Wednesday, November 06, 2013

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.

5 comments:

  1. PG can't be the decisive vote on the streetcar, as there are five no votes besides him (Mann, Murray, Flynn, Winburn, Smitherman).

    I suspect apart from the streetcar, Flynn will be more likely to be in a coalition with the left than the right.

    And if the streetcar is so important, it needs to be asked: why did the Dems endorse 3 solid no votes (Sittenfeld, Thomas, Mann) and one probably no (Landsman) on that issue? Unless their entire slate was elected, it put the project in real peril.

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  2. The Dems endorcement process was itself a complete train wreck. The issue I think you miss the nuance on is who will vote to waste the money with a repeal vs those who "opposed" the streetcar during the election. That's the 64k dollar question.

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  3. PG will go with whatever path provides the least resistance to fulfill his political aspirations. I would be shocked if he ended up as the deciding vote on anything unless internal polling leads him to believe that such a decision would be good for what is sure to be a lifelong career in politics. He stands for nothing. He is good at raising money and getting people to like him and vote for him, though. The only question at this point is does PG run for mayor in four years or does he go for Chabot's seat? He doesn't strike me as a county type --too many difficult decisions need to be made in those positions, which is not something he appears to enjoy.

    If he does run for Chabot's seat I will get a kick out of him taking his act to the west side. I am guessing he will win but his act will not play as well over there as it does in Hyde Park.

    Actually, now that I think about it he may not even live in District 1 so he may have to move or just run as a DINO (which shouldn't be a problem for him) and try to win District 2. I think he would have trouble beating Wenstrup though.

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  4. Please god let PG run against Chabot, that's one place PG could help Cincinnati the most.

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  5. SITTENFELD WILL HAVE NO PROBLEM GETTING REPUB VOTES; HE GOT PLENTY OF THEIR MONEY BECAUSE OF HIS DADDY'S BUDDIES, THE CASTELLINIS ETC. HE WAS NOT AT ALL ACTIVE IN THE DEM PARTY WHEN HE RAN THE FIRST TIME BUT BURKE SAID WE COULDN'T NOT ENDORSE SOMEONE WHO CAME TO THE INTERVIEW ALREADY HAVING RAISED OVER 100 GRAND. I REMEMBER ANOTHER CANDIDATE WHO CAME TO THE INTERVIEW W/ OVER 100 GRAND - BERDING. PG & BERDING ARE BOTH DINO'S, PG JUST HAS A BETTER PERSONALITY.

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Don't be an idiot or your comment will be deleted.