There are rumors Rob Richardson Jr. and Charlie Winburn will run.

 

If all four run, the results in the primary would be totally unpredictable.  Obviously, Charlie Winburn is a fake Republican and a total disaster of a human being.  His autobiography is fake, he has no loyalties, he performs exorcisms at his church, and he wrote some sort of crazy book around 2003 which nobody has a copy of but will resurface when others gear up to smear him. 

 

I used to work with a guy who went to Winburn's church service once when his family moved here, and he said it was totally nuts.  Like snake-handling nuts. 

 

According to WVXU's Howard Wilkinson: "Republican council member Charlie Winburn has pulled petitions to run for Cincinnati mayor. No idea if he intends to file them."

 

So we could be in for a pretty unpredictable primary.

Can you imagine if it's a November ballot between Winburn and Cranley?

Can you imagine if it's a November ballot between Winburn and Cranley?

 

Yes I already did.  The difference between those two is that Winburn is merely insane but has no future in politics aside from his Cincinnati-area bumblings.  Cranley is insane & vindictive and has every intention of running for higher office. 

 

But everything he has done in his career is the result of his father in my opinion

 

Sure you aren't talking about Cranley?  Somehow nobody seems to care that Cranley is from a rich family that paid for him to go look at poor people in the Dominican Republic on his high school summer break so he had a resume line for his college applications. 

 

 

 

 

Winburn will make the primary very interesting. As I alluded to a few months ago in this thread – a popular Republican in the primary mixes it up completely. Republican turnout is much better for primary and off year elections (remember even Mallory only won the general election by just 6000 votes), and last time around pretty much all of those Republicans who showed up voted for Cranley. If they have an actual “R” to pick this time, they will, and Cranley will lose a ton of votes. Cranley’s entire tactic of moving to the center only works well when he’s facing off against another Democrat. It’s plausible that he places third in the primary, behind Winburn and Simpson.

 

But everything he has done in his career is the result of his father in my opinion

 

Sure you aren't talking about Cranley?  Somehow nobody seems to care that Cranley is from a rich family that paid for him to go look at poor people in the Dominican Republic on his high school summer break so he had a resume line for his college applications. 

 

 

 

Richardson's father is a big wig with the local NAACP, and urban league. He is also a union leader and has his hand all over democratic politics in the city. You don't get to be chair of the UC Board of Trustees without those connections. All I am saying.

Winburn had his dreams dashed by the GOP when they appointed Dennis Deters to Commissioner and he is term-limited on council ... running out of options, been on Council since the Clinton administration, needs a job for next year.  I bet he runs.

 

It sucks that we have the non-partisan primary..

The only reason things changed for the better in this town was the surprise victory of Mallory over Pepper.  That pissed off the big money and they've pulled every dirty trick since to ensure one of their stooges gets in charge.  The own Cranley and Winburn.  Cranley is a fake Democrat and Winburn is a fake Republican.  Cincinnati politics in a nutshell. 

 

 

I think it's very likely that we will still end up with Cranley vs. Simpson in the general election. What will be interesting is how the introduction of two new challengers forces Cranley to shift his message.

 

For example, when Cranley was only facing other Democrats, he didn't have to worry about social issues being part of the equation. In 2013, the pro-LGBTQ groups didn't even endorse a candidate because both Dems were so similar in terms of social issues. But if Winburn makes a big deal about bring pro-life and anti-gay marriage, will he steal away some of the Republicans who previously voted for Cranley?

 

If it was just Cranley vs. Simpson, Cranley would try to make it yet another election about the streetcar. ("I tried my hardest to cancel it but a contract is a contract and we couldn't back out of it. So, I made changes to make it a success. But Yvette wants to blow even more of your money to extend it...")

What's hilarious is how Cranley threw together his "Hop-On Cincinnati" bus plan, which was just a rehash of Winburn's "Winburn Plan".  Winburn managed to fool the local media into covering his Winburn Plan twice about two years apart from one another.  The first was in 2009 or thereabouts and the second one was in 2011 or 2012.  He announced the exact same plan twice and the local media covered it the exact same way, forgetting that he had already done it.  Then Cranley stole the Winburn Plan because nobody remembered Winburn Plan 1 or Winburn Plan 2 (the same was Winburn Plan 1).  Now nobody remembers Hop-On Cincinnati or either Winburn Plane (which were the same plan, and the same as Hop-On Cincinnati). 

 

The Cranley trolley to a second term may be having some delays, please enjoy your complementary marshmallows as we wait for backup. 

We're barely into this and already a scandal brewing???

 

FBI took boxes from Winburn's office

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/05/fbi-took-boxes-winburns-office/96196650/

 

Cincinnati Police say they called the FBI last week after learning a Winburn aide planned to remove about a half dozen boxes containing items from the councilman’s office.

 

Winburn, who is mulling a run for mayor, said he doesn’t know anything about the boxes or why the FBI would be interested in them, though he suspects someone might want to hurt him politically.

 

Winburn’s aide, Rosalind Fultz, said the brown cardboard boxes were filled mostly with old newspapers she wanted to take home to read.

Finally a non-email scandal. 

 

 

 

Snake-handling church is illegal in many states

I bet there's a whole mess of snakes in those boxes

There's a comment posted on the cincinnati.com Winburn boxes/FBI story that says Cranley's protecting his right flank! 

 

Seriously, I have to wonder why Cranley ally/city solicitor Meuthing got police and the FBI involved without even asking Winburn or his staffers about the boxes?

Can Richardson win mayoral primary?

 

Rob Richardson Jr. made a good first impression this week.

 

A diverse, energetic crowd showed up for his mayoral campaign kickoff event. Richardson then told about 200 supporters and the media that he's the outsider in Cincinnati's May primary against Mayor John Cranley and City Councilwoman Yvette Simpson. It was a clear message: If you're mad at City Hall, I'm the only candidate who can bring a fresh approach.

 

It set political insiders abuzz, mostly because Richardson is a first-time candidate for public office and no one really knew what to expect. The former University of Cincinnati board chairman's stellar launch prompted some to wonder:

 

Can Richardson take down Simpson in the primary?

 

Cont

There's a comment posted on the cincinnati.com Winburn boxes/FBI story that says Cranley's protecting his right flank! 

 

Seriously, I have to wonder why Cranley ally/city solicitor Meuthing got police and the FBI involved without even asking Winburn or his staffers about the boxes?

Totally a Cranley move to protect his right flank.  So obvious.

Jason Williams from The Enquirer is on WVXU right now -- he betrayed that he barely knew who Rob Richardson was before this past week!  How can you be a reporter and have barely heard his name?  Said that he went to his campaign kickoff event and was surprised to see 200 people there.

 

Besides not knowing who Rob Richardson was, he celebrated Cranley by saying he "holds all the cards".  Um, okay. 

Will black voters turn out for Cranley? Or will criticisms by former campaign chair drive them away?

 

Dwight Tillery used his popularity in the black community to help John Cranley win election as Cincinnati’s mayor in 2013.

 

That won’t happen this year.

 

Tillery, a former Cincinnati mayor who is president of the Center For Closing The Health Gap, said he will not support Cranley’s bid for re-election, and he openly criticized him for what he said amounts to ignoring the needs of the black community.

 

No quote from Cranley himself, but is looks like Smitherman will be his liaison to the black community:

 

“I feel like sometimes African-Americans get consumed with what somebody looks like, particularly if they’re African-American, and they don’t turn back and look at what public policy they’re actually pushing,” Smitherman said.

 

“I agree that there are some … issues, structurally, that we still need to work on,” Smitherman said. “But to act as if John Cranley, this white male Democrat who is the mayor of the city of Cincinnati, has not been working his butt off to turn around a battleship that Mark Mallory for eight years was absent on … is absolutely unfair to John."

I got a survey call on my landline last night.  It seemed like they were trying to gauge how to attack Simpson and instead get me to vote for Cranley.  Questions like "If you learned that Simpson voted against hiring 85 more police officers would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for her?"  "If you knew that Simpson is in favor of spending $150 million more to extend the streetcar would that make you more or less likely to vote for her?"  "if you knew that Simpson voted against paving more streets..."  " And now that you have heard all of these things, which candidate would you likely vote for Cranley or Simpson?"

I got a survey call on my landline last night.  It seemed like they were trying to gauge how to attack Simpson and instead get me to vote for Cranley.  Questions like "If you learned that Simpson voted against hiring 85 more police officers would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for her?"  "If you knew that Simpson is in favor of spending $150 million more to extend the streetcar would that make you more or less likely to vote for her?"  "if you knew that Simpson voted against paving more streets..."  " And now that you have heard all of these things, which candidate would you likely vote for Cranley or Simpson?"

 

That's crazy.  Looks like Cranley is trying to create skewed polling to attract donors away from Simpson.  She needs to do her own polling of that kind that gives her favorable results. 

 

 

Those polling numbers don't generally get announced unless they're leaked. All Cranley is trying to do is determine which issues he should use to attack Simpson. I got a very similar call a few years ago that was clearly Winburn trying to figure out how to attack his opponents for whatever office he was running for at the time.

Cranley, via former co-worker Paula Boggs Muething, attempting to keep Republican money flowing to his campaign...

 

Charlie Winburn: Cincinnati city solicitor framed my aide

 

Transparency and openness should always be at the forefront for every public official. I am reminded of a quote from Justice Louis Brandeis that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” to government waste and abuse. On Jan. 5, The Enquirer reported on boxes from my office being taken from the basement of City Hall by the police department ("FBI took boxes from Winburn's office”). I’ve taken appropriate steps to ensure that my office has been as transparent as possible with what we know about this situation, what are in these boxes and why they would have been taken. We have taken great measures to be transparent and disclose all that we know regarding the boxes. The same cannot be said for the city solicitor’s office.

 

Here’s what I know. Despite news reports, no one has taken boxes from my office, no raid has occurred on my office, and no one from the FBI has even been in my office. In early December, my office aide filled several boxes with old newspapers, notes and memos so that she could take them home and catch up on old news and work. She placed them in the basement of City Hall with the permission of the custodial staff to make room in our office until she was ready to take them home. As a senior citizen, she takes public transportation to work, which means she has to arrange a ride specifically to take anything more than her bag home. Two weeks later, they were missing and she was told that they were thrown away. I knew nothing about these boxes until I got a call from The Enquirer asking about them.

 

Cont.

Cranley, via former co-worker Paula Boggs Muething, attempting to keep Republican money flowing to his campaign...

 

Cranley is so slimy.  And the republicans are so cowardly.  In this era of Trump and GOP shift, they could win the Cincinnati Mayoral race if they had any balls... or any strong black republicans.

Cranley aide: Winburn's claims are 'false'

 

Mayor John Cranley's office fired back Wednesday at Councilman Charlie Winburn for accusing the city solicitor of misusing her power to help the mayor get reelected.

 

Cranley's spokeswoman, Holly Stutz Smith, defended Solicitor Paula Boggs Muething and described Winburn's allegations as "categorically false."

 

The response came hours after Winburn claimed the solicitor's office created a bogus criminal investigation to hurt him politically as he considers a run for mayor.

 

Cont

Two city government sources, who asked not to be named because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about the matter, said someone at City Hall became aware of the boxes last month and alerted Muething. They said Muething then called the police, who alerted the FBI.

 

Cranley may not be behind calling the police over the boxes, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't behind having those two "sources" contact the Enquirer about it. The bad press for Winburn helps Cranley. Cranley needs the Republican west-siders to vote for him in the primary to beat Simpson, and they won't if Winburn runs. 

If Winburn runs, Cranley could place 4th in the primary. 

^Doubt it. But it certainly wouldn't help his chances in the primary.

If you run for mayor and don't make it out of the primary, can you still run for council?

^I was wondering the same thing. The primary is before the council filing deadline.

Yes you can. You call pull signatures for council until August (August 22 in 2013, haven't looked up 2017).

Yvette Simpson has put signs up on the former Check Cashing-turned Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters...no telling how long Clinton's lease was on the storefront. 

Looks like Rob Richardson's campaign HQ is on Ludlow Ave next to The Whole Bowl. http://www.thewholebowl.com/cincinnati.html

Looks like Rob Richardson's campaign HQ is on Ludlow Ave next to The Whole Bowl. http://www.thewholebowl.com/cincinnati.html

This would also be a hrc campaign site.

^Yeah, make no mistake that Hillary had a very active "ground game" here in Cincinnati.  There were campaign offices in many neighborhoods and my street was visited by canvassers twice before the election (when I was home...possibly more when I wasn't) and once more on the morning of the election. 

From Charlie Winburn's press conference this morning about Boxgate:

 

Winburn: "We need a new leadership type of mayor. We need a change."

 

Question: Will you run for mayor? "If I told you that, I'd have to kiss you."

 

“No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” Winburn said. “Yes, it is politically motivated. That’s politics."

 

“It was so mean spirited. It was so evil. It was so cloak and dagger. They didn’t care about my family,” Winburn said.

 

Winburn said “they” didn’t care that his wife had breast cancer. “They only cared about having a cheap media article,” Winburn said.

 

Sounds like Winburn's gonna run.  But if not, what is he gonna do?  He needs a job with good salary and health insurance.

 

Cranley has tried the stick approach, maybe he can try the carrot next... get him appointed to some other position.

Sounds like Winburn's gonna run.  But if not, what is he gonna do?  He needs a job with good salary and health insurance.

 

Cranley has tried the stick approach, maybe he can try the carrot next... get him appointed to some other position.

 

Winburn is term limited

 

http://wvxu.org/post/winburn-nadel-running-gop-recorder-nomination-bashing-each-other

Right. Which is why he's considering running for mayor

So it sounds like there was nothing of note in the boxes, and they were returned to Winburn without and charges:

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/26/winburn-absolutely-no-wrongdoing-me/97078672/

 

I think Winburn unquestionably hosts the most entertaining press conferences of any local politician. Wheeling the boxes in and letting reporters dig through them is a pretty good stunt. He also directed criticism to Cranley for causing the whole mess in the first place. This could backfire pretty badly for Cranley should Winburn run for mayor.

So it sounds like there was nothing of note in the boxes, and they were returned to Winburn without and charges:

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/26/winburn-absolutely-no-wrongdoing-me/97078672/

 

I think Winburn unquestionably hosts the most entertaining press conferences of any local politician. Wheeling the boxes in and letting reporters dig through them is a pretty good stunt. He also directed criticism to Cranley for causing the whole mess in the first place. This could backfire pretty badly for Cranley should Winburn run for mayor.

 

It raises the possibility that Winburn purposefully acted suspiciously to set off this whole chain of events.  Now he can present himself as a victim. 

 

 

Winburn set a honeypot!

^ That is a good theory. I wonder if it could even go a step further - What if Simpson was behind this? She makes Winburn think he's a victim of Cranley, which encourages him to run and ultimately defeat Cranley in the primary, only to lose to Yvette in the general.

^ That is a good theory. I wonder if it could even go a step further - What if Simpson was behind this? She makes Winburn think he's a victim of Cranley, which encourages him to run and ultimately defeat Cranley in the primary, only to lose to Yvette in the general.

 

I doubt Simpson (or anyone young enough to be a digital native) is capable of conceiving such a marvelously low-tech scheme.  Stuff like this is what we'll be able to do in the future with cursive. 

 

Many years ago, I remember, the mayor of cinci was just a figurehead and the actual chief executive with real authority of the city was a City Manager. Is that still the case?

Many years ago, I remember, the mayor of cinci was just a figurehead and the actual chief executive with real authority of the city was a City Manager. Is that still the case?

 

The "mayor" from 1926-2000 was simply the councilman who received the most votes.  That mayor did get to appoint some people but didn't have a veto, a pocket veto, or any dirty tricks at his disposal.  We do not currently have a truly "strong" mayor because the City Manager still hires and fires the department head.  The mayor is not a member of council but he does set the agenda, make many appointments, has a veto, etc. 

 

If a mayor is elected with a strong supporting cast on council, then they do have the sort of power a "strong" mayor has, but that has never happened aside from the 2011-13 years when Mallory had a bloc of four councilmen (Qualls, Quinliven, Simpson, Seelbach) who usually voted as he wanted.  That meant they only had to get one more to get something passed.  The streetcar wouldn't have happened without those four in council. 

 

Cranley has been at odds with his council this entire time since he knew at least one and now it appears two will challenge him in the 2017 race.  PG Sittenfeld attempted to skip town with his US Senate bid and Cranley knows he's a rival in future state office.  Cranley's only staunch ally has been the medically insane Chris Smitherman.  Kevin Flynn has generally allied himself with Cranley for reasons nobody can explain.

 

Cranley has had a tough go of it because his grand vision of building a political machine akin to Chicago isn't working out so well.   

^Thanks for that insightful explanation!

So the sanctuary city thing greatly increases the likelihood of a Republican entering the race.  Fear of immigrants will motivate Republican voters who would not have otherwise voted in the primary to show up and cast a vote for...Phil Heimlich. 

It seems like an odd move for Cranley. I think he either just wanted to beat Simpson to it, or perhaps it wasn't his idea (Wendell Young was the one who put together the council motion) but he knew he had to either take it over or oppose it. Maybe he thinks/knows a Republican is going to enter the race and he feels the sudden need to shift his base to the left in order to not get schlonged in the primary.

 

The issue itself seems to be mostly PR, as the Sheriff is the one who gets to decide how much the county jail works with ICE.