I’ve got a ton of juicy blog material piled up high, for one thing.  There’s been all sorts of nonsense that in another time, I’d have blogged instantly.  But being a candidate is different.  You can’t just go smacking people around whenever you want, largely because it consumes way too much energy and time.  But I still have the material for another day if I want to!

Another nugget – this summer has been so damn hot, and it’s been hotter because I’ve spent it all outside.  Today’s autumn chill was weird – I don’t really know how to walk without sweat dripping onto my clipboard.  I’ve lost some weight, because in addition to sweating through my clothes, all day, every day, I’ve been neglecting my diet.  I need to eat better, soon.

I quit smoking in early April, and picked it back up about 3 weeks ago.  It sucks.  I really don’t know how Barack pulled it off in 2008.  And now that he’s president?  I mean, wow.  I’m gonna give it another try after this primary, probably on the first trip out of town for work.

The redemption thing?  Well, I’m feeling pretty good right now.  Win or lose, this journey has put my past most definitely in the past at least for me, finally.  That needed to happen.  I’m starting to feel like my old self again – the guy who used to sit across from presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors and other assorted extremely powerful people, and function at optimum skill.  I’m not on a hair trigger anymore.  I’m comfortable in my own skin again, so much so that I don’t really care if I win or lose.

But….the old me liked to win.  A lot.  And hated to lose.  More.  And the old me is back.  We’ve run the kind of campaign I’d want to run for any client, and a campaign that any candidate at any level would pay a lot of money for.  Did it on a shoestring with tin cans and wires.

And I learned that my journey can result in a lot of help to a lot of people.  People forget that when you run for office, a lot of folks are counting on you.  The old me made a point of never letting anyone down, ever.  That applies to this election.  Winning isn’t really an option.  It’s the outcome that will most help the people of my district, and that’s not a boast.  If you saw this district like I’ve seen it this summer, you’d agree.

So it’s off to election day.  I’ve never experienced election night as a candidate.  If you want to see what it’s like, at 38:47 in this video is the 2002 general election night with Tim Ryan.  Even if you’re crushing your opponent, it’s gut wrenching.  I’m already starting to feel a little tight in the stomach.  That look in Tim’s eye at 40:45 – I’m beginning to know how you feel, Tim.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me.  Now, time for the decision.

Announcing my candidacy.

On the new charter.

On the charter’s framers.

On ex-offender human rights.

On conflicts of interest.

Early speculation about who might run for executive.

On the Nina Turner fiasco.

And for a treat, the piece that may have ended Jennifer Garrison’s political career.

Well, voters aren’t that stupid.  That’s lesson number one.  Lesson Number Two is that my opponents’ supporters waste a whole lot of time targeting me and my supporters rather than getting their own.  Yay for me.

Lesson Number Three is that these anonymous losers are getting pretty desperate.  Apparently, someone planted one of the signs they stole from my supporters’ yards on I-90 right at the spot of a memorial to the young woman whose dead body lied there after it was mistaken for a deer by the police.  First of all, that’s pretty sick.  Second, you morons really think this is gonna fool anyone?  And this morning, just now, someone left a pink plastic bag filled with Dale Smith and James Levin literature on the doorknob of my apartment entrance.

Um….what?  Is this some strange code?  Am I supposed to now fear the epic deluge of my opponents’ literature at my door?  Does this alchemy of opponents’ literature mingling together in a pink plastic bag somehow conjure a magic spell that leads to my defeat?

FAIL.

It’s becoming pretty clear that I’m ahead in this race, and the predictable attacks from anonymous sources, ALWAYS anonymous, have become so bizarre and desperate it is now just entertainment.  It ain’t working, folks.  And we’ll know who wins soon enough.

In the meantime, next time ya’ll visit my house, knock on the door, I’ll make you coffee!  At least you’ll get something out of the effort!

Democrats need to be Democrats.  It’s a cliche, I know, and yes, I am, in fact, running in a safe, 89% Democratic seat in rock solid blue Cuyahoga County inner city Cleveland.  Caveats noted.  However, I’ve been walking among the ruins of what Republicanism has done to my city for a full summer, and there is a gaping need for Democrats to reject once and for all the free market fetishism that has brought this country’s people to their knees before their corporate paymasters.

For example, I’m advocating banning the box on employment applications that asks about criminal record, because it is wrong.  How is this different from all the other “programs” to help ex-offenders?  Lots of people support “helping” ex-offenders, with “training” and “anger management” and all sorts of taxpayer funded, ex-offender focused “assistance”. Begging employers to hire a few here and there.  Coming up with “certifications” that ex-offenders are somehow no longer evil.

Folly.

This approach is wedded to free market fetishism.  It assumes that there is something fundamentally wrong with the ex-offender, because the “market”, i.e. employers, won’t hire them.  It thus places the burden on fixing the problem of unemployed ex-offenders on the ex-offenders themselves, and through them, on the taxpayer.  The cost to taxpayers is in the billions nationally.  The cost in terms of human dignity is incalculable.

Once again, the monied corporate interests place their own cost (i.e. vetting their workforce) on the public.

I advocate going on offense, and saying “no”.  No, you will not force society to enforce, at great cost, an overbroad standard for your own lazy employment policies.  No, you will not force every person who’s ever made a mistake scrawl a scarlet letter into their own forehead every time they apply for a job.  No, you will not be the sharp end of hopelessness enforced on the most vulnerable.  So deal with it.

It is an approach to governing based on Democratic values – that every human being deserves their dignity, and that dignity includes the opportunity to work.  Every time a corporation or developer wants to save a nickel, they tell the rest of us to bend over so the corporation can extract said nickel from our behinds.  I’m sorry, that is just wrong.  It is especially wrong with regard to ex-offenders, one of the most vulnerable, and rapidly growing portions of our society.

So my advice to Democrats running this fall?  Go on offense, based on Democratic values.  Reject Republicanism’s slave devotion to the free market.  Put power back in the hands of the people, where it belongs.  Stand up for that which is fundamentally right.

The rest will take care of itself.

Cross posted at Plunderbund.

Jennifer Brunner has been fighting to get the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which explicitly requires that bilingual ballots be printed for the Puerto Rican community, specifically.  Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States by virtue of an act of Congress in 1917.  There is no issue here.  They have the right to vote, and the statutory right to be able to read the ballot in their native language.  By law.  Which Jennifer Brunner is seeking to enforce.  I don’t know of any reason for the BOE to drag its heels, other than to allow Bill Mason to demagogue, preen for the cameras, and continue to perpetually burnish his cred among the neanderthal set.

It is very good news that the September 7 county election ballot will be bilingual.  The November ballot should be, too.  As should every other ballot in Cuyahoga County.  As County Councilor for District 7, I plan to make the Board of Elections my little pet issue….being the democracy guy that I am.  And I plan to work with the Puerto Rican community on every issue facing the county, ESPECIALLY on the right to vote, engagement in our democracy, and access to it through enforcement of existing law that guarantees Puerto Ricans a bilingual ballot.

The Cordoba House should be built right where it sits right now.  Period.  It’s what the founding fathers would have demanded.  No compromise location.  The First Amendment protection of religion does not compromise.  It will be a victory lap around the tatters of extremist arguments, on both sides.  As it should be.

Click through to read me telling conservatives to grow a pair.

I’ve taken a few county council candidates to task for their reliance on county taxpayer money already, and having the gall to run for a seat on the legislative body that votes on the budgets which they themselves will be tapping.  The Ohio Ethics Commission has ruled that one of my opponents, James Levin, can keep both his job at county council, should he win, and his job at Ingenuity Festival, which relies on $100,000 per year of county taxpayer money. I guess the reasoning is that the $100k doesn’t rise to the level of requiring resignation from one of the jobs, which I find hilarious.

The real problem with these conflicts is not that they disqualify you from one position or another – Ohio law requires you to recuse yourself from addressing an issue related to the conflict.  That means that if county council deals with an issue related to University Circle, and Chris Ronayne is in the council, Ronayne has to take himself out of the discussion because of his role as UCI president.  That means that University Circle has worse representation than it ought to have in the council.  Residents lose.

That brings us to Clark Broidatelli.

Clark Broida is Tony Brancatelli’s treasurer. Brancatelli was given the ward 12 council council seat without earning a single vote by virtue of his then position as Slavic Village Development Corporation executive director, a CDC which relies on county taxpayer, as well as federal, state, and city taxpayer money.  Brancatelli’s executive director job then went to Clark Broida’s wife, Marie Kitteridge, who still holds the job, which still relies on county taxpayer money.

So if Clark Broidatelli wins this council seat, he will sit on the legislative body that has the power to fund his wife’s salary.

How cozy.  I bet Frank Russo was taking notes.

And if somehow all of this just reeks a bit too much for even Clark Broidatelli, and Clark Broidatelli has the scruples to recuse himself from discussion of any issue relating to his wife’s job, which is basically anything at all dealing with Slavic Village – guess who loses out.  The residents of Slavic Village, who have to go unrepresented on issues before county council because of the musical chairs being played by yet another political clan.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.