The Observation Deck

With Mike Summers. It has come to my attention that Nickie J. Antonio, State Representative For Ohio House District 13, has placed a "vote for 64" sign in the front yard of her home here in Lakewood.

The issue I have with this is not necessarily the fact that she is for issue 64. The main issue that appalls me is that State Representative Nickie J. Antonio endorsed Michael Skindell for Lakewood Mayor last year and infiltrated both Mr. Skindell's campaign as well as the Save Lakewood Hospital movement. She appeared to make it seem like she was on the side of Mr. Skindell and Save Lakewood Hospital.

Then, State Representative Nickie J. Antonio appeared to have a sudden change of heart at the December 21st, 2015 Lakewood City Council meeting. Where, from what I gather, she stood and spoke in support of Summers & Co.'s plan to close Lakewood Hospital.

It is also very curious to me that a Jay Carson pulled petitions to run as a Republican against State Representative Nickie J. Antonio for her seat in the Ohio House of Representatives. Then, right around the time that the deadline to pull petitions passed, Mr. Carson withdrew his candidacy, leaving Nickie J. Antonio as the only candidate for House District 13.

In my opinion, Nickie J. Antonio's conduct in regards to her apparent infiltration of Mike Skindell's campaign and Save Lakewood Hospital movement was highly unethical and underhanded. Again, my issue is not with her support for Issue 64. Rather, it is this seemingly sneaky and underhanded behavior on her part.

While this would be impossible to prove, is there any chance that Nickie J. Antonio was gathering information about the Skindell and Save Lakewood Hospital campaigns and taking it back to Mike Summers & Co.?

I had a suspicion that Nickie J. Antonio was working both sides from the beginning (likely along with J.T. Neuffer and Mark A. Schneider in the Ward 3 Council race). However, Antonio's conduct takes the cake, in my opinion.

I don't believe Nickie "infiltrated" the Skindell campaign.

Her behavior since December 21 has been disappointing but not surprising.....politicians gravitate to where they believe the power is.
Nickie thinks that is with Summers....so the fact that he is a Republican doesn't matter.
Also, she's gotten in bed with Tom Bullock, the guy who badmouthed her constantly during his attempted State Rep run.

Michael Deneen wrote: Also, she's gotten in bed with Tom Bullock, the guy who badmouthed her constantly during his attempted State Rep run.

Not quite. Behind the scenes she orchestraded the coup that denied Bullock the Council presidency.

I think she came to his campaign kickoff at his office on Detroit and cheered everybody on for Skindell's campaign. She made people think that she was for saving the hospital, and that I cannot forgive. I always supported her through the years, but no longer.

I would agree that she has chosen to run with Summers & Bullock. Her term is only two years, and this could very well come back to bite her if she chooses to run for State Senate.

The idea of Bullock running for State Rep is laughable. Does he really think anyone outside of Lakewood knows (or cares) who he is? In my opinion, he appears to be like Summers, a legend in his own mind!

Bill Call wrote:Not quite. Behind the scenes she orchestraded the coup that denied Bullock the Council presidency.

Excellent point.

Nicki Antonio takes a stand...

...and gets in bed with Mike Summers and his developer friends.

Too bad she is unable to see through this charade.

Was Antonio Working to Decant the Hospital All Along?

It is no secret by now that the only apparent reason Antonio ran unopposed this year was because Mr. Carson appeared to conveniently withdraw his name right around the filing deadline. Nevertheless, Antonio continued to take campaign donations, although she was unopposed. Below is a list of some notable individuals that have donated to Antonio since the hospital closure was announced in December 2014:

John P. Zaremba donated $25.00 on 5/27/15. According to public records, Mr. Zaremba is an uncle through marriage of former Lakewood City Councilman Shawn P. Juris.

Curtis M. Brosky from the former LHA donated $100 on 6/1/15. Mr. Brosky is a registered Republican and Antonio is a Democrat.

Michael Montlack donated $50 on 6/9/15. Mr. Montlack is a Summers campaign donor and alleged friend. Montlack owns several apartment buildings in Lakewood. Interestingly, Montlack does not reside in Antonio's district, but in Cleveland Heights.

Dan O'Malley donated $50 on 6/12/15 (self-explanatory)

Samuel T. O'Leary donated $45 on 6/12/15 (self-explanatory)

Cynthia A. Marx donated $35 on 6/12/15 (self-explanatory)

Thomas J. Fraser from First Federal of Lakewood donated $250 on 6/12/15. Fraser sits on the FFL Board of Directors alongside Mayor Michael P. Summers, Larry E. Faulhaber from LHF, and W. Charles Geiger III from LHF.

Fred M. DeGrandis donated $50 on 6/12/15 (self-explanatory). Mr. DeGrandis also does not reside in Antonio's district.

Cynthia A. Marx donated $100 on 3/6/16 (self-explanatory)

Albert B. Ratner from Forest City Enterprises (A.K.A. Rockport Square Condos) and the Cleveland Clinic donated $1000 on 3/6/16.

Cynthia A. Marx donated an additional $250 on 3/6/16.

I'm sure I may get heat from this one, but Laurie S. Rokakis donated $100 6/9/16. While it may be a coincidence, Laurie's husband is named Jim. Jim was formerly Cuyahoga County Treasurer and was accused by some of allegedly suspicious activity involving alleged property tax breaks for politically-connected people and also allegedly suspicious activity involving Gus Frangos and land banks. See: http://realneo.us/content/cuyahoga-coun ... m-fraud-wa Rokakis also does not live in Antonio's district.

Cynthia A. Marx donated $25 on 6/9/16.

O'Malley for Lakewood Committee donated $100 on 6/10/16.

Antonio also received hundreds of dollars from Cleveland Building Trades Council. This group backed Mike Summers and Issue 64, and claimed that they could not wait to tear the hospital down. This group also backed Mark A. Schneider for ward 3 council.

Of course, hundreds of dollars from Armond Budish also.

Those are just the notable individuals. I did not include those individuals that were "par for the course", such as Lucinda B. Einhouse, Linda G. Beebe, Mark A. Schneider, and so on.

Without thread-drifting too much, it is worth noting that Mark A. Schneider ran for ward 3 council on a platform to supposedly save the hospital. Where has he been? I suspect he will show up on the at-large ballot, likely as an alleged City Hall plant.

Now, I went back to Antonio's contributions back to 2010. Antonio's contributions from drug companies, medical insurance companies, and the like seemed to spike after the hospital deal was announced. Antonio only got two contributions from drug companies in 2012 and roughly four in 2014. This time around (2016), although she ran unopposed I counted 16 donations from these companies. Below are the donations from drug companies, insurance companies, and the like:

$350 from Pfizer on 6/17/15 (drug company)

$500 from Alkermes Inc. 7/16/15 (drug company)

$500 from Humana Inc. on 10/2/15 (health insurance company)

$500 from Medical Mutual on 10/27/15 (health insurance company)

$500 from Aetna Inc. on 1/22/16 (health insurance company)

$500 from UnitedHealth Group on 1/22/16 (health insurance company)

$350 from Caresource Inc. on 1/25/16 (health insurance company)

$350 from Centene Corporation on 1/29/16 (government-subsidized healthcare firm)

$350 from Pfizer on 5/9/16 (drug company)

$500 from Astra-Zeneca on 7/15/16 (drug company)

$500 from Amerisourcegerben Corporation (drug wholesale company)

$350 from Caresource Inc. on 7/8/16 (health insurance company)

$250 from Novartis on 7/28/16 (drug company in Switzerland)

$350 from Alkermes on 8/9/16 (drug company)

$500 from Merck on 8/23/16 (drug company)

$500 from Humana Inc. on 9/30/16 (health insurance company)

A total of $6,850 from drug companies in one, unopposed campaign cycle alone. As was stated before, the donations from drug and insurance companies really spiked in 2015 and 2016. Who do we suppose helped her grasp these contributions from all of these nationwide and worldwide companies suddenly? Cleveland Clinic?

As I have said before, it is her right to vote for whomever she wants to. However, she must not forget that she is to represent everyone in Lakewood and the rest of her district. Also, it is a whole different story to allegedly infiltrate SLH and Mike Skindell's campaign and apparently pretend to be on SLH's side. Better that she would have gone in to the voting booth and voted however she wanted to quietly.

Besides Mark A. Schendier, I am beginning to wonder if Mr. Neuffer was possibly put in to the ward 3 race to spread out the ward 3 votes by Nickie Antonio. It is no secret that Mayor/Public Safety Director Michael P. Summers wanted LHA Member John D. Litten to win, and the decision of Michael P. Summers is final.