Cincinnati Tea Party Harkens Back To Eighteenth Century

In 1773, American colonists led by Samuel Adams gathered at Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act, a law passed by the British Parliament.  The parliament had exempted Britain's East India Company from duties on teas that colonial merchants were required to pay.  The Act was particularly galling in that the Americans were not represented in Parliament.  Disguised as Native Americans, they rushed aboard ships laden with the tea and dumped the tea into the harbor.

Earlier today, scores of Cincinnatians gathered at Fountain Square for a protest in the best tradition of the Boston Tea Party.  The parallels between today and 1773 are striking.

After all, who would not be incensed by the massive taxes just imposed by our Congress?

Oh--what?  Congress didn't raise taxes, but instead lowered them?  That's all right.  The laws passed passed by our government are still onerous.  Just as in 1773, the citizens of this continent are subject to laws passed by a legislature in which they have no elected representatives and by a king whose power to rule is derived from God, rather than the people.

Oh, dear.  You say that's not right either?  We just elected the entire House of Representatives?  And the two senators that represent each state are directly elected by the people of that state every six years?  Wow....not even the Framers believed in direct election of the members of the Senate; that required the 17th Amendment.  And...we have no king?  Just a president who was elected by a majority of voters just four months ago?  Geesh.

Well...the parallels are still obvious.  After all, the Cincinnati Tea Party was near water.  And the people there want to sell tea at lower prices.  I think.

OK.  Maybe there are no parallels between the tea parties across the country and the Boston Tea Party.  Maybe calling the gatherings "tea parties" is really just a clever marketing gimmick thought up by those who are disappointed that their candidates lost in November.

I suspect the mood of the Cincinnati Tea Party crowd is accurately captured in this Enquirer picture.  Note the clever sign near the front of the crowd reading "Nobama's Bin Lyin'."  Now there's some intelligent public discourse for you.  

Thanks to DF--you know who you are--for inspiring this post.

More on Council 2009: Politics and Race

According to the 2000 Census, African-Americans make up nearly 43% of Cincinnati's population. But only 2 of 9 Council members (or 22%) are African-American. Why is there such a disparity? And will the gap narrow in 2009?

The HamCo Republican Party has already announced its slate of endorsed candidates. Of the five GOP candidates, only one, Rev. Charlie Winburn, is African-American. Last week, the Beacon published Tim Burke's response to an inquiry about whether the HamCo Democratic Party's ticket will be racially diverse. Burke wrote, "At least 50% of our City candidates will, almost certainly, be black." Last week, in two separate posts (here and here) Nate Livingston suggests that the Democratic Party isn't leaving itself much space to endorse candidates of color this fall. He also notes that the party has been slow to endorse black candidates; he forgot, though, (or was too kind) to mention in support of his argument regarding the parties' poor treatment of black candidates that in 2007, the Dems reportedly approached one of their endorsed black candidates, Wendell Young, about leaving the race to make room for Roxanne Qualls.

Tim Burke is a lawyer, and we lawyers always have a tendency of talking in a way that makes you wonder if you really know what the meaning of "is" is. He writes that 50% of his party's "City candidates" will be black, not that 50% of the City Council candidates will be black. So, he leaves himself room to include Mayor Mallory as a "City candidate," meaning the party would need to include only 4 African-Americans on its Council slate in order to fulfill his pledge.

Where do we stand now? Historically, the Dems endorse all of their incumbents. So Berding, Cole, Harris, and Thomas will all be endorsed, barring any surprises. As mayor, Mark Mallory's voice carries a lot of weight in the party (much as a sitting president's voice has significant impact in a national party). One would anticipate, then, that Quinlivan and Fischer, already endorsed by Mallory, will be endorsed by the party. And given that Representative Driehaus is a fairly politically astute politican, it'd be surprising if he endorsed a candidate that wasn't headed towards his party's endorsement; that means Nick Hollan would be the party's seventh endorsed candidate.

That calculus means that, if Burke's prediction is to come true, both of the of as-yet-unknown endorsed Democrats will be black. (And this assumes that Qualls won't seek to return to her home in the Democratic party and will instead continue to run with only the Charter Committee's endorsement.) Assuming that leaders in the party have people in mind for these spots, why haven't they had the media rollouts thus far enjoyed by Fischer, Quinlivan, and Hollan?

In a city whose population is nearly 50% black, why does the Democratic party seem to have such a hard time identifying black candidates? This is particularly perplexing given Burke's assertion that 50% of the 220-member Cincinnati Democratic Committee is black. Are black candidates out there and being ignored or snubbed by the party? Does the party need to do a better job of identifying and nurturing black candidates? The HamCo GOP is on a mission to identify viable candidates from the suburbs to take control of county government. Should the HamCo Dems have a similar focus on identifying and supporting black candidates (for either City offices or county offices)?

I generally don't blog on issues of race--not because they're not important or interesting, but because I'm not sure I'm skillful enough to do so in a way that furthers intelligent public discourse. So let's (please!) keep things calm and civil in the comments.

Handicapping the 2009 Council Race

The election is still nearly eight months off.  We don't yet know who the Charter and Democratic parties will endorse (we don't even know who all the incumbents will be).  But that shouldn't stop us from far-too-early, pointless prognostication, should it?

I'm curious about this question:  which of the non-incumbents will have a shot at winning a Council seat this year?  I know it's early, but here are my thoughts.

It could be the "year of the woman," so to speak.  I suspect Quinlivan will do well, with both Mallory's and (probably) the HamCo Dem endorsement, along with huge name recognition.  And Amy Murray, with the HCRP endorsement, may well be a candidate to watch; I'll bet she runs an energetic campaign and quickly makes up for non-Hyde Park voters' current lack of familiarity with her (although I'm a bit disturbed that she doesn't seem to have a campaign website yet).

Tony Fischer, also Mallory-endorsed (almost certainly Dem-endorsed, and perhaps Obama-endorsed by the end of the campaign) has to be viewed as a strong contender (of course, he might not be a non-incumbent by election time).  I also think Lemarque Ward is a candidate to keep an eye on.  He's known by a lot of Cincinnati leaders, and I'll bet he puts together a strong grass-roots force.  I don't know if he's seeking the Dem endorsement, and if so, whether he'll get it.  And Nicholas Hollan, a Driehaus-endorsed candidate (which may foreshadow a Dem endorsement) will likely enjoy strong West Side support.  Finally, Reverend Charlie Winburn, 2007's first runner-up, has to be the early non-incumbent favorite.

How about the opposite--non-incumbents without a prayer?  Again, it's hard to know.  But one candidate who is apparently trying to stake out a last place spot for himself is newcomer Daryl Cordrey, a Republican who did not gain his party's endorsement.  Based on his website, he will seek a seat on Council employing a troika of poor grammar, typographical errors, and race-baiting (in the sole entry on his blog, he tells us he is running because Cincinnati is on "the brink of becoming another Detroit" and refers to "the Jesse Jackson wanna be [sic] Chris Smitherman").  Looks like we've found our 2009 fringe candidate.

What are your thoughts?  Who am I missing?  Who's doomed to fail?  Who will keep us entertained?  What are the issues that are going to drive the campaign?

Of Parades And Politics

Reason Number 1,247 to live downtown: once in a while on a Saturday morning, a parade goes by your front door.

First, kudos to the high school marching bands that were in this morning's parade. The St. Patrick's day parade is always an awkward one for marching bands: quite a while has passed since the end of football (halftime show) season, and it's a while before you need to be ready for the summer parade season.

Second, today's parade marks something of an unofficial start to the meet-and-greet portion of campaign season. Several local politicians were out and about. I missed the first third of the parade, so I'm not sure who I missed, but here's some observations about what I saw:

• Jeff Berding isn't quite ready for the fall campaign yet; he's still using banners with the slogan from his last campaign, "New Leadership for Change." I'm not sure you can run on that theme when you're an incumbent.
  
• Greg Harris was out, meeting people and shaking hands. So were Amy Murray and Chris Monzel.
  
• Laure Quinlivan had some folks carrying her banner, but I didn't see her. That's kind of strange.
  
• There were some Council candidates in the parade who I'd not known were running. Brian Garry (who finished 18th in 2007's race) is gearing up for the 2009 campaign. Lemaque Ward, founder of the Cincinnati Dream Academy, was energetically shaking hands, even at the parade's conclusion on Plum Street. Kevin Flynn, an attorney whose website indicates he is endorsed by the Charter Committee (I haven't seen any announcement about their full slate of endorsements--can someone point me?) was present. And there was another new candidate whose name I don't quite remember--Polovich, perhaps? (Someone help me out here.) Steve Pavelish, who finished 23rd in 2007, was out shaking hands.
  
• Steve Chabot hasn't stopped campaigning since 1994 and today was no exception. And either Jean Schmidt or her twin sister was also in the parade.
  

It was nice to see both the nice crowd and the large number of local politicians at the parade.

(Post updated on 3/15/09, with some help from philgirl in the comments.)

Help Recovering CPD Sergeant Get to Disney World

You might remember that back around Thanksgiving 2007, Cincinnati Police Sergeant Bryce Bezdek was seriously injured on I-75 while he was laying stop sticks in an effort to end a high speed chase. The driver who was being pursued lost control of her vehicle, slamming into a truck that slammed into Sergeant Bezdek; that driver was eventually sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. (Original coverage here.)

I just saw on Facebook (and there's also a story at WCPO) that Modern Mom is sponsoring a contest; first prize is a Florida getaway vacation to Disney World. Sergeant Bezdek's wife, Toni, has entered a video. To see (and, hopefully, vote for) her video, go here.

As of a few minutes ago, the Bezdeks have a commanding lead, with over 15,000 votes, constituting about 97% of all votes cast. The contest runs through next Friday. You can vote once per computer per day.

There's a lot of platitudes that could be written here. Suffice it to say: Bezdek's a guy who was injured while trying to protect our community, and who by all accounts is making an unabashedly courageous recovery. So point and click a couple times, and help him, his wife, and his kids get to hang out with the Big Cheese for a few days. Vote!!! I can't think of a family more deserving (and perhaps in genuine need) of a few days of fun in the sun.

And I suspect (apart from possibly noting the results of the contest next week) that this is the last time this blog will ever link to Modern Mom.

Vernon Manor Closing

The Vernon Manor will close its doors at the end of the month. I don't have much to say, other than it's unfortunate. The Vernon Manor has been a terrific, historic, non-downtown place for guests to stay. When I was in law school, it was where we housed out-of-town judges (primarily federal appellate judges and state supreme court judges) who came in for the annual moot court competition, always to positive reviews.

JenJen (a/k/a Tavern Wench, my favorite bartender blogger), alerted us to the news on her own blog and in the comments to the post below. I wanted to bump the story to provide a thread for folks to share their thoughts.

Best Advice Column Ever

Except for the fact that I was in Cincinnati while I was reading this, there's no discernible Cincinnati connection here. I just had to share this.

A woman sends a letter to an advice columnist with the following question:

How do I tell my fiance that I want to adopt children, because he's so ugly I don't want to bear children that might end up looking like him?

Have a great weekend!