COAST Honors Cranley

COAST, the Tea Party anti-City fringe group that endorsed John Cralney for Mayor, has nominated Cranley for a Conservative award.

This speaks for itself to those paying attention, but for those not paying attention or maybe the few left in denial about who supported John Cranley is this mayor race let this show them the base that Cranley had to win the election.

What will be most brazen would be Cranley actually appearing to accept the award. That would be a true insult to the City, the Democratic Party, and common decency. Cranley's not demonstrated an ounce of any of those thus far.

Does Anyone Like Todd Portune, Other Than Cranley?

I really can't stand Todd Portune. It must be his life goal to piss off 99.9% of the population of the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

This is the guy Tim Burke made a deal to keep in office. Yet another reason we need a change in the HCDP.

Cranley's Win Based on Strong Republican Turnout

The turnout battle in the 2013 Cincinnati City Elections was won handily by the Republicans. 69.39% of City Republicans came out to vote as opposed to 52.45% of Dems. A pathic 12.26% of non-affiliated voters bothered to come out on election day. These numbers are based on the Hamilton County Voter listing as of 11-29-2013. Here are the totals:

	Registered Voters	Votes Cast	Turnout
Democratic	59,119	31,007	52.45%
Republican	19,235	13,348	69.39%
Non-Affiliated	124,003	15,208	12.26%
Total	202,357	59,563	29.43%

Party ID listed about is based on the historical primary voting and third parties were combined with Parties that are "closer" to it's leanings.  Third party numbers are not significant.

That turnout becomes clearer by comparing his election in 2013, to the Joe Deters vs. Janaya Trotter race in 2012.  Within the City, Trotter trounced Deters 65% to 34%, but of the 52 precincts Deters won in the city, Cranley won 51 of them.  In the one precinct he didn't win, Cranley only lost by 14 votes.

Cranley's win rested on being the "wink candidate" for the GOP, where they gave him as much private support possible, but not much public support to allow Cranley to placate enough of Dems and non-affiliated voters to win.  With enough anger pent up on the Parking Plan, Cranley got his Conservative voting groups to all vote for him and lucked out with more Dems staying home on election day.

It is clear that Cranley should never forget, or delude himself otherwise, that he won with GOP support.  Without it, he would have lost.

Cranley is Delusional on Political Situation

John Cranley appears to think there are only a handful of neighborhoods that count in Cincinnati. WCPO reported the following:

"Streetcar supporters have criticized Cranley for saying Cincinnati is more politically united than ever before.

But the mayor defended his comments. “Look at Bond Hill, look at Mount Washington, look at Price Hill, Mount Lookout, Hyde Park,” Cranley said. “In all the council races I was in, those neighborhoods didn’t agree on who should be mayor. This year, all of those neighborhoods were united together – not only in electing me but in electing a majority of council."

So, four solid Republican neighborhoods and Smitherman/Winburn's core neighborhood constitute Cranley's world of what matters to him, at least politically. Every place else doesn't rate in his mind and are all that matters to his sense of 'unity.'

Cranley needs to know that in Ward Seven, which includes Bond Hill, Flynn and Murry finished 17th and 18th place respectively and Malone and White finished in the top nine.  How is that unified with the rest Republican strongholds he cherished?

Cranley's dug himself a big hole and I fear he will think he's dug himself out, but really will be in a Smithermanesque alternate universe, one where truth isn't important. We don't live in Bizarro Cincinnati, we live in the real Cincinnati. Cranley needs to find the reality based Cincinnati or he will find the job of being Mayor even more difficult than it already is.

Smitherman Misleads Public About Conflict of Interest on Streetcar

Chris Smitherman has an ethics issue and is not being honest about it. The Cincinnati Business Courier has reported that Smitherman's brother owns a company that has a contract to build part of the Streetcar project. Smitherman is claiming, without proof, that he's only known about this for a week and that his brother no longer has a contract.  That connection is an ethics issue that Ohio Ethics Commission should investigate.

Smitherman provided no proof the contract has been nullified or rescinded. That's part one of the deception.

Part two is that Smitherman was not being truthful when he stated he knew nothing of his brother's contract prior to a week ago. Well, that is not true, and this 2009 NAACP press release provides evidence that he did know his brother was working on the Streetcar project.

The Cincinnati NAACP has been briefed that Jostin Concrete has joined the Mayor's streetcar team. The owner of Jostin Concrete is the brother of Cincinnati NAACP President, Christopher Smitherman. Citizens will have the opportunity to witness the integrity and commitment of President Smitherman, the Cincinnati NAACP leadership and membership. Jostin Concrete may have a great opportunity, however, building a "choo-choo" train is the wrong public policy direction for the masses of Cincinnatians. Smitherman says, "I deeply respect the independence of my brother's company. I am confident that the issue will be rejected in November."

So, this is the new chairman of the Law and Public Safety Committee lying to citizens of Cincinnati? If he is making false statements about this, how can anyone trust anything he is saying? He should not vote on the Streetcar until he obtains a favorable opinion from the Ohio Ethics Commission and Smitherman must provide proof of all of his claims.

We don't need liars on City Council.

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.