Raymond Headen enters appellate court race • Stephens challenging Houser • Mike White speech tonight • O’Neill at City Club • Beachwood makes history • SOTU • Rep. Fudge on CNN

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Raymond C. Headen running for appellate court

Thirty some years ago, when young lawyer Ray Headen imagined his career trajectory, he always seemed to wind up as either a law professor or an appellate judge. An unexpected call from county GOP chair Rob Frost asking the now seasoned Headen, 58, whether he would consider running for the county's Court of Appeals, helped him realize that now is the time.

Attorney Raymond C. Headen

Headen is running for the 8^th District Court of Appeals. Given Frost’s support, he is likely to be unopposed in the primary and should sail through until November in the nonpartisan race.

Headen brings broad and deep experience to the race. His career includes working for several well-known corporate firms and serving as general counsel to then-Ohio Treasurer Ken Blackwell. He recently served as sole special counsel in the original drafting of the 2015 Ohio Economic Development Manual published by the Ohio Attorney General.

Headen has the education, experience, and temperament to be an outstanding appellate judge. We commend Frost for recruiting him. And we want to let the party chair know we will be watching closely to see what kind of support he lines up for his candidacy. The local GOP has a history of encouraging black candidates to run and then offering only token support. It takes around $100,000 to run a competitive campaign, and Frost needs to take ownership for raising at least half that amount on behalf of his stellar recruit.

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Stephens challenges Houser in District 10 County Council race

Cleveland Heights councilwoman
Cheryl L. Stephens

Cleveland Heights councilwoman and former mayor Cheryl Stephens has decided to take her bid for County Council to the voters. She has pulled petitions to challenge Michael Houser in the Democratic primary on May 8.

Houser was appointed to the seat when he narrowly defeated Stephens 24-22 in a January 11 vote of District 10 County Democratic Central Committee members.

This race will likely test the alliances of several prominent local Democrats. County Executive Armond Budish, US Senator Sherrod Brown, and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge are all expected to support Houser, who became the endorsed candidate as the [week-old] incumbent after the central committee vote. Fudge had mildly supported Stephens until the Jan. 11 vote but moved swiftly to endorse Houser.

District 10 encompasses the cities of Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, and University Heights, Cleveland Wards 8 [all] and 10 [except precincts A, B, I, K & M], and the village of Bratenahl.

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O’Neill brings his gubernatorial campaign to City Club today

Bill O'Neill, who is running to be Ohio’s governor, will be in conversation at the City Club today at noon. The unconventional candidate has been an army officer, a registered nurse, and both a newspaper and television reporter. He

Former Ohio Justice Bill O'Neill

was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court in November 2012, where he served until he stepped down last week to campaign for governor. Prior to becoming a justice, he served on the Eleventh District Court of Appeals from 1997 until 2007. A Vietnam veteran, O'Neill is a graduate of Ohio University, Cleveland Marshall College of Law, and Huron School of Nursing.

O’Neill’s appearance today is part of the City Club’s series of conversations with candidates seeking statewide office in 2018. Call 216.621.0082 or more information.

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From Grasshopper to Greatness

Mike White was the dominant political figure in Cuyahoga County during his tenure as Cleveland mayor from 1990 through 2001. He remains both a compelling and an active figure in Cleveland politics today, although much of his work is below the radar.

Former Cleveland mayor Michael R. White

He will be speaking at 6PM tonight at JumpStart as the final speaker in the Leadership Series presented by the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation. Prior speakers included current Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, network guru George Fraser, entrepreneur Alexandria Johnson Boone, Dr. Charles Modlin, and civic leader Randell McShepard.

White’s presentation is entitled “From Grasshopper to Greatness”. JumpStart is located at 6701 Carnegie Ave. in Cleveland’s midtown. Call 216.229.7110 for more information.

White was interviewed by Teaching Cleveland in 2013 about his political life as part of a Cleveland history project. The interview is available in a series of videotapes beginning here.

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State of the Union speech tonight

Most thoughtful people I know despair about the current state of our union under the malevolent and dangerous instincts of our president. Random inquiries reveal few who will admit to plans on watching Trump address Congress, the nation, and the world tonight.

I do plan to watch. I don’t expect it to be in the least pleasant or reassuring, not to even contemplate uplifting. But I am curious as to how he will handle what I think will be an especially daunting assignment: speaking with the sophistication required to simultaneously address multiple audiences. Trump is most confident playing to his base, where he needs no script, no teleprompter, no preparation. He is adept at reading his crowd and always has truckloads of red meat at the ready. Unless he is totally delusional, he will have to know tonight that he is speaking to many who oppose much of what he represents. Will he be completely defiant or will he attempt some mollification? And will he be disciplined or extemporaneous?

Whichever, we will be curious. And we will also be curious to see if our local Congresswoman, Marcia Fudge, can bring some critical light to bear on the president’s remarks. She will be a guest on the Don Lemon show tonight on CNN following the speech.

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Immigration, the FBI, and Ohio Democrats

It’s Tuesday, which means our friends Laverne Gore and Jack Boyle will be on air from 6-7PM hosting their show, “Race Relations in America”. Tonight’s topics are expected to include the national debate on immigration, the leaked FBI memo, and the contestants in the crowded Democratic field for Ohio’s gubernatorial nomination. The show airs on WERE/1490 AM.

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Beachwood makes Black History

Beachwood City Council made history last week by selecting a black woman to fill the vacancy created when former council president Martin S. Horwitz resigned after he defeated longtime mayor Merle Gorden in a close three-way to become Beachwood mayor.

The surprise for many was that this “first” did not go to Gail McShepard, who had just finished a very respectable fourth in a field of six candidates vying for three at large seats on the council.

Beachwood’s charter called for council to fill the vacancy caused by Horwitz’s elevation. They invited applicants and according to reports interviewed all seventeen privately, including McShepard. They then met in open session and selected businesswoman June Elizabeth Taylor, who became the “first”.

June Elizabeth Taylor

We know Taylor as smart, opinionated, with a sharp tongue and with no penchant to bite her tongue. Politically savvy, she is a confidant to Gov. Kasich and has been repeatedly entrusted by him with political appointments, including her current service as chair of the Ohio Casino Commission. She clearly was close to some Beachwood insiders, based on her appointment by then-council president Horwitz to the city’s Charter Review Commission.

Twenty or so years ago, a smart attorney, psychologist and educator — David Whitaker — was elected to the Beachwood Board of Education. The community was not ready for his candor or independence and memory says he did not complete his full term. As the city timidly navigates its own changing demographics, we will be interested to observe how the city’s insular political culture will inevitably shift under the impact of Taylor’s dynamism.

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Black History Month

Is your organization sponsoring an event in recognition of Black History Month?

Make sure we know about it.

As Stevie Wonder might say, “Don’t delay… Send it right away.”

News, that is, about your event. Email us here: rta AT theRealDealPress.com.

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The Black Mall Experience

I’m out of town today and was not planning to post until tomorrow, when I want to share some thoughts engendered by the local Democrats’ recent judicial endorsement process.

But when the flier below arrived belatedly in my inbox, I wanted to pass it on.

We write a lot about local politics because of its importance in shaping our quality of life. But we firmly believe that developing supporting Cleveland’s black business and entrepreneurial community is of equal importance.

We share this notice in that spirit and encourage you to do the same. Copy this link and forward it to three friends.

Hopefully some of you will attend and let us know of your experience.

Kasich appoints new justice to succeed O'Neill

New Justice joins Ohio Supreme Court 

Mary DeGenaro, appointed as the 159th justice of the Ohio Supreme Court by Gov. John R. Kasich, was sworn in today by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor for a term beginning Sunday.

Justice-designate Mary DeGenaro

Justice-designate DeGenaro, who has served nearly 17 years as a judge on the Seventh District Court of Appeals in Youngstown, will begin serving on the Supreme Court on Jan. 28, filling the remainder of the term being vacated by the resignation, effective Friday, of Justice William M. O’Neill.

The appointed term ends Jan. 1, 2019. The seat is up for election this November for a full term beginning Jan. 2, 2019. Ohio Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms.

“I am mindful of, and humbled by, the responsibility you have given me on behalf of all the citizens of the state of Ohio,’’ Justice DeGenero, 56, told a statehouse news conference today with the governor. 

DeGenaro's appointment means that Ohio's highest court is now all-Republican. O'Neill, the only Democrat, is stepping down tomorrow to seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. His resignation will leave U. S. Senator Sherrod Brown as the sole Democrat elected to statewide office.

Effective next week, the Court will also be comprised of a majority of women.

DeGenaro began serving as a judge on the Seventh District Court of Appeals on Feb. 9, 2001. During her tenure, she sat by assignment with the Ohio Supreme Court and other appellate districts. Prior to her judgeship, she served on the Poland Village Council.

DeGenaro has served as an adjunct faculty member for the political science department at Youngstown State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. She received her law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where she interned with U.S. District Judge George White.

She currently is vice president of the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.

She was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1986.

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Political Consultant Jerry Austin in Beachwood tonight; Wyatt Tee Walker and Hugh Masakela leave us

Cuyahoga Politics Today

Renowned political consultant tells compelling tales

​I read Jerry Austin’s True Tales From The Campaign Trail: Stories Only Political Consultants Can Tell pretty much in one afternoon.

That wasn’t my expectation when I started in on it, but the stories have a crescendo effect. Each one made me want to read the next one. Since they average only a page or two, the book almost had a hypotic, slot-machine effect.

Political consultants appear to be a small self-selected group. They seem to enter the field through different doors but I suspect it’s the same few themes that draw them inside the hidden walls of campaigning.

One of the common traits of the best of them, it would seem, is a wry sense of humor. I wouldn’t call many of the stories Austin shares “funny”, but several have wrinkles that remind you of our common humanity.

In its heyday, Reader’s Digest magazine had a feature that I loved called “Life in These United States”. As I remember, the feature consisted of eight or so vignettes depicting incidents in the lives of a handful of folk with whom we millions of readers were sharing national borders.

Austin’s compilation of stories from his friends, colleagues and competitors evokes that feeling along a narrower trail. The cumulative effect is to give readers a sense of what it’s like to be inside a political contest, to appreciate the vagaries of candidates and campaigns alike.

Among the highlights of Austin’s career are directing Dick Celeste’s two successful Ohio gubernatorial campaigns and managing Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.

Austin will discuss his book and career at Beachwood Public Library tonight from 7PM-8:30PM. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. There are sure to be a number of political junkies in the audience.

Beachwood Library is a branch of the County Public Library located at 25501 Shaker Blvd.

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The following tribute is from a social media post by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

A MIGHTY OAK HAS FALLEN

The Reverend Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker

Civil Rights Icon • Prophet • Pastor • Scholar
Genius • Renaissance Man • Gentleman

Thank You for...

• Providing Leadership to SCLC under MLK

• Developing the Strategy for Birmingham in 1963

• Smuggling out of Dr. King’s cell the “Letter from The Birmingham Jail”

• Pressuring the World Council of Churches into taking a stand against Apartheid in S. Africa

• Showing us the African Roots of Black Sacred Music and Sounds

• Picking up the mantle from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the Prophet of Harlem for all those years at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ

• AND SO MUCH MORE...May You Now Find Rest

Wyatt Tee Walker was a key strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, a confidant of Martin Luther King, and a leading pastor and civic leader in Harlem. He died yesterday in Virginia at 88.

The following is from the New York Times article reporting his death:

In 1989, speaking from the pulpit of Riverside Church in Manhattan to celebrate Dr. King’s 60th birthday, he said that the establishment of a national holiday to honor King had “seduced us into becoming too comfortable.”

He added, “It is insufficient for us to come together on his birthday, sometimes in an artificial way, white and black together, and sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ and hold hands and get a warm feeling and then go back to business as usual in white racist America.”

We recommend your reading the entire article. We also commend this resource on Dr. Walker.

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The great jazz trumpeter Hugh Masakela also died yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 78. His death and life were reported here (NPR) and here (NYT).

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CPT • Fudge directs pushy gavel to get — at most — a costly endorsement wash

 Cuyahoga Politics Today

Fudge involvement in judicial endorsement process likely to carry stiff price for dubious gain

The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee met this past Saturday at Euclid High School amid high drama and intrigue.

Let’s say a couple of things right up front. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge imposed her will to secure a victory at the meeting, albeit a short term, narrow and costly one. She got one of her endorsed candidates, Andrea Nelson Moore, endorsed by the party leaders, an unlikely outcome but for Fudge’s intervention.

As we have been discussing here, here, here and here this past week, Democrats have a poor track record when it comes to supporting qualified candidates of color for office in majority white districts. It is highly unlikely that the Congresswoman’s heavy hand is going to impact that dismal record favorably. In fact, in the short term, she may have made it worse.

Here’s why.

Of the handful of black and Hispanic candidates seeking judgeships in one of the coveted “open” slots (i.e., no incumbent in the race), those who theoretically started with the best chance were Moore and Deborah Turner, each a familiar ballot names. But from the beginning the African American candidate with the inside track has been Karrie Howard, the ex-Marine and former federal prosecutor.

Howard started earliest, has worked the hardest and smartest, been the most strategic, and would seem to have the most money, in part because he hasn’t run recent exhaustive races, as have Turner and Moore. From the evidence he seems also to have been the only African American candidate who worked countywide. As a result, even after the scorched earth tactic Fudge put in place the night before, Howard fell only a couple of voters shy of securing the party endorsement. In that sense, he was a Fudge casualty, deprived of a significant advantage he had labored to win for more than a year.

But what is potentially worse for the community is that Howard’s campaign could now attract new opponents drawn by the turmoil that Fudge has created. Absent her involvement, the black community was going to have at least one endorsed Democratic judicial candidate – Howard – for an open seat. With her intrusion, there is still one – Moore – who may pay a price in the primary for the bare-knuckle way it was achieved.

Moreover, the Fudge camp cannot have endeared itself to the collateral damage suffered by incumbent State Sen. Kenny Yuko, D-25 and judicial candidate Emily Hagan, each of whom failed to garner what would normally have been a routine endorsement, but for the overt racial pall the Congresswoman introduced into the proceedings.

Democrats nationally have a lot to sort out as their separate wings do battle in the wake of what would seem to both interparty and intra-party realignment in this fluid political turmoil. Republicans are doing the same thing internally as they grapple with whether Republicanism going forward will mean only white nationalism.

The judicial endorsements were not the only ones of consequence at the recent Dems. In addition to the Yuko race, notable results included Marty Sweeney’s eyebrow-raising lopsided victory over Nickie Antonio in a battle of state reps looking to be the Dem nominee for State Senate in District 23; Lakewood councilman Tom Bullock handily defeated former State Rep. Mike Skindell in their endorsement battle over in District 13.

State Sen. Sandra Williams, D-21 easily bested the Fudge-supported challenge of former Cleveland councilman Jeff Johnson.

Also coming away with endorsements in contested primaries were state rep. hopefuls Terrence Upchurch [District 10] and Juanita Brent [District 12].

We leave for a future post the comments of party chair Brown, who decried the “broken” judicial endorsement process. You can see a portion of her statement here.

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Single Payer Healthcare

US Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is leading a town hall meeting tonight on Medicare for All. The program is expected to look at the: 1. current state of health care in the US; 2. possible economic impacts of single-payer system; and, 3. how universal health care works in other countries.

The event will be live-streamed by a number of online outlets, including NowThis, ATTN, and The Young Turks, in addition to Sanders’ own social media accounts.

The town hall is set to run from 7-8:30PM tonight.

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#MeTOO

Laverne Gore and Jack Boyle co-host one of the few local talk shows that we know about that seek to discuss important public issues. Tonight, their “Race Relations in America” program will discuss the #MeToo movement.

The program airs Tuesdays from 6-7PM on WERE/1490 AM.

We have not yet had a chance to listen to this show but we’d love to know what its listeners think of it. Also, if there are other locally-produced substantive programs out there dealing with the intersection of race, class, and/or culture issues, let us know at rta AT theRealDealPress.com.

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