Showing posts with label Cranley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cranley. Show all posts

Thursday, January 16, 2020

After Years of Desire, John Cranley to Get His HardRock Cafe

17 years ago John Cranley was longing to turn OTR into a chain restaurant paradise. I called his effort ‘McMain Street’ back then, big box chain restaurants as his goal to fill Main Street in OTR. Well, after a long, long wait, John is getting a version of his desire: a Hard Rock Cafe, the pinnacle of pop culture in 1989. As part of the newly renamed HardRock Casino a HardRock Cafe will be built, just a block from Main Street.

I am positive John will be monitoring the construction schedule so he can block out his calendar to be sure to take part in the many events involved around its opening.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Cranley and Smitherman Both Want a Blue Pony, with Jason Williams as Stable Boy

With the John Cranley's self made drama at City Hall this month, one might be fooled into thinking that the City Manager is a threat.  Harry Black is a not a threat, he is a roadblock.  He is blocking the lustfully power hungry Mayor and 'Vice-Mayor', John Cranley and Chris Smitherman respectively, from illegally seizing control of Cincinnati City government.  Other than the City Manager and City Council, the real hurdle getting in their way, and making their efforts illegal, is the the law, specifically the City Charter and how it defines the role and power of Mayor.

Both Cranley and Smitherman want power.  They want to be a strong mayor.  I really hope this isn't some type of fetish role-playing for either man, trying to be a modern day Boss Cox.  I get they might like gilded age costumes, but that's just taking it too far.  Steampunk Smitherman does sound like a good nickname, however.

The problem for them is that the Mayor has limited power.  The mayor is not the boss of the city.  The mayor has  some power, but not total control of all City employees.  Cranley wishes he had that, but knows unless he can somehow remove term limits (unlikely as the GOP likes them), he's only working for his legacy.  Cranley's legacy rests solely on Republican Chris Smitherman.  Yes, I called him a Republican.  I am probably going to be called a racist for daring to call a duck a duck, but Smitherman's Twitter StormTroopers can bloviate all they want.  I just hope they can figure out I am a real person.  They've claimed I'm an pen name for elected officials or maybe they think I'm a Russian Bot, but here's hoping the kids can study up.  Maybe even read the over 15 years worth of blog posts I've written, on my archive.  I may not be a good writer, but I sure as Hell have been doing this long enough to know who the players are in Cincinnati politics.  I've been around long enough to know that when you vote in the Republican primary, endorse Republican candidates, adopt Republican polices, campaign with Republicans, attack Republican enemies, and take Republican money, then I am going to call you a Republican.  If Smitherman thinks he can't get elected mayor as a Republican, he should understand that lying about you policies and allegiances isn't going to work either.  You can't compartmentalize like Yasir Arafat in Cincinnati.  Don't mix messages with different audiences.

The funny twist in recent Enquirer coverage of the Mayor's Chaos comes from the resident hack political columnist Jason Williams. He is almost criticizing John Cranley.  I say almost, as Williams still tried his best to blame Cranley's drama on what he's calling the 'urban progressives' and 'Progressive 5.'  Not sure what he means by urban, as this is a city, but we do have a suburban mayor, so I'll presume Williams isn't a fan of people who like cities. He's certainly championing those against the City of Cincinnati. That would include Republican member of council Chris Smitherman.  Williams, I guess, finally figured out he's not going to get a job in Cranley's administration, so now he's pushing the anti-city Manager form of government that Smitherman painfully desires.  His lust for power borders on the psychotic and makes Cranley's penchant for sticking it to his political foes look like pin pricks in comparison.  A character like Smitherman without a professional city manager to run the day operation would look like a small version of a Trump White House.  Same kind of ego, but with more outward signs of psychosis.

Strong mayors are not a good idea in Cincinnati and not with those wanting it now.  Former Ohio State Senator Eric Kearney stated well what I believe is the underlying problem with the position Cranley and Smitherman (with Williams) are putting forth:
The problem is with the way they are trying to govern.  They want the government and the populace to bend to their will.  That's not leadership, that is bullying.  Leaders don't create controversy as a means to push forward as a political pretext to change the form of government. If there is a problem with the form of government, make the claim as to why, present facts, and be honest.  If you just want to gain more power, then I say fuck off, we don't need mini-Trumps in Cincinnati.

Sunday, December 31, 2017

In Case You Live in a Cave: 2017 Sucked in Politics

Anyone paying attention knows that 2017 sucked, bigly.  Here are the worst things politically that happened nationally and locally:

Nationally:
  1. Trump took office as President.
  2. Trump obstructed office.
  3. The Republicans obfuscated the Congressional investigations of Trump.
  4. Trump stayed in office.
  5. Tie: Trump spoke/Trump lied
  6. Trump continued to push hate, racism, and sexism.
  7. Trump Tweeted.
  8. Trump acted like a petulant child.
  9. FOX News solidified is standing as propaganda for Trump.
  10. An increased number of Americans (Right-Wing and Left-Wing) believe they are informed on politics.

Locally:

  1. John Cranley was elected to a second term as Mayor.
  2. Republican Chris Smitherman was elected to another term on City Council.
  3. Democrat John Cranley appointed Republican Chris Smitherman as Vice-Mayor
  4. Cincinnati Republicans overwhelming supported Cranley.
  5. The Ohio Democratic Party Supported John Cranley for Mayor, despite his reliance on the Republicans to get elected.
  6. Voter turnout sucked once again.
  7. People are still incredibly ignorant on how government and elections work.
  8. Republican Amy Murray joined the Governor's race ticket as a Lt. Governor candidate for a Trump supporting candidate for Governor.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Jason Williams' Playbook is Thin and Trite and Based on People in Power

With his year end kiss ass and trash column, the Enquirer's columnist Jason Williams lays out his jounalisticpolitical philosophy: kiss the ass of the people in power and Trash those who stand up to those in power (access is all that matters.)

If one reads his list of "cheers and jeers" for the year you will find it filled with ass kissing of those in power and trashing of their political foes.  The worst "cheer" was this bullshit about Mayor John Cranley:
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for staying out of the mud as his political enemies hurled ugly and unfounded racially charged comments at him in fliers, mailers and on social media during the campaign.
I know Jason is in the bag for Cranley and he prints the vast majority of stories Cranley wanted, but this just takes the cake. Jason knows Cranley's opponent in the Mayor's race Yvette Simpson was horribly attacked by people on social media, making up lies. Jason appeared to ignore that and instead pushed the Cranley propaganda making him the victim.  Sure, I guess he could be ignoring social media, but when he uses his column to lash back to his critics on social media, you know he's at least reading the Enquirer's local politics Facebook group.

What adds to Williams' journalistic malpractice is in his attack on FC Cincinnati's efforts to obtain public funding for infrastructure in support of a new soccer specific stadium he refused to say a word against John Cranley's major part in approving the funding. It is quite clear that Cranley was the primary public official who was organizing the effort to create a deal for the infrastructure and he finessed the deal when it hit a road block at the last minute.

Cranley was a key player of the secret cabal that Williams ripped earlier in the year when he  criticized the secrecy of FCC for keeping the government's plan to fund the infrastructure secret before the election.  He said nothing about the obvious: Cranley kept the story in secert, with Jeff Berding's help, to avoid a MASSIVE CONTROVERSY, before the election.  Right after the election, BOOM, we have an instant plan ready to go and the Conservative portion of council was ready to help out Republican Carl Linder.  This basic concept is ignored by columnist Jason Williams. 

Yes, I'm no longer calling Williams a sometimes reporter, sometimes columnist.  He just a columnist.  Any article that touches anything about politics or government that he writes has to be taken a a column.  There is no other was to approach it as a news consumer.  You can' trust him, you have to assume his bias.  His real problem as a columnist goes even further, he actually has no ideology.  He appears to be one of those who try to claim to not be either a Democrat or Republican.  That is a psychological dodge, everyone has political opinions.  Those who appear to pick and chose issues are more likely opportunists who would rather just be on the perceived winning side.

Bottom line, he's no Peter Bronson, no matter how he tries.  I couldn't stand Bronson's columns or political views, but they were identifiable and honestly what Bronson believed.  I don't think Williams believes anything, he's just trying to build up a persona.  His new found stints as a guest on 700WLW alone demonstrate he's not serious, just a wanna-be talking head, looking to move up.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Cranley Administration Cancels Riverfront Bike Trail and Fails to Notify Anyone

In the Cincinnati Enquirer's article: Ohio River bike trail hits dead end as money woes force Cincinnati out you don't see Mayor John Cranley's name, but you should. Former Mayor Mallory agreed to the project and if was still the Mayor the article would have at least included a phrase saying the Mayor's office had no comment.  That would be enough to connect the Mayor to the issue.  Instead the transportation and planning director was thrown under the bus (sorry) for this in-action.

The Anderson Township trustee who is prominently quoted in the article, was not given a quote calling anyone out, just one calling out the city in general for failing to notify anyone they are pulling out of the project and losing the Federal funds that were to be included with it.  The reporter should have gotten a comment from Cranley's office, even if they refereed them to the City Manager or the Transportation Department.  This failure rests at Cranley's feet and in case anyone forgot, WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A MAYORAL CAMPAIGN.  This should be another scandal for Cranley.  He and his administration failed and the Enquirer should have reported that, not let their political team deal with it and likely let it pass, unoticed

The whole Wasson way project is funded and was a pet project of CRANLEY and the article mentioned this, but didn't include Cranley's name with it.  He was it's champion.  It ran through the heart of his East side political support.  Cranley supports bike trails but let this one fail, but funded another.  The story damn near writes itself. Cranley favors pet Eastside project over regional project that could attract more revenue.  If Cranley ever runs for Congress in the 2nd district, the riverfront trail he 'Crancelled' runs through suburban areas of the 2nd district and I am sure those voters in Anderson Township will blame a Conservative Democratic Mayor for doing what a Republican would do.

Local politics and its media coverage are both like a bike trip along the riverfront, at a certain point it hits a dirt path and stops.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

No Westside Increases to Parking Meter Rates, Only Up in Central and Eastern Neighborhoods

This has Cranley's finger prints on it. The City is raising parking meter rates this month on selective neighborhoods:

Clifton
Corryville
The Heights
CUF
East Walnut Hills
Hyde Park
Mount Lookout
Northside
Oakley
College Hill
O'Bryonville
Pleasant Ridge
Walnut Hills
Downtown
Over-the-Rhine

There is already excessive enforcement of parking in Downtown and mos especially in OTR, now only certain neighborhoods get the parking rate increase. This does not appear to be an equitable distribution of the tax burden. The GOP should be pissed, unless you are a GOP living in Mt. Washington, Price Hill, Westwood, Columbia-Tusculum, or Saylor Park, to name a few GOP strongholds.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

​Republicans Have Conceded the 2017 Cincinnati Council Race

Throwing in the towel when you announce your endorsed candidates for Cincinnati Council seems like a shooting-yourself-in-the-foot move, but that is ​exactly what the Hamilton County Republican Party did when they officially announced their slate of THREE candidates for Cincinnati City Council this past week.

Yes, you read that correctly, THREE.

To make sure you are thinking correctly, yes there are Nine seats on council, and Five seats are needed for a basic majority to pass any ordinances. Six seats are needed for a veto proof majority from the Mayor.  Even if closeted Republican Chris Smitherman wins, that still leaves them short from the start. For those grasping at straws, a coalition Council with Charter Committee endorsed candidates is a pipe dream, with all but one of their endorsements being solid Democrats/Progressives.

So, the GOP has conceded the 2017 Cincinnati Council Race.

Three candidates is the lowest number of endorsed candidates for the Republicans in decades, if not in the history of the party.

If you need any additional evidence of the GOP giving up on the city, I don't know what you could get.

The person who should be most worried about this slate of candidates is John Cranley. The only way Cranley can win the Mayor's race is by getting nearly all of the Republican votes in the city. He not only has to win their vote, he needs to get them to come out and vote. They didn't do that as well in the primary this year as they did four years ago. If the GOP in Mt. Washington, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout and Westside don't vote in strong numbers and vote for Cranley, he has no chance to win.

So, without any chance of gaining the majority seats of the law making body of the city, with the real power to make policy, what will motivate a City Republican to vote this November?

Friday, April 07, 2017

Anyone Want to Bet on Who the Enquirer Endorses in the Mayoral Primary?

You will find out today live on Facebook because I guess print is dead.

Who wants to bet with me? I'll bet a case of beer on who I think they will pick.

Wednesday, April 05, 2017

More Attacks on Dwight Tillery - From Cranley?

It is not clear why this massive attack article was dug up to hurt Dwight Tillery. My only theory is that the John Cranley campaign is trying to discredit Tillery and thus try and hurt anything he may say, like who he would support for Mayor against Cranley.  That might have a small affect on the primary or general election, but only if Tillery is seen as an influencer, primarily within the African-American community.

If anything, this gives Tillery yet another reason to want to punch back at Cranley. This article is too complicated to affect the average voter (and is behind a pay-wall), so it's impact is more within political circles (within the city political beltway). It feels more like punishment on Tillery for opposing Cranley.  No one gains from this, but a scorched earth fight by Cranley is going to make any political efforts in his future difficult, unless he is trying to court GOP voters, beyond his need for them to win this year.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Passing the Ball to Yourself Isn't a Completion, It's More of a Recovered Fumble

The Enquirer sometimes reporter and sometimes columnist Jason Williams wrote a story this week about what would become the subject of his column PX: Yvette Simpson dropped ball on 'pale male' comment.  He created the issue by personally taking offense to the word "pale" being using against John Cranley.  Or it is possible he was fed the article by the Cranley campaign who wanted to play the reverse racism card.  Either way this was self manufactured outrage by Williams.  Then he writes the column and get's up on his soapbox and champions the fight against racism, against white people.  He even pulled in the opinion of former scandal ridden Hamilton County prosecutor Mike Allen who appears to be willing to play a newly minted white race card.

I didn't know those existed, but if any one locally would have one made for himself Mike Allen would be that guy.

Jason's sanctimonious column rings hollower with every Republican or Conservative Democrat he thinks to ask for comment on this topic.  He, and Cranley's camp, have contrived a slight that is so minor, that is so meaningless that NO ONE WOULD CARE ABOUT IT if he didn't bring it up.  Cranley wouldn't have cared about it if someone didn't bring it up to him.  If anyone other than a black woman used that phrase, Williams or Jay Kincaid or Cranley himself (who ever fed Williams the story) wouldn't have bothered to use it as a race based campaign tactic.

That's the Cranely goal here.  The Cranley camp is playing racial defense. They know they are not going to win the majority of the black vote for Mayor with two black candidates running.  That fear is exacerbated when a former Cranley ally (one very influential in the black community) defects after Cranley's actions.  What does that mean?  It means he has to win the white vote big.  The white vote, which is no more monolithic than the black vote, does have one segment that tends to think alike, the GOP vote, which is nearly all white. Cranley has to win the GOP vote, something he hurt his chancing of doing when he advocated making Cincinnati a "sanctuary city."  How better to draw in white outrage than creating race based outrage against a black candidate?  Well, there are other ways to be a legitimate candidate who pulls in votes of white people, but why would Cranley want to win legitimately when crass actions make it more likely he wins at all?

Jason Williams continues to be a poodle of the Cranley camp.  He has it out for Yvette Simpson and is willing to dump this type of bullshit column out there and hide behind the comments of Mike Allen.  I'd call it brazen if it wasn't just so biased.  It is biased on multiple levels: Pro-Cranley, race, and gender.  It is by far his worst column of this election season, but I am sure it earned him brownie-points within the Cranley camp. It won't 'earn' him a position in a Cranley administration, but it inches him that way.

As a case in journalism, this episode falls into the don't make your own news category.  Williams didn't make news in the sense that he became part of the story, but he sure did as a columnist.  His column is largely framed as him not liking how Simpson's campaign responded to HIM.  Add that to the the race based logistics I write about above and this column is a shit-storm.  He built the controversy and he attempted to bottle it.  I call that trying to catch your own pass, something you can't do in American football, unless someone else touches the ball first.  Simpson didn't touch this story and that pissed off Williams off, but didn't stop him from catching his own pass.  That is what I call a fumble recovered for a loss.  Journalism and politics need forward progress, not steps back.  This is a step back.  The worst part, he could have written about this topic and not made it such a big deal and made an actual point about the Facebook comment.  That doesn't help his cause, so fair play be damned.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

More Positve PXing for Cranley from Enquirer's Williams

I am sure Cranley sycophants around town find it cliche to point out pro-Cranley bias in the local media, but for Jason Williams it is becoming an unhealthy habit. Lazy journalism is a sickness that journalists can get when they are spoon fed stories. It is more damaging to reporters over columnists, but since Williams tries to be both, he's doubling down into a spiral of laziness. Two weeks in a row he has published columns that read as if they are produced, packaged, and minted in the mind of Jay Kincaid, John Cranley's campaign manager. This week his column is filled with direct quotes from Kincaid, so yes evidence of the minting is first hand.

It is funny how Jason tries to drop in some criticism in pointing out Cranley's obviously confrontational personality, but then he writes this whopper of a sentences that takes his PXing to a new low:
After all, Cranley has a track record of following through on his campaign promises and getting things done.
That's a Kincaid line or is the line of a kool-aide drinking supporter willing to sell the most pathetic campaign dogma. It is sycophant level. It is the worst kind of pol-speak that no journalist, even a columnist, would ever use. I unfortunately expect more of the same next week.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Campaigning 101 - An Unforced Error From the Cranley Camp

When your voting base consists of Westside Democrats and city Republicans, don't put the cellphone number of a non-local born millennial campaign staffer on a mailer for your campaign's launch event.  Why, you ask?  Well, Westside Democrats and City Republicans are less likely to be millennials and understand that cell phone numbers travel with people when they move to town.  That West Price Hill Boomer who has donated to every Cranley campaign is going to be skeptical about calling a Detroit phone number to RSVP for an event.

Also, if anyone is going to this event please take note of the location, the Incline Theater.  That theater is owned by a charitable non-profit and by rule can't be political, so they need to have a separation.  Therefore a few issues come up:

  1. This better be a rental of the space by the Cranley campaign that better have an expense entry on their campaign finance reports.
  2. The Theater better be open to all candidates for event space rental, not just Cranley or his allies.
  3. If the Cranley campaign does more than promotion of the candidate and directly solicit campaign contributions that makes this a fundraiser.  The ethical stance of having a Cranley fundraiser at a charity owned building is not good. It is even worse when you understand that Cranley personally profited from the development of the entire Incline District through a project that included public funds.
If anyone does attended the event and wants to reach out, let me know via email cincyblog@aol.com.

Thursday, February 02, 2017

No More Fun From City’s Commissioner of Fun

For an unknown reason back in 2014, Mayor John Cranley created a "Commissioner of Fun" role for the City of Cincinnati and he picked former radio station owner Frank Wood Jr, a man in his 70's, to be that "Commissioner of Fun."

WCPO is reporting that the City is stating there are no more fun events coming from the Commissioner.  Frank Wood has stepped down and admits that this special position was a failure.  He believe it lacked staff to help him.   To me that seems like a cop-out.  Instead the failure should land squarely at Cranley's feet.  Cranley created this thing and allowed a tiny factional amount of money to be spent on it.  He incorrectly looked back to his youth and WEBN radio and thought Frank Wood did stuff magically.  No, it took money.  Having a drunk fest every Labor Day weekend along the river didn't just happen with access to the City Hall copy machine.  It took money. Also Cranley doesn't get is that the craziness of Riverfest Cranley knew ended 25 years ago.

This idea was pointless.  It was Cranley's vain attempt to appear cool, while not actually doing anything and having something he can point to when it fails. I am pointing at Cranley, so he can forget about letting this slide without notice.  Also, I am not sorry to tell John that there is nothing he can do, ever, to be cool.  I know uncool things very well and John Cranley is the modern day prototype.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Cranley Refuses to Stand Up to Trump's Racism

As a Mayor who won election only because he got the overwhelming support of Cincinnati Republicans John Cranley can't risk pissing them off. Because of that, he is failing to take a stand and fight racist-in-chief Donald Trump and declare Cincinnati as a Sanctuary City. Instead John makes a lukewarm reminder that he likes immigrants. He just doesn't want to do anything about those who are here but don't have legal status.

This is typical Cranley. He gets free rein at the Enquirer to publish this column that uses the word immigrant and refugee, but takes no stand on the actual issues and ignores his past. The issues are about Trump's racist and religiously bigoted act of restricting people from certain countries the ability to come to America, but allowing Christian refugees. It is also strongly about Trump's actions to force local cities to carry out his fascist edicts and round up Mexicans without legal status.

This is gutless and hypocritical. Cranley's past contain instances where he knowingly played into the hands of conservative voters who don't like non-white people coming into this county.

In 2015 Cranley came out against having any Syrian refugees in Cincinnati.

In 2006 when Cranley last ran for the US House Ohio 1st District, he attacked his Republican opponent on not being strong enough on illegal immigration.

So ,here we get an unchallenged column in the Enquirer, and we'll have some Dems pretending this is a good thing to promote, when it really doesn't do much, but make Cranley appear to be doing something, when he is hiding from the real issue.

Two times now Cranley has stayed on the sidelines when given the chance to stand up to Trump. Once here and once when thousands of people marched for women's rights the day after Trump inauguration.  Will the number of times Cranley cowers before Trump be higher than the times Trump lies?  Likely no, with Trump's propensity for lying, but I'll be taking note of the times Cranley refuses to stand up to the new fascist state Trump is building.

Friday, January 27, 2017

John Cranley Appoints Top Donor Manuel Chavez III to Port Authority Board

Once again, campaign donations can be tied to John Cranley's actions as Mayor. The Cincinnati Business Courier has the story outlining how Cranley appointed his top donor Manuel Chavez III to the board of the Port Authority.

Cronyism is taking shape and Coranley is flaunting it now.  I guess he thinks the stereotypical low information Trump voter will stick with him. One might conclude he already has the Saylor Park vote sowed up.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Cranley Reportedly to Name His Campaign Treasurer to SORTA Board Seat

Helen "Heidi" Black is being reported by the Enquirer to be John Cranley's next pick for the SORTA Board.

Who is Helen "Heidi" Black, you may ask? Well in the Enquirer article you get a nice bio of a professional who they state is the wife of Cranley's campaign manager, Jay Kincaid. That makes this a controversial pick. It makes this appointment a political favor. It is political cronyism. If anyone else appointed the spouse of their campaign manager, this would have been a banner Enquirer headline with editorials on how ethics matter and the appearance of cronyism is horrible for our political system.  More over the Enquirer would call for Cranley to appoint someone else.

Instead we get an article more puff piece than political story. It has a quote from Cranley in it as if someone in his campaign issued a press release on this. It's like Cranley is knowlingly picking a crony for a political appointment and does not care he is doing it.  It's like he thinks his Trump or something.

What lacking in the article and to this whole story are two things. Firstly it names the appointee as Heidi Black instead of her legal name Helen Black. Secondly it fails to mention one MAJOR element as this screenshot illustrates:
In case you can't read the graphic it states "Paid for by John Cranley for Mayor, Helen Black Treasurer."  This is from the bottom of the front page of John Cranley's campaign website.

Yes, Helen "Heidi" Black is the Treasurer for John Cranley's Mayoral campaign. He's about to appoint a member of his ACTIVE CAMPAIGN STAFF, to a board that governs the Streetcar operation and Metro. Cronyism run amok!

Oh and thanks to the Inquirer who didn't report this fact in their article. Thorough reporting there. Helen also ran for the 17-B seat on the Democratic Central Committee in March of last year, but lost. They didn't report that, either.

Finally, how do I know Helen is Heidi?  A public records search is sufficient to confirm and it's not any type of secret, it was just omitted from this Enquirer article for some reason.


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

John Cranley and Denise Driehaus Skip Cincinnati Women's March

The world took notice as millions of people across the globe came together Saturday to rally and march for women's rights, including but not limited too, reproductive rights.  Here in Cincinnati 10,000 to 14,000 people rallied and marched.  Many, many issues were discussed: religious freedom, the right to affordable healthcare, social justice, and the right of women to not be considered property of men, just to name a few. Many local elected politicians attended, including representatives from the State Legislature, Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati. Both female and male elected officials were in attendance.

Many locally also took notice of who was missing.  Two local politicians were no present for the Women's March:  Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and newly elected Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus.

Why were they not there?  In the case of Cranley, Vice-Mayor David Mann claimed Cranley was going to a funeral.  I think that funeral was at best a last minute add for Cranley, once it was announced that this was event was expressly a pro-choice and pro-Planned Parenthood event.  John is anti-choice and needs the votes of the GOP in Cincinnati, and needs avoid the optics involved with openly linking himself to a very progressive movement.  Also, he knew he wasn't going to get the option to control the event, so he stayed home instead.

Where was Denise Driehaus?  We'll she's fresh off her December vote as outgoing Ohio member to ban abortions at 20 weeks, an unconstitutional bill, but one she still voted for.  This is after she repeatedly told progressives after her alleged conversion to a pro-choice stance during the 2012 primary when she "moved" across town to the newly formed 31 District. She moved swiftly to hide her endorsement from Cincinnati Right to Life as well for nearly 4 years, but in the end did their bidding, even when she didn't need to for political cover.

At the event Saturday fellow Democrat, Todd Portune represented the County Commission.  A Democratic woman who has claimed to be for women's rights skipped one of the biggest protests in Cincinnati history. Don't let her forgot that she stayed home when women came out in force to take on Trump.

Friday, January 13, 2017

A Reminder How John Cranley Worked Against His Fellow Democrats

Lest we Forget: In 2013 Democrat John Cranley after winning the Mayor's office was granted the authority to pick the chair persons of City Council committees. In that same election the Democratic Party endorsed candidates won five of nine seats. Living up to his reputation, Cranley made the choice to punish his fellow Democrats by appointing Republicans and non-Democrats to more Council Committee chairs, including the most important Finance and Public Safety Chairs:
  • Budget and Finance Chair: Charlie Winburn (R) 
  • Economic Growth & Infrastructure Chair: Christopher Smitherman (R)
  • Education & Entrepreneurship Chair: P.G. Sittenfeld (D)
  • Human Services, Youth & Arts Chair: Yvette Simpson (D)
  • Law & Public Safety Chair: Christopher Smitherman (R)
  • Major Transportation & Regional Cooperation Chair: Amy Murray (R)
  • Neighborhoods Chair: David Mann (D)
  • Rules & Audit Chair: Kevin Flynn (C)
So spiteful is Cranley that he excluded two Democrats from any committee chair positions at all, and gave a Republican, Christ Smitherman, two committee chairs.  Why did he punish them, one asks, well most of the Democrats on Council openly supported Cranley's opponent for Mayor.  It wasn't a surprise that he would snub them, but then it makes Tim Burke's comments praising Cranley for support Democratic candidates all the more bullshit.  Cranley only supports Democrats that either support him or don't oppose him. The rest of his term has been filled with opposing the five Democrats on  a large number of issues and turning those battles into public fights that he especially make petty and vicious.  Those issues he's broken with the Party have not shockingly been ones he found allies in Republicans on council and in the community.

John is not a good mayor is his first and most important consideration he makes before any choice is how will it effect him and his future.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Ohio Democratic Party Shoots Self in the Ass, Hits Cranley Endorsement

Meet the Ohio Democratic Party, same as the old Ohio Democratic Party.  Once again the Ohio Dems are interfering with a local primary election. The party has done so to the extreme in State House primary races in recent years (picking Anti-Choice Denise Driehaus in the 31st district as an example). This time it is a non-partisan primary as well.  Chris Redfern has been gone for two years, but little has changed.

Last year Ted Strickland was forced on the Ohio Democratic Party voters and he got trounced by Rob Portman.  The State party tipped the scales in favor of Strickland in the primary and we got a weak Conservative Democrat who under-performed Clinton in a state where Strickland's perceived strength, white rural working class voters, actually has some uptick in turnout.

Now we get an effort by the State party to skip local concerns and anoint 'Democratic' incumbent mayors for reelection.  No consideration for their performance.  No consideration for better candidates who have the support of local Democrats. Instead they go for a candidates who relis on Republican money and more importantly Republican votes as the only way to get elected.

Current Party Chairman David Pepper, a former Cincinnati Council Member, and the overwhelming majority of the State Party committee chose to reward John Cranley for colluding with local Republicans to win his election in 2013 and create a GOP funded war chest for his 2017 reelection campaign.  Cranley does not represent Cincinnati Democrats.  He instead has worked against the majority of them throughout his tenure as mayor.  From the start he punished the local Dems by awarding key council committee chairs to Republicans, shutting out his fellow Democrats.

Local Hamilton County Chair Tim Burke needs to go. He has been a hindrance to the local Democratic Party and now is making Trump like claims about what John Cranley did for local Dems in County wide races. I guess if John got Republican donors to give money to Denise Driehaus, Burke sees this as some big accomplishment worthy of repeating. If that's what he's thinking then he must be pushed out of the party.

With the non-Democratic based mindset, this demonstrates that Burke is part of an old dying faction of the party, along with Rhodes and Luken, who have helped drive down Dems in Cincinnati and Hamilton County over the last 40 years. They only seem to know Republicans and go to them for money and cover. They can't get the voters to vote. Instead they can only get the powerful Republicans to give support on certain issues, which allows the GOP donors to buy in on candidates who give them what they want . Well, that type of Conservative politics sells out the Democratic party and the principles it represents. Locally, it is what makes for a Suburbanization of the City. It drives down the culture of the community and pushes a dying Conservative mindset that created the balkanized community we live in.  We don't need a politics of divide on conquer.  We need one that brings us together. Cranley and his mentors of Burke, Luken, and Rhodes are tearing our City and County apart.  That must end.  It is so disappointing that David Pepper and Brigid Kelly are carrying this horrible mindset forward with their votes for the Cranley endorsement.  They should be ashamed.

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

No On Issue 22 Got More Votes than Cranley For Mayor

The Mayor John Cranley scheme to create a political slush fund went down in defeat last night. To add an additional insult to the Mayor, more people voted against the Mayor's pet issue (34,246), than voted for the Mayor two years ago, (33,428). The voter turnout was higher this year as well. The vote totals for the 2013 race are official, but the No on 22 votes is unofficial and based on not having any provisional votes included, therefore that number should only go up.

Cranley will need to work on getting his GOP vote back for 2017, since he lost that this round.  I think this should remove the last sliver of faux doubt from the Cranley backers claiming he didn't win in 2013 on backs of the GOP voters.

Other than John Cranley, the other big local loser was the Hamilton County Board of Elections. They did not have their act together and that forced a local judge to order the polls stay open an additional 90 minutes.  New technology is never something to not promote to the public.  I had no idea the process changed, and I do honestly pay pretty close attention to such things.  The Local media didn't seem to have that story either.  Our voting process needs a big change.  It won't get that until the state stops being controlled by Republicans bent on voter suppression.