The Observation Deck

As expected, gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald is trailing badly in the polls to John Kasich. The latest has him down 50-35.
He's facing a cash gap, which aggravates his lack of name recognition in the state.
He also faces the same problem as most Democrats....young people and minorities tend to vote heaviest in Presidential years, but stay home in "off year" elections.

Unless he does something RIGHT NOW to shake things up, he will get clobbered.

A couple of questions for the peanut gallery:

*As we all know, he is a former Lakewood Mayor. From a purely civic perspective, would be good for Lakewood if he won the race? Would it give prestige to our community?

*What should he do to turn the race around?

Here's my advice: He should come out VERY STRONG for marijuana legalization. This would accomplish many things:

1. It would instantly boost his name recognition both within the state and nationally. He'd get a lot of free media coverage.
2. It would energize young people and minorities to get out the vote. Younger kids are much more open about weed, and minorities see first hand the impact of our failed drug war. This would give him the "Obama Coalition" that carried Ohio in 2008 and 2012.
3. It would put him ahead of the curve on a growing issue. I think this is is the next "Gay Marriage"...the smart politicians will buy in early. As a young politician, this will help him not only in the short term but also in ten, twenty years.
4. Oh by the way, it's actually good policy. It would help reduce our prison population, saving taxpayer dollars.
5. Washington and Colorado legalized, and the Broncos and Seahawks went to the Super Bowl!

There is very little downside to embracing weed. It will alienate stodgy conservatives, but those people were never going to vote for him anyway.

Michael Deneen wrote:*As we all know, he is a former Lakewood Mayor. From a purely civic perspective, would be good for Lakewood if he won the race? Would it give prestige to our community?

*What should he do to turn the race around?

An Ed Fitzgerald victory would be bad for Lakewood. Most politicians who are elected to higher office try to use their new power and influence to bring more public investment to their hometowns. Politicians from Southern Ohio from both parties work overtime to get State offices in their town, to get new roads and bridges and to fund special projects that they think might bring some economic benefit. Ever wonder why people from Cleveland have to mail their tax returns to Fresno, CA? Hint: it's not because it makes economic sense.

Ed Fitzgerald was a good Mayor and is a good man BUT he thinks doing something for Lakewood would be "playing favorites". It's an odd policy. In most areas of Ohio and the Country politicians try to get more for their City or region not less. Her is an example:

When West 117th Street was rebuilt from the ground up the Cuyahoga County Engineer knew that the contractor used substandard mix and poor workmanship. They withheld a portion of the retainage and made no demands for corrections. Years later West 117th Street needs a complete rebuild and Ed Fitzgerald sends Lakewood the bill. That's not just bad policy it's bad politics. Well, maybe not bad politics because no one seems to care.

What harm would it do for the County to say: "We accepted a job we knew to be of poor quality that did not meat even minimum construction standards so it would be unfair to send Lakewood the bill."

Did you ever wonder why NASA's Alabama facility keeps getting bigger and NASA's Cleveland operations keep getting smaller? When Glen gets small enough no one will notice when they close it down. The Cleveland area has a history of sending people to Washington or Columbus who promptly forget who they represent.

Steve Latourette is a good example. He goes to Washington as a reformer, does one or two things for his district, divorces his wife to marry a lobbyist, becomes a lobbyist and suddenly decides that while sending money to his district was beneath his dignity sending money to his lobbyist bosses is ok.

So tell me, what has Ed Fitzgerald done for Lakewood since becoming County Executive? What do you think he will do for Lakewood if he becomes Governor?

If past history means anything the answer is nothing.

It's too late to turn the campaign around. It was always going to be a tough race. As County Executive he should have challenge the downtown oligarchy, challenged the institutions and challenged the status quo. Then he should have run for re-election for Executive as the guy who set Cuyahoga County on the path to renewal. He then would have been able to run for governor as an accomplished reformer in a race with no incumbent. He would have won a wide open race.

Too late now.

Marijuana legalization?

It's seems an odd choice.

Over the last five years or so we have:

Record number of people in poverty
Record low labor participation rate
Record high food stamp use
Record unemployment for those under 30
Record unemployment for minorities
Record number of people dependent on the State
Increasing racial polarization
World wide economic and political instability not seen since 1914
Declining real wages
Declining living standards
Increasing abuse of power by government institutions
and the solution is:

keep the people high so they don't notice.

This thread has only gotten one comment in four days.
Fitz's hometown is far less interested in his campaign than it was in subjects such as the Sin Tax, drug testing at St. Ed's, or the proposed "Party Bus".

The collective apathy is a big trouble sign.

Michael Deneen wrote:This thread has only gotten one comment in four days.
Fitz's hometown is far less interested in his campaign than it was in subjects such as the Sin Tax, drug testing at St. Ed's, or the proposed "Party Bus".

The collective apathy is a big trouble sign.

Michael

The big trouble was very well evident during the last presidential election. Cities in the
south showed up in force to welcome Romney, Christie, Ryan, and Kasich. They showed up
in large crowds for Dems in the north, but outside of that nothing like the Rs that would turn
out an entire city.

Kasich has moved to the center on many of the things Dems care about, and for most Dems
that is all they need. Ed, has not made any name for himself. I would say he did basically
the same for the county that he did for Lakewood, clean the office, and carry on what was
already in the works.

I have to agree with Bill, he has shown no inclination to help the city of Lakewood at the
County level, why would that change?

Legalization of marijuana will become an issue by 2016, and I believe it will be the Rs
driving the bus. IT is the only hail-o-mary they might be able to pull out of the bag.

FWIW

.

Michael Deneen wrote:This thread has only gotten one comment in four days.
Fitz's hometown is far less interested in his campaign than it was in subjects such as the Sin Tax, drug testing at St. Ed's, or the proposed "Party Bus".

The collective apathy is a big trouble sign.

We are all amazed at what other people find interesting on the Deck.

For example, I thought at least a few people would want to put some pressure on the County to pay for its own errors made when they paved W117th. Not so.

The bar fight on Detroit got 45,000 views but I noticed that out of those 45,000 people only one or two viewed any of the other posts.

Democracy is hard, getting involved is harder and staying involved is hardest.

Overall I think what I read in the Observer and on line is better than most of what I read in the Plain Dealer. Of course I could make a full time hobby out of challenging what I read in the PD but I would be the only one interested.

My main interest here is in the damage done to Cuyahoga County by Cuyahoga County institutions. My main disappointment with Fitzgerald is that he signed on to the Downtown Disneyland development model with the added twist of a blind eye to the County's incompetent institutions.

Michael Deneen wrote:As expected, gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald is trailing badly in the polls to John Kasich. The latest has him down 50-35.

Not according to the emails I keep getting from Team Fitz!, Mike.

Team Fitz! wrote:From: Lindsay Molnar [mailto:info@edfitzgeraldforohio.com]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 10:44 AM
To: Matt Markling
Subject: Re: We're neck and neck!


Matthew --

I wanted to make sure you heard the great news: the newest poll of this race has us neck and neck with Kasich.

With your help, we can close the gap in the next six months and help Ed win.

Will you chip in $5.00 today?

Thanks for your support,

Lindsay
Finance Director
Friends of FitzGerald-Neuhardt

-----Original Message-----

From: Nick Buis
Subject: We're neck and neck!

Matthew --

A new PPP poll out this week shows that this race is extremely close.

Ed is polling at 43% and Kasich is at 47%. We have every chance to make up that difference in the 170 days we have left before Election Day.

But we can’t do it without your support.

Will you contribute $5.00 right now to help Ed win?

In the previous PPP poll, Ed was polling even with Kasich at 44%. The numbers haven't changed much this time around -- we are still neck and neck.

That means this race is going to be very tight. Kasich’s got millions of dollars on his side, so it’s going to take everything we’ve got to get Ed over the line on Election Day. We’re counting on you to help us get there.

Your support will be the difference between victory and defeat.

Donate now and keep us in this fight for the next 170 days:

Thanks for your support,

Nick
Campaign Manager
Friends of FitzGerald-Neuhardt

Matt

I have to agree with Jim on this one.

Make no bones about it, I am about as liberal as they can get (with some exceptions we can get to in other posts).

Kasich has done enough to move to the center to not be the devil. And I honestly don't get, or trust, Fitzgerald. He seems to be the proverbial politician who just likes being a politician.

Kasich takes stands that I can agree or disagree with (normally disagree) but I never doubt he has Ohio's best interest at heart. I may not think his approach is what I would do, but I seriously do not doubt his love for Ohio.

For Fitzgerald, I see Governor of Ohio as just another stepping stone to whatever he wants (VP, President, World CEO?). He has shown little care for Lakewood since being Executive of Cuyahoga County and I don't see why that would change.

Even as a liberal, I care more for someone who actually is interested in making Ohio/Cuyahoga County/Lakewood a better place to live than someone who is just looking for the next rung on the ladder.

Of course, this is just MHO. Cheers!

Matt

Matthew Lee wrote:Even as a liberal, I care more for someone who actually is interested in making Ohio/Cuyahoga County/Lakewood a better place to live than someone who is just looking for the next rung on the ladder.

Of course, this is just MHO. Cheers!

Matt

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D1 ... fault.aspx

The Nelsonville bypass was funded with stimulus money that could have easily been spent in Cuyahoga County. One reason it wasn't was that Democrat Ted Strickland new that he had the votes of Democrats in Cuyahoga County so there was no reason to cater to their needs. Cuyahoga County ended up with no stimulus funds.

Democrats ignore the needs of Cuyahoga County because they get the votes anyway and Republicans ignore Cuyahoga County because they aren't going to get the votes.

John Kasich has lavished a lot of attention and money on Cuyahoga County. Ed Fitzgerald will not. Just as Fitzgerald signed on to the Downtown Disneyland development model for Cuyahoga County he will sign on to the Columbus is the Center of the Universe economic model if he is elected Governor.

There might be a lot of reasons to vote for Fitzgerald for Governor but expecting him to do something for Cuyahoga County or Lakewood is not one of them.

FitzGerald has announced a rather bizarre proposal about distribution of the sin tax money.
It would award 20 percent of the sin tax money to one of the three teams based on "performance".
Naturally, he offers no criteria for what that means.

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-count ... rt_m-rpt-1

Instead of being bold, he is doing lame gimmicks that will guarantee a lopsided loss in November.

Worse yet, he is not even competitive....which means that the GOP will shift its resources to key battleground states. We will wind up with an increasing radicalized GOP, which will be bad for the Republican party and for the country.

Mike-- I agree. When the tax passed I think everybody breathed a sigh of relief that that issue wouldn't be revisited for a number of years. Now, this drifty proposal just brings it back up and for someone running statewide only serves to fence him into Cuyahoga County which isn't exactly a great sell south of I-70.
Stan

I just saw FitzGerald in an interview on Chanel 5 on this topic.

Zack Reed comes up with better ideas. This is worthy of a councilman (with due respect to Mr. Reed) or your bar buddy. Not someone running for office in the 10th largest state in the Union.

Stan Austin

He will be on ESPN Cleveland (850am) at 7:45 to discuss LeBron.

Why? I have no idea.

From the "Too Little, Too Late" Department:
FitzGerald endorses medical marijuana.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/po ... /15412313/

In keeping with his bland, corporate Democratic tendencies, he isn't endorsing all-out legalization.

Of course, none of this matters because his campaign is destroyed anyway.
Anything he says or does just looks like a desperate ploy to get votes.

Michael Deneen wrote:From the "Too Little, Too Late" Department:
FitzGerald endorses medical marijuana.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/po ... /15412313/

In keeping with his bland, corporate Democratic tendencies, he isn't endorsing all-out legalization.

Of course, none of this matters because his campaign is destroyed anyway.
Anything he says or does just looks like a desperate ploy to get votes.

Mike,

You are one of the few folks in the 'Wood who isn't afraid to poke sticks at Fitz!

For that, my friend, you have my utmost respect.

Matt

More in today's Pee Dee - Fitzgerald was cited for driving with expired plates.

My goodness, he's got his head in the clouds!