Why Tim Burke Must Go

When asked by the Enquirer about Cranley's snubbing of two Democratic members of council Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke had the following to say:

'“I’m sorry that that happened, and beyond that I’m not going to say any more,” said Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.'

Once again Cranley is damaging the Democratic Party and Tim Burke sits by and lets him do it. Burke needs to be removed as Chairman of the HCDP. The 2013 Republican victory is the latest blunder that has happened under Burke's rein. That win came about in part from the following occurrences:

1. Burke allowing Cranley to run as the de facto GOP candidate with no penalty.
2. Since Cranley was running as the GOP candidate, Burke failing to push for a Qualls endorsement.
3. Burke allowing the Dems to endorse 10 for council.
4. Burke failing to get turnout remotely close to 2011.

The man is running the local party like it is 1988 and Hamilton County has not turned Blue. If the local Dems would start building up candidates insteading of relying on legacies, the party might grow to the dominate force its numbers suggest it should be in the City and the County.

Cranley Shows Republican Stripes in Committee Chair Appointments

I would love to hear how alleged Democrat John Cranley and his supporters are spinning Cranley's major insult to local Democrats with only four of nine committee chairs going to Dems and a total shut out of the most important Finance and Public Safety chairs. Those two chairs went to a Republican and a Tea Party crazy person. Yes, Charlie Winburn will run the Finance Committee and a guy who accused another former Council Member of being  CIA plant will oversee the Public Safety Committee.

No, we are not living in a Bizzaro world, but it really feels like it.

I hope Tim Burke took note, but I don't suppose he cares much. Instead, I really hope Democratic party activists take notice. Cranley is out to screw over the Dems and candidates they might seek to run for other offices.

His petty attack earlier this week on PG Sittenfeld played right into the long term hands of the GOP. It was as if he was paying back obligations to the GOP. It was just like that, as a matter of fact, so I wonder what he got from them.... If you have to wonder about that, you haven't been paying attention.

WVXU Changes: Cincinnati Edition Moves to 1PM; Here & Now 2-4

'The Story', the current 1 PM show on WVXU is ceasing production, so WVXU has announced that 'Cincinnati Edition' will move to 1 PM and the program 'Here & Now' will be added at 2 to 4 PM starting December 2. The Takeaway appears to be off the line up. During Thanksgiving week, multiple specials will air from 1 to 4, with 'Science Friday' airing as usual on Black Friday.

Blogging Isn't Cool Sums Up 'The Cincinnati Streetcar Controversy'

Quimbob over at Blogging Isn't Cool pretty much sums up the core of the streetcar 'controversy' with this quote:

"Killing the streetcar isn't about economics or the future of the city - it's about local power and ego."

Is Cranley's ego worth 80 Million Dollars?

Repulbican Efforts to Suppress the Vote Continue

Not sure who Greg Hartmann (R) thinks he is fooling but his idea to move the Hamilton County Board of Elections from Downtown to Mt. Airy is little more than an attempt to suppress the vote of non-Republicans by making it more difficult to vote. Bus routes to the West Side are not plentiful.

Additionally, by putting part of County Government in a remote part of the County it makes it far more difficult for people to have access. Government should be located where travel is most convenient for everyone, not just a few. Downtown is that place.

Where will they hold training for poll workers? How do they expect poll workers get to Mt. Airy if they live in Avondale?

Plus, if the BOE is keeping a location downtown, why have a second location? If they need more space, find something else in Downtown. There are plenty of options.

Good Advice from Don Mooney: Get Over It, Then Get Ready

UrbanCincy had a very good guest editorial yesterday Get Over It, Then Get Ready from Don Mooney. This is good advice not just on the Streetcar issue, but more importantly on the anti-city movement that has plagued Cincinnati since the onslaught of the last major urban flight in the 1960-1970's.

Will Someone Get Cranley and Kincaid a Copy of the City Charter?

When I read this blog post it gave me a really distinct impression: either Cranley is more ignorant than I think he is, or he's hired a staffer who is far more ignorant than he should be at this point. This gem is the example:

Jay Kincaid, Cranley’s campaign chief who’s moving to City Hall with him, said Monday they’d have to look into whether they technically needed a vote or if Cranley could just halt the work himself.

In case Kincaid hasn't already, I suggest he read Section III of the City Charter.  The Mayor doesn't have the authority to overturn an enacted ordinance.

In other words, he really doesn't have a much power as people think he does.

The Power is vested in the City Council and to a lesser degree the City Manager.  The Mayor can't really do a whole hell of a lot without Council.  His power is more in blocking Council actions via the veto or controlling what they can vote on.

Kincaid might brush up on his reading pretty quickly.

More Enquirer Anti-Streetcar Bias

I think the latest example of biased journalism from the Cincinnati Enquirer stems less about the paper's negative reporting on the Streetcar project overall and more about the Enquirer's bias toward its readers who it believes are mostly conservative and anti-streetcar.

Yep, that's a case of giving readers the news they want to hear, not giving them the news that is.

When journalism becomes no different than product development, then it should be treated as no different than selling an SUV or soap.

Great Play, Petunia and Chicken, at the Know Sunday and Monday

"Petunia and Chicken" trailer from Animal Engine on Vimeo.

Republicans Won the Election With Their Boy Cranley

The Republicans in the form of their various factions (COAST, Tea Party, Smithermanites) truly had a huge victory Tuesday night mostly thanks to John Cranley, their candidate for Mayor.  Here's how Cranley won.

1. Cranley got a shit ton of GOP Money.  Once the final filings for this race are filed, we'll get exact numbers, but one estimate put around 80% of his funding being from GOP or conservative sources.
2. The anti-Downtown campaign got the GOP voters out in full force.
3. Cranley got the vast majority of the GOP Vote.
4. Cranley successfully split the Democratic Party, to the cheers of the GOP.
5. Most importantly, the Democratic vote stayed home.  That I blame on the Democratic Party and Tim Burke.  It was like he wanted Cranley to win...

So all in all, Cranley selling his soul to the Republican successfully got him to be the next Mayor.  Now, how will he govern?  I will predict he will accomplish nothing, because he has plans to do nothing.  He will talk a big talk about the Pension Plan, but he can't do anything but kick the can down the road, something he did before to the city budget, which is one the of the big reason we have and underfunded pension plan in the first place.

Advice for P.G. Sittenfeld from a Cincinnati Democrat

Here is a guest post with some advice for Council Member P.G. Sittenfeld from a Cincinnati Democrat:

Please PG don’t hurt em 

PG Sittenfeld will likely be the swing vote in the next council; he will also have his eyes on an office that requires Republican votes. 

For the sake of the Democrats who sent him to council, he should resist the urge to form a governing coalition with the Republicans. That would mean he had been playing Democrats for the suckers we so frequently are.

The new council breakdown is:

• 4 GOP (Winburn, Murray, Flynn, Smitherman) whose platform was basically the same

• a mayor who ran on a platform identical to the GOP candidates

• 3 allied Dems (Young, Seelbach, Simpson)

• 1 new Dem who ran against the 3 allies

• 1 incumbent Dem who has voted against the 3 allies

The natural governing coalition, then, is 4 GOP + Mann or 4 GOP + PG. (Let’s note that, in an electorate that went 77% for Obama, this is a totally unacceptable outcome which basically means the Democratic Party failed.) 

Also noteworthy is that PG is the strongest Democratic candidate for either Chabot’s seat or county commission.

It would be really great for PG’s career if he provided the decisive vote on killing the streetcar, raising the city’s retirement age, killing the city Planning Department, and cutting the city’s earning tax.

I’m asking him nicely to not do those things.

Instead, he can form a Democratic governing coalition (which is the whole point of political parties) with our Democratic mayor and do things that are broadly supported by most Democrats.

If this doesn't happen--if Cranley and PG side with the GOP caucus as Cranley has indicated he will do on the four items above--then PG will be part of a Republican governing coalition for the first time in decades.

Did a Tea Party/Cranley Supporter Impersonate a Qualls Campaign Staffer?

I have received a very credible report that a Tea Partier/Republican/Cranley supporter in a Mercedes Benz attempted to get a campaign volunteer at least at one precinct to destroy campaign literature that supported Qualls.  The witness stated that this white male driving the Benz was wearing what appeared to be a doctored sticker or badge reading Roaxnne Qualls.  The witness stated it appeared doctored because it did not have the known campaign logos and graphics, just the name in what appeared to be a home made tag.  The impersonator attempted to give a  "goodie bag" to the worker in a brown paper bag.  This fact is curious because the Qualls campaign was not reportedly using brown paper bags to provide refreshments to volunteers at the polls.

Another report indicated that Tea Party volunteers, at least at one location, did get a "goodie bag" in brown paper bags.

Hopefully, no one gave over or destroyed any campaign literature.  This type of thing is not new to politics, but it is sad when ever it happens.

If you saw a man similar to the one mentioned and can provide any additional information, please email me at cincyblog@aol.com.  I'll keep your name out of it.

Cranley's Bad Judgement Showcased Thanks to Smitherman

I posted on this earlier, but I've got additional photographic evidence of John Cranley posting on his Facebook page a link to the Chris Smitherman rambling attack against Democratic candidates for City Council. This was taken down by Cranley, but it was up there long enough for ten Cranley supporters to like it. Likely either they were all Republicans/Tea Partiers or just didn't listen to it.

Young Dems Can Count

The Young Dems are getting some flack from at least one person running for council, but you can't knock their ability to count to Nine:

Ten minus two plus one equals Nine.

A Public Demonstration that Smitherman is Crazy

Yes, most people know that Chris Smitherman has a screw loose. If you don't know, then have a look at this over 13 minute long rambling video that Smitherman made himself. He has no support to back up any of the wild and outlandish claims he makes, but damn it sure makes a good (yet boring) Crazy Guy video.

Smitherman is a big supporter of John Cranley and it has been reported that Cranley has stated that Smitherman would be a "big part" of the Cranley administration if he won the Mayor's race.

Oh, by the way, Smitherman is a sitting member of council and is running again. He makes these types of videos often. Who supports him? What type of person believes the crap he is saying? Ignorance is not much of an excuse, but I guess that's the type of voter Smitherman preys upon.

Side note: John Cranley had a link to this video on his Facebook page today. It is no longer there. I guess Cranley's knee-jerk judgement is to believe and trust what Smitherman says on the surface, but when people pointed out the lies Smitherman was saying about Democrats running for Council, someone in the Cranley camp took it down. More bad Cranley Judgement, just like John Elkington.

UPDATE: Evidence of Cranley posting this video to social media is here from Greg Harris.

Election Night Parties

As is traditional here at Cincinnati Blog, we aim to unify the voters. The need to drink after an election is universal, so I will again do my best to promote where the candidates are headed on election night. Please pass on any additional locations or corrections.

Chris Seelback - Milton's OTR/Liberty Hill
Wendell Young - Mahogany's Downtown/Banks
Roxanne Qualls - Mahogany's Downtown/BanksY
Yvette Simpson - Mixx OTR
Michelle Dillingham - Park + Vine OTR
Laure Quinlivan - Kaze OTR
Mike Moroski - Rhinehaus OTR
Charter Committee - Arnold's Downtown
Kevin Johnson - Sonny's All Blues Cafe & Lounge North Avondale

Charlie Winburn - Winburn Campaign HQ College Hill
Republican "Leadership" - Montgomery Inn Boathouse Downtown