a very white town in terms of its city administration, its police and fire departments, and all of the top positions in city government. It seems only a matter of time before there are some major breakthroughs. Last year, the school board gained a black majority for the first time in its history. When Shayla Davis won a council seat in November, it gave the city two black council members for the first time.

While some of the tension represents the natural flow of population and power, the transition is seldom smooth in Cuyahoga County where race is involved. Black people are too often received as immigrants from an alien culture, instead of as people just trying to improve their circumstances and secure a piece of the American dream.

And so, once again is heard the echo of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without demand.”

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Statehouse News

State Rep. Stephanie Howse announced Monday on Facebook that she has contracted coronavirus:

Stephanie Howse

Yesterday at 4:04 PM · 

Hey Beautiful People, wanted to let you know that it was just confirmed that I have tested positive for the coronavirus. My symptoms (cough, lost of taste and lost of smell) are pretty mild and prayerfully I will make a full recovery.

I’m in isolation right now in my bedroom, so I’m taking it easy and staying hydrated. Love y’all and I’ll keep you posted on my status #StephRonaLife #WearAMask

She posted video here.

Akron’s Emilia Sykes is EMILY's List 2020 Rising Star

State Representative Emilia Sykes, D-34, the Ohio House Minority Leader, is the 2020 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star, an award bestowed by EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest fund-raising resource for women in politics.

In a statement released along with the announcement, EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock called Sykes “a phenomenal legislator and champion for civil rights, … a leading voice on racial health disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic and [someone who] passionately calls out systemic oppression of the Black community. … We are proud to celebrate Emilia’s fearless leadership and we could not be more excited to see where her work takes her in the future.” 

Sykes grew up in Akron as the daughter of two elected officials. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kent State University and has both a law degree and a Master of Public Health from the University of Florida.

The Rising Star Award celebrates an extraordinary woman serving in state or local office. Previous honorees include former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams in 2014, then Boston City Councilwoman and now Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley in 2015, and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in 2018.

The award will be presented at the virtual We Are EMILY Conference on July 27th and will feature remarks by Giffords, a former congresswoman from Arizona.

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