POLITICS • Ohio Dems to pick new leader tonight

Regardless of outcome, state’s elected black officials need to find ways  to increase influence

By R.T. Andrews

The Ohio Democratic Party’s executive committee will meet virtually tonight to select a successor to outgoing chairman David Pepper, who is stepping down after five years on the job. 

Liz Walters

The new chair is expected to be Liz Walters, the party’s former executive director, a Summit County Council member who was recently elected as council president. Walters has the endorsement of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and will also receive support from the major labor unions that contribute heavily to the party’s treasury. 

Antoinette Wilson

Walter’s main challenger is Antoinette Wilson, a Franklin County-based political consultant. Her firm, Triumph Communications, touts  a sterling record of victories in many high profile races, including four successful election campaigns for Columbus mayor Michael Coleman, along with recent wins for Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner, who outpaced President-elect Joe Biden on the state ballot.

Despite this record of achievement, Wilson is clearly not a favorite of the party’s bigwigs, although she is endorsed by Janet Carson, who leads the party’s county chair association.  Wilson was a candidate for the post in December 2014 but lost out to Pepper, who was labor’s choice. 

Whatever chance Pepper had for a successful tenure may have been lost when his  sidekick, former state senator Nina Turner, left his leadership team after a few months to join U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign to win the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. Pepper and Sanders had promised to institute "a culture of high ethics, accountability, transparency, trust and fairness" and to promote diversity and inclusion in their administration.

The measurables for those lofty goals were not high on Pepper’s watch, and the party’s lackluster performance in those areas was not counterbalanced by success at the ballot box, where Republicans continue to batter Democrats statewide, outside of the state supreme court, where Democrats in the last few years have gone from being shut out 7-0 to winning three seats.

And on that score, had Pepper taken seriously the pleas of black elected officials not to clear a path yet again for John O’Donnell — he of Brelo case fame — to make his third run at a Supreme Court seat, the Democrats today might be enjoying majority status on that bench.

Which brings us back to tonight’s choice. At a Facebook forum earlier this week both Walters and Wilson made pledges to consult frequently with black elected officials in state party affairs, swore to promote diversity and inclusion, and in fact to help underwrite the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. They also promised to be respectful of the importance of the black vote.

I don’t know either Walters or Wilson, although I have spoken with the latter about her candidacy. I suspect that whoever wins is likely to be more solicitous of black input than has traditionally been the case at party headquarters. It won’t take much for that to be the case.

But even as most black legislators and the Ohio Young Black Dems fall in line behind Walters, the same problems persist. Black elected officials who want to be respected and consulted must do the work of turning out their districts in elections. They need to spend less time supplicating party officials and more time studying what Pepper’s law school classmate, Stacey Abrams, did in Georgia to get out the vote in Georgia, and figuring out how to adapt those methodologies to Ohio’s undervalued black electorate.

When the turnout in black precincts advances from subterranean to at least sea level, their representatives won’t have to mope around, hat in hand. In that regard, at least in Cuyahoga County, black state legislators may be indirect beneficiaries of the energy jolt that Nina Turner’s Congressional bid and Justin Bibb’s mayoral campaign promise to inject into the local black body politic.

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Cuyahoga County Democratic Party losing executive director

Cuyahoga County Democratic Party executive director Ryan Puente has stepped down after two and a half years on the job. 

Puente, who announced the move simultaneously via Twitter and Facebook, says that he is leaving "to pursue another opportunity".

With a number of high profile races on tap for 2021, including the Cleveland mayoral race and a likely Congressional race, the timing and vagueness of Puente's statement on social media is sure to fan speculation about his next move.

There have been rumblings Puente will soon sign on to run a campaign. More than one person has linked him to political newcomer Justin Bibb, who made a splash recently with the announcement his committee had banked to close $180,000 in less than three months for a likely run for Cleveland mayor. 

It is hard to imagine better preparation to run a mayoral campaign than Puente has acquired over the past few years as the go-to person for virtually every Party activity. He has worked closely with both party officials and rank and file, earning kudos from all corners for his dedication, knowledge, and professionalism. 

In a recent letter to Party members, Chairwoman Shontel Brown wrote, “Ryan has been outstanding in his role as Executive Director, I can’t begin to tell you how many positive comments I have received about Ryan and his commitment to the job. He is so very responsive to everyone, and he juggles so many things at once. He has credibility in the community which says a great deal about our organization.”

Cleveland city councilman Blaine Griffin, commenting on Puente's exit, described him as "one of the most talented people I've run across in the political arena."

Puente's exit comes at an especially critical time for the party. While he has been acclaimed as the high efficiency engine behind many of the organizing and campaign successes local Democrats have enjoyed recently, county and city Democrats have also been roundly criticized for low turnout, especially among Cleveland voters last month. Among those criticized for poor effort have been state party chair David Pepper, who has stepped down, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who was announced earlier this month as President-elect Joe Biden's choice to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Should Fudge be confirmed by the Senate, she would resign from Congress, leaving a vacancy to be filled in a special election around the same time as Cleveland's mayoral campaign will kick off.

Party chair Brown is among the announced candidates for Fudge's 11th District seat if and when it becomes open. Former state senator Nina Turner and former Cleveland councilman Jeff Johnson have also tossed their hats into the ring.

Given that the party's endorsement in the primary will be highly sought, questions of party leadership are sure to receive added scrutiny. Puente told The Real Deal Press that the short term plan will involve the Party's hiring a part time office manager until his replacement is found.

• • •

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

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

Fudge departure must be wake up call for 11^th District’s Black Civic Leaders — Part III

By R. T. Andrews

The gale force entry of former state senator Nina Turner into the developing race to succeed Cleveland area Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, pending her confirmation as the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, knocked our plans for this column momentarily askew. 

Having discussed here in Part I and here in Part II the District's proud origins and history, and its importance to Cleveland’s black community, we had planned to advocate for a new process whereby we might begin more effectively to cultivate the generation of new black political leadership. 

Turner’s reemergence on the local scene, taken together with the initiative Justin Bibb is showing in the race to replace Frank Jackson next year, might seem to suggest a reinvigorated local political scene. But Black Cleveland needs a long term strategy if it is ever to realize its potential as an agentic community or capitalize on its status as the city’s largest ethnic group. 

If we can do that, we would not only address our seemingly intractable problems of poverty and despair, we would galvanize a sorely needed larger civic vision that for once was truly inclusive, not just so in our typical top down pro forma way. 

A smart community has a system for developing and nurturing talent.

John O. Holly, founder and president of The Future Outlook League

So, while Rep. Fudge is still our Congresswoman, we should consider that a smart community has a system for developing and nurturing talent. Let us realize that the mid-twentieth century ecology that produced our community’s greatest political talent — the Stokes Brothers — is not the environment we inhabit today. Carl and Louis Stokes, separately and collectively, were a once in a lifetime occurrence, products of a compact hothouse black community where they could attach themselves to a John Holly, perhaps black Cleveland’s greatest civic leader, and imbibe his sense of community service and spirit. 

Black Cleveland needs a long term strategy if it is ever to realize its potential as an agentic community and capitalize on its status as the city’s largest ethnic group. 

Carl and Lou came of age at a time when avenues for black excellence were tightly constricted. Many avenues of career and professional development were unavailable. Black people were unwelcome in every professional association. Black real estate agents could not participate in multiple listing services and could not even call themselves realtors, forcing them to invent the term “realtists”. You couldn’t find a black professional anywhere from downtown east until you neared 55^th and Woodland Ave.

How did we overcome? We got organized, informally and formally. John Holly formed The Future Outlook League, which quickly became 10,000 strong, forcing employers large and small to open their hiring gates.

Informally, civic leaders convened Operation Alert, a regular conclave of community leaders who shared information, plotted how to capitalize on vulnerable points in the area’s apartheid regime, and discussed how to navigate both opportunities and crises, whether sudden or foreseeable. 

The eventual 1960s breakthrough was communal, collective, cultural, and simultaneously national, global, and local. 

Regrettably, once black people began to find status and success in positions of public service, i.e. as elected officials, the definition and pecking order of community leaders and spokespeople began to shift, often with unfavorable results. Sometimes we placed impossible demands upon some of these officials. More often we asked too little of them and failed to hold them accountable. And most fatally, we failed to recognize the extent to which they in fact often answer to interests outside the community that are inimical to our own.

How can we change a system where too many of our elected officials do not work for us, do not respect us, do not love us enough to care for our welfare?

In much of the black community, the quality of our elected officials is left to chance. We do not identify, train, nurture and develop our political leaders. They self-select, more often than not becoming beholden to those who finance their campaigns.

There has to be a better way.

To find it, we spoke over the past month with a number of folks from all walks of life about the black community might develop a more effective politics. The brightest among them were quick to decouple the issue from any particular office or imminent election.  The frustration and despair that sometimes peeked through our questioning gave way before long to hope as we realized the enormous talent that already resides within our community. 

In the midst of our discussions, cleveland.com published a column that purported to identify some leading candidates to succeed Fudge. With a couple of exceptions, the list was tired, perhaps reflecting a veteran reporter’s old paradigm and his obvious disconnect from the black community of the present and future. It seemed almost an attempt to select a leader for us.

This is what happens when by our inaction we leave the field to others. 

In the next and final installment of this series, appearing this Sunday, we will explore how we might become, as a friend of mine is wont to say, “active participants of our own deliverance”.

• • •• • •

CPT • Turner candidacy upsets local political apple cart

Cuyahoga Politics Today 

Candidate’s return home will raise District’s profile, heighten the stakes 

By R.T. Andrews 

Nina Turner announcing from her home in Cleveland's Lee-Harvard neighborhood that she will be
running for Ohio's 11th Congressional District seat if Rep. Marcia Fudge vacates the office upon her
confirmation as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. [Screenshot by R. T. Andrews]

She hasn’t won an election for anything in over a decade, and the last time her name appeared on a ballot was in 2014, when her candidacy for Secretary of State was part of a statewide ticket that cratered from top to bottom, but if you watched the rollout of former state senator Nina Turner’s declaration of candidacy for a Congressional seat that is not yet vacant, you know that star power has come to Cleveland and its 11th District.

Turner left town in 2015 in bold and shocking fashion when she very publicly shifted her allegiance from Hillary Clinton, the presumptive favorite for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, to the insurgent Bernie Sanders, because his campaign more closely aligned with her principles. 

If I say many of her fans felt betrayed and effectively burned her political jersey in effigy, then you know what’s coming next. Turner took her native political talents to the national stage where she performed under the brightest lights, the harshest scrutiny, and against the toughest competition. She performed in leading roles and was regularly center stage in the high stakes production of two national political campaigns. In between, she headed a dynamic national political organization for several years and spent frequent time as a commentator on national television networks. 

Long story short, Turner left town on a mission, learned what it takes to compete at the highest level, sharpened her skills, developed a team of loyalists, and in the process built a national fan base. 

Yesterday, flanked virtually by a carefully selected array of former legislative colleagues, current public officials, and Hollywood star power in Danny Glover, Turner announced from her home in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard community, that she was running to succeed Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who will vacate the seat if confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for the incoming Biden administration. The event was impeccably scripted, the production values were tight, the presentations were succinct, coordinated, and on point, and the candidate was at her most radiant, composed, and centered. (She obviously understands the suburban voters she will need to win over to broaden her base.)

Clearly, like another prominent prodigal Northeast Ohioan, Turner has returned better equipped to pursue the brass ring. 

By law, Gov. Mike DeWine would set dates for special primary and general elections if Fudge resigns. The winner of the special general election would serve until December 31, 2022. 

Turner, 53, joins county councilwoman Shontel Brown, 45, and former state senator and ex-Cleveland city councilman Jeff Johnson, 62, as announced candidates to succeed Fudge. The field will undoubtedly expand when and if a vacancy in fact occurs. 

Make no mistake: Turner’s candidacy, while anticipated, irreversibly changes the dynamics of the race in many ways. 

First and foremost, Turner’s presence assures the race will be about policies and ideas. Atypical of most local politicians of any stripe, the Turner brand is associated with big policies and big ideas. She will force discussion of critical issues like healthcare, public education, affordable housing, food insecurity, living wage, income inequality and public transportation in any candidate forums. The candidates who have not prepared themselves adequately to debate these issues will likely find themselves exposed, if not overwhelmed. 

Notwithstanding Turner’s presence in the race, she is by no means a shoo in. Her presumptive status as front runner in an incomplete field will have no value when the votes are tallied. 

Indeed, Turner herself may become an issue. A passionate person who inspires many, she also incites fierce opposition on both personal and policy matters. Some suburban white women may never forgive Turner for her perceived abandonment of gender solidarity when she left the Clinton plantation for Sanders. Businesspeople who applauded Turner’s courage as a solitary African American advocate for county reorganization in 2009 will be appalled by the prospect of an unapologetic leftist representing the District. And Cleveland’s staid black political establishment, a low expectations bunch, are unlikely to appreciate Turner’s disruptive force. 

So, assuming that Fudge leaves office in the next 45 days or so, expect the following: 

· The race to succeed her will draw the most national attention to a local political contest since Carl Stokes was elected mayor in 1967. It’s already begun.

· Anti-Turner forces will coalesce around an ABT candidate. (Anybody But Turner) 

· Many disengaged eastside Cleveland voters, who once comprised the District's heart, will find their concerns center stage. 

· A spirited special Congressional contest will impact next year’s mayoral race in Cleveland, possibly accelerating a wholesale changing of the guard.

And in a wild off the cuff prediction: do not be surprised if northeast Ohio’s original prodigal child, who now reigns in Los Angeles, but whose childhood home is part of the District’s crazy Akron tail, and who has become widely respected for his willingness to speak out politically from his platform of fame and fortune, finds a candidate to endorse in the race.

• • •• • • 

NIna Turner in Greater Cleveland today for Progressive Caucus, Kyle B. Earley

Former State Senator Nina Turner, who is now president of Our Revolution, a national progressive political organization formed in the aftermath of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, will be the featured speaker at a 1PM rally today sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus.

The rally will be held at Newburgh Heights City Hall, 3801 Harvard Avenue, Newburgh Heights, Ohio 44105.

Also during the day, Turner is expected to appear elsewhere around the city on behalf of Kyle B. Earley, who is running for the Democratic nomination for state representative in District 10. That seat is currently held by Bill Patmon, who is term-limited.

The primary election is May 8. Early voting will begin April 10. The registration deadline to vote in the May primary is April 9.

Nina Turner to accept slot on Green Party ticket?

Ohio politician has history of going against the grain

(Reports have been circulating nationwide since yesterday that Nina Turner has been offered the Vice President slot on the Green Party ticket. Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein tweeted about 4pm today that no offer has yet been made and that she is "in discussions with several strong candidates".)

It was a typically bold and courageous move when former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner surprised many in the political world and joined up with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in his pursuit of this year’s Democratic presidential nomination. She quickly became one of Sanders’ most prominent, vocal, and ubiquitous surrogates, opening rallies, introducing the candidate, and appearing on talk shows on a regular basis.

It was a bold move because Sanders was a distinct underdog with next to no recognition in the black community. Heck, he wasn’t even a Democrat, and Turner had just gotten through establishing herself as a major rising star in the Ohio Democratic Party. 

A swift and unpredictable rise

Turner’s political rise had been unusually swift and totally unpredictable. The eldest of seven children, her parents split up before she was five. Graduating from high school in 1986, she worked a variety of jobs before returning to school. But before turning 30, she had obtained associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees, along with getting married and starting a family.

Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner

Turner’s first political position was in Columbus as legislative aide to then state Senator Rhine McLin of Dayton. She returned home to work in the administration of Cleveland mayor Michael White, rising quickly to become Executive Assistant of Legislative Affairs and then Director of Government Affairs for Cleveland public schools, which are under mayoral control. With the mayor’s blessing, in 2001 she ran for city council against the incumbent. She lost, but four years later, she beat his wife, who had succeeded him mid-term.

Turner took office in January 2006 but served substantially less than a full four-year term. When an unexpired term in the Ohio Senate came open in 2008, she leapfrogged several of her political seniors to win the appointment. She later won a full term and remained there until she was term-limited in December 2014.

Turner’s boldest move as a public official came in 2009, when she stood virtually alone among Cleveland-area black elected officials and backed a measure to reform a corrupt and obsolete county government that had been thoroughly dominated by the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Vilified by the party hierarchy and most of the black political establishment for her apostasy, Turner became a certified political star when the reform measure received overwhelming support countywide, including the black community. She ruffled establishment feathers again in early 2012 with a preliminary challenge to Congresswoman Marcia Fudge before backing off and serving out her state senate term.

The next year, she started running for Ohio Secretary of State, hoping to become the first-ever black Democrat to win a non-judicial statewide election. Although the entire Democratic slate went down in flames in November 2014, her campaign enhanced her stature within the party, and she became the virtual co-leader with incoming party chair David Pepper until she resigned to join the Sanders campaign.

Diverging from the Clintons

It is unclear what commitments Turner made to the Hillary Clinton camp, if any — Turner says none — but the Hillary forces, including the eventual nominee herself, saw Turner’s move as a betrayal, in no small part because Bill Clinton had helped raise funds for Turner’s statewide bid. While Clinton forces all but accused Turner of being an ungrateful runaway, Turner said she chose Sanders because his position on the issues resonated more with what she saw as the black community’s needs.

Clinton of course went on to defeat Sanders for the nomination after a surprisingly long and difficult struggle, in part because she kept a near lock on African American support.

Turner was a fierce and effective campaign Sanders advocate throughout the campaign, so no doubt the Clinton forces enjoyed the opportunity to thwart Sanders’ two attempts to reward Turner’s work. Although wild rumors had Turner being stripped of her credentials and evicted from the convention, the actual payback was her being denied the opportunity to introduce Sanders the first night and then to place his name in nomination the second night.

Turner’s choice

No one should doubt the independence of Turner’s political calculus or her willingness to go against the grain. I have heard her deliver many speeches to diverse groups; not once has she failed to reprise her grandmother’s injunction about the importance of having a strong backbone. Turner is clearly not a Hillary fan at this point, nor is she apt to feel any loyalty to the Party establishment.  Accepting the reported offer to run with Jill Stein on the Green Party ticket would likely raise Turner’s national profile, and probably that of the Greens as well.

But to what end? The Green Party will not win the Presidency. They more than likely will come in fourth, behind both major parties and the Libertarians.

At age 48 and with undeniable political ambition, Turner is potentially a future mayor of Cleveland; that seat could open up in 2021. If a Clinton victory led to a federal appointment for Marcia Fudge, Turner would be a frontrunner for Fudge’s District 11 Congressional seat.

Yet too many losing races will dim even the boldest star. While Turner has options, she will pay a steep price for siding with the Greens whether or not Clinton wins in November. Nobody would risk incurring the ire of Madame President, and given the alternative to a Clinton victory, it’s hard to think Turner would want to do anything that would contribute to a GOP win this fall.

Successful political careers are based on some alchemy of hard work, relationships, timing, and luck. Bold as she is, it’s hard to see Turner putting all her chips on a Green veep’s race. I expect her to leverage the Green Party offer, decline it with grace, and find a way to remain relevant until a likely open mayoral race in 2021. It won’t be easy after the way the Clinton forces dissed her last week, but Nina surely knows politics ain’t beanbag. Sure, on some level squelching Turner’s biggest national moment was personal, but that’s how the game is played.

Turner usually does the right thing for the community. With all that’s at stake nationally, indeed globally, as well as personally, look for Turner to keep whatever blue chips she still has and not exchange them for a self-destructive green one.

• • •

No real surprises at filing deadline for May primary; National Signing Day

The usual flurry of last minute filings produced no real news at today’s deadline. Most incumbents eligible to return to their seats [some state legislators are term limited], filed early to allow themselves a margin for error. 

Cuyahoga County leans so heavily Democratic that the Republican Party is unable to field even a single candidate, much less the two or more that would make a GOP primary meaningful.

Meanwhile, much of the suspense on the Democratic side was resolved last Saturday when the Party’s executive committee met at Euclid High School and endorsed candidates for the state legislature, county council, county executive, and county judgeships. Those endorsements are especially significant in primaries where turnout is relatively low, and challengers are usually less well known. The early endorsement process forces would be candidates to declare themselves early if they harbor any hope of winning the party’s stamp of approval.

Thus it may be that the biggest story coming out of last Saturday’s executive committee session is that some incumbents and big names who would normally be expected to snare an endorsement did not. State Representative John Barnes was one such incumbent unable to snare the 60% of present and voting executive members necessary to win endorsement. This result is at least partly attributable to the fact that his primary opponent, former Pepper Pike councilwoman Jill Miller Zimon, has been running hard and smart for months. This House District 12 race is likely to be closely watched for a number of reasons, including the fact the primary winner will have smooth sailing to Columbus, since the seat is one of four General Assembly seats that drew not a single Republican aspirant. The races for Senate Districts 21 and 25, and House District 10 also saw no GOP candidate file, even though both Senate seats will be open, that is without an incumbent. State Sen. Shirley Smith, D-21 is term limited and running for county executive, while State Sen. Nina Turner, D-25, bypassed a bid to retain her seat, choosing instead to run statewide for Secretary of State.

In addition to Zimon’s successful holding action against Barnes, a second noteworthy result from last Saturday was Cleveland city councilman Mike Sweeney’s failure to win endorsement in the race to represent House District 14. He will have to duke it out with two credible challengers.

We will report on the composition of all the races for both parties once the Board of Elections has ruled on the validity of those candidates who filed close to deadline.

• • •

A cautionary tale on National Signing Day

Today was the day on which high school seniors could, with unseemly fanfare, formally announce the college they will attend this fall in order to continue their education and play football.

While we rejoice with the young men whose athletic prowess has opened doors that might otherwise have remained closed in our increasingly unequal society, we nonetheless wish to offer this cautionary reminder of the pitfalls along the road. [h/t to Roger Jones].