Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cranley Tweets Just a Like a Republican

In a review of John Cranley's 170+ campaign tweets thus far the following breakdown of topics is very enlightening.

21 retweets of Republican politicians, all of them ideological
8 retweets of Democratic politicians, of which 2 are ideological
70 tweets that are critical of Mayor Mallory
16 tweets that announce campaign events
2 tweets that express Democratic ideology
2 stubs
29 retweets of negative news stories (about city Democratic leadership)
15 retweets of neutral news stories
1 retweet of positive news stories
4 retweets of his campaign manager
2 retweets of constituents criticizing Mayor Mallory

And two, on March 10th, "I am proud to be a Democrat and that is why I filed as a Democrat for Mayor".

So, other than the two on March 10th, Greg Hartmann or Brad Wenstrup could have tweeted all of these. Yes, in case you don't know, Hartmann and Wenstrup are Republicans.

I don't know if the person who came up with term DINO (Democrat In Name Only) had some type of vision of the future where John Cranley would be running for Mayor of Cincinnati and claiming to be a Democrat, but a case could be made for that.

Maybe Cranley hired a Republican to run his Twitter feed.  I can't rule that out, but I would hope Cranley is running the feed himself.  I'd hate for him to have sold out more than he already has.  I doubt it, however.

Voters need truth. We don't need Cranley (or Tea Party member Dusty Rhodes) pretending to be Dems when they do nothing, and I mean nothing, but carry on a Republican written and orchestrated campaign for Mayor.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Let the State Fund 100% of MLK Interchange

This has to be a no-brainer. If the Enquirer's information is correct then the State of Ohio will fund the MLK I-71 Interchange project no matter if the City of Cincinnati contributes to the project or not. Here's what the article says:
"State transportation director Jerry Wray told The Enquirer last month the state is moving forward with the project regardless of whether the city comes up with funding. ODOT officials have told local leaders that the state is searching for alternative funding in case the city doesn’t come through."
This should reset all of the discussions on the City Budget from here on out. The City should not fund any of the MLK Interchange if the State is going to do so no matter what the City does. The State of Ohio, under the anti-city crusade from Governor John Kasich, has drastically cut State funds provided to all Cities in Ohio. If the cuts come to people one place, then the benefits should come someplace else. State funding for Interstate Highways is the least Kaisch and the rest of the GOP can do for their anti-city funding cuts.

I expect to hear Cranley, Smitherman, and Winburn saying the SAME THING I am saying.  If the City doesn't need to fund something, we shouldn't do it.  We can spend the money on something else, or if there are restrictions, we can bank the money and use it at a later date.

Hell, if someone wants to be Machiavellian, then there would be ways of sticking it to certain local anti-city politicos, while still doing 'right' for the City.

Here's my stick-it-to-them Plan: If the parking plan goes through the first thing I would do is take part of the money slated for MLK Interchange and announce road improvements in the "neighborhoods" Cranley wants to help.  Those neighborhoods would be those with lots of Republican voters.

The second thing I would do would be to do upgrades to the roads all through Bond Hill and Roselawn and be sure Mayor Mallory, the locations of Smitherman and Winburn's voting base.

The third thing would be for Mayor Mallory standing at each road making the announcements for the new projects and reminding people who voted for the funding of these projects (the Parking Plan) and who voted against it.

That would be my idea of hardball politics.

Instead, to be more equitable we could hold hearings first to educate people, like John Cranley, on the ways the restricted money could legally be used, and then we could hear ideas on the best way to spend it.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Cranley Throws In the Towel, Already?

Quimbob over at Blogging Isn't Cool reports on mayoral candidate John Cranley's television ad and brings up an important point: Instead of telling viewers how he would lead the city, Cranley wants them to lobby the Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls since she's going to win anyway.

Quimbob is right. Why would a serious candidate do that? Cranley appears to get what the rest of know, he's not good for the city.  That commercial surely wasn't cheap to produce, but  I guess all of the Republican money he is getting has to be spent at some point.

Thursday, May 09, 2013

COAST Likes John Cranley

Say what you will about COAST, but when they see a political candidate doing their bidding they give them praise. In this blog post from the Enquirer we get this juicey quote from bigot Tom Brinkman:
"We like the new John Cranley, but that is the new John Cranley."
They don't like him enough to endorse him for Mayor, something Cranley needs to win, but damn if they don't like him.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Endorsing Ten for Council Is a Stupid Idea

I don't know who put the idea in the public sphere for the Cincinnati Democratic Committee to endorse ten candidates for the City Council Election, but who ever did it is either insane or plain old stupid.

There are nine seats on council. Any more than nine endorsements means that Dems will have no choice but to work against other Dems. Additionally, as Chris Seelbach points out in the article from the Cincinnati Business Courier, linked above, too many people would over-vote, thus invalidating their ballot for council.  Yes, that is a negative implication about the high level of ignorance with the voters, but not enough people read directions. As long as you have ten names, people will fill the box next to ten names.  Additionally, whoever is listed last on the Dem flyers that are handed out to voters would also get royally screwed by voters paying attention to the nine limit.

I am not sure if it is David Mann's effort at publicizing the ten endorsement idea or some other misguided individual, but whoever is behind it better end it, now.

This year's voting cycle process for endorsements is very shady with two situations that should never have happened. We have one instance of nepotism from the Thomas family and another instance of political favoritism from the Mayor's office. We don't need a third instance of a former politician mucking up the process.

Mann may have been something in politics 20 years ago.  Much has changed since then and I am skeptical that a politician who won the same seat as both Charlie and Tom Luken will have the ability to change with the City.  It is obvious that the Lukens don't want the City to Change and Cranley & COAST are in their camp.  Mann may be a third way or may surprise me with a vision of the future for our City.  I don't see that yet and this bid for an endorsement underlines my initial opinion of him.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Fountain Square 'Indie Summer' Series Announced

Citybeat has posted the line up for the Friday 'Indie Summer' Concert Series. The line-up includes:
May 31: Pomegranates/Healing Power; The Yugos; The Never Setting Suns

June 7: We Were Promised Jetpacks; Tweens; Public

June 14: Seabird; Mike Mains & The Branches; TBA

June 21: Loudmouth; The Dopamines; The Lockland Brakes; BoyMeetsWorld

June 28: Psychodots; Cari Clara; The Ready Stance

July 5: Margot & the Nuclear So & So's and Matt Pond with Matrimony

July 12: Plumb; more TBA

July 19: Wussy; Queen City Radio; TBA

July 26: Brian Olive; Man Halen; The Tongue & Lips

Aug. 2: The Seedy Seeds; TBA; The student band from Mason's School of Rock

Aug. 9: TBA with Archers Paradox

Aug. 16: Belle Histoire; Dept. Store Alligators; TBA

Aug. 23: Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors; Green Light Morning; TBA

Aug. 30: Why? with Vito Emmanuel and TBA