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