KJP:

I sure wasn't expecting to feel all melancholy this afternoon. but after seeing my Great Uncle Jimmy's name in their and cousin Rosemary..... well.

The "elders" in my immediate family have done an exceptional job keeping us youngsters away from all of that nonsense.

 

I think I know the individuals you are eluding to KJP and am having a hard time believing any of them were or still are puppet'masters'.  They may have had some (even significant) involvement in the corruption ring, but I think it is a stretch to infer they were and still are behind some grand scheme of organized white collar crime in the City.  Besides, who exactly are the new and willing puppets?  Fitzgerald?  Mason?  I highly doubt they are that stupid.

 

JMO.... but I think you are underestimating DiMora and overestimating the effectiveness and impact of old style mafia type dealings.

 

I have written a lot about organized crime in Cleveland and ran a website about it. I have much, much more material than I could ever use in a book. And some of it I will never publish because the information is still current -- that is, the crimes may still be ongoing. I walked away from that life because it was getting too crazy and this was when a close friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I'd lost the heart for it.

 

Here's some of what I can tell you.... Some of my sources went to Dimora indirectly for favors such as for getting a license, a court case fixed, or other "service". Sometimes they would to go to judges directly -- and if you want to find corruption that's a good place to look! Sources would go to friends of theirs who would then go to Dimora and tell him what they needed. Dimora would deliver. He wasn't a mobster. He was go-fer. A tool. And he is not the only one, but he was the least afraid of getting caught. You can say he either had balls or was careless. Either way you'd be right.

 

Yeah, that's how the case I know of worked. A local politician's kid who used to chase Holly around got a couple DUI's fixed.  I knew the name "McCaffrey" before the indictments because she was somehow in the loop.  And everybody knew Dimora did "favors" even back in his Bedford Heights days. 

 

One thing I wondered about with the time it took Dimora to go to trial was if the local machine had connections to other local machines, like the mafia did.  Lonardo brought down a lot of other cities.

 

Another thing perhaps worth following up upon:  were those gas pumps with Russo's picture on them neccesarily accurate.?

KJP:

I sure wasn't expecting to feel all melancholy this afternoon. but after seeing my Great Uncle Jimmy's name in their and cousin Rosemary..... well.

The "elders" in my immediate family have done an exceptional job keeping us youngsters away from all of that nonsense.

 

Sorry. I forgot about your links, but am glad your elders kept you away from that world.

 

 

 

Yeah, that's how the case I know of worked. A local politician's kid who used to chase Holly around got a couple DUI's fixed.  I knew the name "McCaffrey" before the indictments because she was somehow in the loop.  And everybody knew Dimora did "favors" even back in his Bedford Heights days. 

 

Bridgette was infamous for deciding cases before they were heard. All you had to do was give Jimmy a reason to speak with her. And when we forbid (or seriously limit) law firms from contributing to judges' campaigns, we might get rid of more corruption.

 

One thing I wondered about with the time it took Dimora to go to trial was if the local machine had connections to other local machines, like the mafia did.  Lonardo brought down a lot of other cities.

 

He hurt a lot of other cities, but he brought down much of Cleveland's family. But a lot of people escaped attention. For example, when Danny Greene was blown up, authorities recovered a gym bag of his at the scene. In the bag were notes detailing a criminal enterprise with a wealthy landfill owner who lived in Macedonia. When I asked the lead DEA investigator on that case why the Macedonia man was never mentioned in the whole Danny Greene murder investigation and subsequent court case, the DEA agent noted that the Mr. Macedonia was "paid up with the right people." The FBI never targeted him, even though their Special Agent-In-Charge of the Cleveland office, Joe Griffin, told me in an interview a few years before he died that he was aware of Mr. Macedonia but did not think he was a serious player in the local mob scene.

 

Another thing perhaps worth following up upon:  were those gas pumps with Russo's picture on them neccesarily accurate.?

 

Good question. Other questions: if they weren't accurate, in whose favor were they inaccurate? And did the gas station owner have to pay Russo to declare it inaccurate? BTW, the Russians/Ukrainians/Albanians love that sort of scam. They can find a way to earn a billion dollars per year, one penny of wrongdoing at a time. Very hard to catch, let alone prove, that sort of scam.

 

And when we forbid (or seriously limit) law firms from contributing to judges' campaigns, we might get rid of more corruption.

 

Or maybe we just stop electing judges period and use the appointment process that the Feds do..... or at least stop electing judges to oversee the court's civil docket.  It's not like they actually end up being the trial judge on 90% of civil cases anyway.  The whole campaign is about how "tough on crime" they are.  And the outcome of the election is, more often than not, determined by name recognition.  That's why we have so many judges with the same last name.

Agreed. But there also has to be some accountability to the public, such as some sort of public review after five or 10 years. Judges appointed for life scares me almost as much as having law firms contributing to a judge's election campaign.

Agreed. But there also has to be some accountability to the public, such as some sort of public review after five or 10 years. Judges appointed for life scares me almost as much as having law firms contributing to a judge's election campaign.

 

If no candidates spend any money, we end up with a string of the same old last names, at least in Cuyahoga. 

I think I know the individuals you are eluding to KJP and am having a hard time believing any of them were or still are puppet'masters'.  They may have had some (even significant) involvement in the corruption ring, but I think it is a stretch to infer they were and still are behind some grand scheme of organized white collar crime in the City.  Besides, who exactly are the new and willing puppets?  Fitzgerald?  Mason?  I highly doubt they are that stupid.

 

JMO.... but I think you are underestimating DiMora and overestimating the effectiveness and impact of old style mafia type dealings.

 

I have written a lot about organized crime in Cleveland and ran a website about it. I have much, much more material than I could ever use in a book. And some of it I will never publish because the information is still current -- that is, the crimes may still be ongoing. I walked away from that life because it was getting too crazy and this was when a close friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I'd lost the heart for it.

 

Here's some of what I can tell you.... Some of my sources went to Dimora indirectly for favors such as for getting a license, a court case fixed, or other "service". Sometimes they would to go to judges directly -- and if you want to find corruption that's a good place to look! Sources would go to friends of theirs who would then go to Dimora and tell him what they needed. Dimora would deliver. He wasn't a mobster. He was go-fer. A tool. And he is not the only one, but he was the least afraid of getting caught. You can say he either had balls or was careless. Either way you'd be right.

 

But he's not the only one in town. Many, many politicians have zero moral compass, so when someone comes along flashing money at them, they're only too happy to oblige and not ask questions. I think FitzGerald is clean. He and I had lunch downtown when he learned about my website, as he wanted to learn who were some of the organized crime players here. He recently moved here from Chicago and elected to Lakewood City Council. I've talked with him about other things since, and I feel he's clean. But there are other elected officials who may not be at any and all levels of government.

 

I can tell you a little tidbit that came from a source for the website I once ran and for articles I've written that Dimora was given a "shot across the bow" by people who worked (and still work) for one of Dimora's neighbors. That warning was that they would pay for his legal defense, that he should keep his mouth shut and that if he did he wouldn't have to worry about a thing. Now, for those of us living on the outside of the world that Dimora was living in, what he was told would mean only that his sugar daddies would pay for a top-notch legal defense. But, for those living inside the world Dimora chose to be a part of, he was told to keep his mouth shut about various activities that truly mattered to them, or else his life and possibly those of people he cared about was over.

 

The county is a big government, and so are many municipal, regional, state and federal governments. Even if most of the top elected officials aren't plugged in right now, some surely are. But moreso many of the bureaucrats are in great positions to be corrupted. Stop fighting the last war against crime. Try fighting the next one. If you were in control of others engaged in criminal activities, where would you seek to earn the most money with the least exposure?

 

I can tell that you one of the most brilliant criminal enterprises I was notified about is a workman's comp scam where the mob-run labor union, the mob-owned employer, the mob-owned clinic and some key bureaucrats and elected officials were involved (including the then-governor who was the beneficiary of a lavish fundraiser in Little Italy). Considering who owned the participants, there was no way this was going to get exposed -- except that the corrupt, managing physician was screwed over when the the whole scam was being set up. They forged his name to documents and when he complained, he got a call at dawn from a man he knew had committed some murders. The murderer said something innocent to him like "I haven't heard from you in a long time and I wondered if everything was all right." But when a known murderer calls you out of the blue at 6 a.m., that's when you realize you f*cked up. Even though that was 13 years ago, the last I'd heard, this scam or something similar is still continuing. They were making millions of dollars per year in phony workmen's comp and medicaid claims. And it all looked totally legit from the outside.

 

Or there's other scams, like forcing bars in some cities to accept their vending machines. So why those bars? Because they're run by immigrants or people who are convicted felons yet have liquor licenses listed illegally in the names of their relatives, making them vulnerable to coercion. And why those cities? Probably because the mayor or the police chief is being paid to look the other way. The family who ran that scam were convicted felons and had their Hunting Valley house built by a tough SOB and convicted felon who lived in Macedonia with a private airstrip so he could fly back and forth to his quarries on Kelly's Island. It was the only house I've ever heard of built by this guy. And he was buddies with Dimora's neighbors. They were all seen meeting at various times at the Macedonia man's club in Valley View, with the same people who had offered Dimora legal representation/veiled threats. There are other linkages but I can't cite them from memory right now.

 

And then there's after-hours clubs where gambling and prostitution goes on. Or there bar- or web-based gambling, shylocks, escorts and, of course, drugs, guns and stolen cars. By the way, speaking of stolen cars, one of my sources would receive cars stolen here and drive them to the East Coast to meet with their "colleagues" so they could be sold. Or his attorney would file claims with an airline, dealing only with an employee who was related to another criminal friend of my source, that his suitcase with lots of expensive suits was lost by the airline. So he got paid for the "loss."

 

Another source of mine ran a crew of burglars who only targeted the homes of drug dealers, and why not? The drug dealers couldn't go to the police. They wouldn't even report the crimes to police. And these burglars were bad asses who weren't afraid of anyone. Yet another source worked in a crew where they ran drugs and extorted protection money from immigrant businesses. They paid off cops and politicians to look the other way. This source was trying to set his life straight after his new wife had a kid; he wanted to clear his conscience by telling me things he done. There was one incident in particular. He felt terrible about helping to beat up a Chinese man who owned a shop in Euclid or Wickliffe. One of his crew members used a baseball bat on the Chinese man when he refused to pay protection money. The shop owner's wife was there when he was assaulted, and my source said he never saw so much blood after the shop owner's skull was cracked. These punks were in a crew run by a mobster who answered to another mobster who answered to one of Dimora's neighbors. I'll end by saying that this answering ended with Dimora's neighbor who appeared to run Dimora.

 

Do you believe that Rosemary Vinci died of natural causes? I'd be amazed if Dimora believed it too, and I'm sure that affected his decision to keep quiet. I had interviewed Rosemary a few times after she had called me to defend various nuisance bars or corrupt politicians she was connected with. She had a big mouth and love to tell stories. So did her late father James who was executed in his restaurant, Diamond Jim's. Rosemary told me a few weeks before she died that she just started dating a man from Sicily, but she refused to give me his name. She said he was something special, and bragged that he drove a Mercedes. I wanted to go by her house on Duck Island and run his car's license plate number, but I never did. To show you how one's mind works from being around some of these characters for a while, you start to question otherwise innocent things. Perhaps this man was simply Rosemary's last great love? Or perhaps something else was at work?

 

I developed a paranoid way of thinking during my years of research into organized crime, always questioning what might otherwise seem innocent. But that's not why I highly doubt that the characters who ran things while Dimora and Russo were in office will suddenly behave themselves now that Dimora and Russo have decided to keep their mouths shut and go off to prison quietly. They won't behave themselves because they don't know how to earn an honest living, they believe in their view of "pure capitalism" and they get a thrill from living the way they do.

 

But many in that world remember that Cleveland's Underboss Angelo Lonardo, one of the most respected mafioso in the U.S. in the early 80s, went quietly to prison on a 100-year sentence. After a few years in prison, he decided he didn't want to die there and became a top echelon FBI informant, bringing down wiseguys nationwide. Dimora's neighbors remember their history. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a prison fight and one or both of them were killed. I know my history too, as Clevelander Alfred Calabrese was killed in prison in  1999 by a fellow Clevelander incarcerated in the Atlanta federal pen. Some of Allie's friends suspected that then-boss Joe Iacobacci had Allie killed for some past offenses.

 

Just remember, organized crime has only gotten stronger, more global and more ethnically diverse. As long as there is money to be made, it will never go away. It just takes new forms, and we haven't imagined those new forms it will take or has already taken in Cleveland yet. We will find out, probably after the fact. Always keep your eyes open for it. You may find it in the darndest of places.

 

 

 

why would you mention Iacobacci but leave the other names out? So the same people killed rosemary and her father?

Looks like Dimora is going to die in prison.  While Frank Russo is out of prison until when? 

Fat Jimmy gets 28 yrs despite an impressive list of character witnesses testifying on his behalf, asking the judge for leniency.  He still denies any wrong doing and his attorneys whittled down the amount he actually benefitted while in office from an estimated $3 million down to $450,000.  http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/07/jimmy_dimora_sentenced_to.html

 

All that remains is Frank Russo to be locked up and this long saga will be over.

What are they waiting on with Frank?

Fat Jimmy gets 28 yrs despite an impressive list of character witnesses testifying on his behalf, asking the judge for leniency.  He still denies any wrong doing and his attorneys whittled down the amount he actually benefitted while in office from an estimated $3 million down to $450,000.  http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/07/jimmy_dimora_sentenced_to.html

 

All that remains is Frank Russo to be locked up and this long saga will be over.

 

I have a hunch he's going to vanish or "die" under suspicious circumstances (as in reports of such being greatly exaggerated...).  He has something on somebody with a lot of clout, that's my suspicion.

He's baaaack....

 

http://fox8.com/2013/08/23/dimora-in-cleveland-may-be-telling-what-he-knows/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co

 

Dimora could tell a grand jury so much more, but he has family he loves. They wouldn't last a minute.

He's baaaack....

 

http://fox8.com/2013/08/23/dimora-in-cleveland-may-be-telling-what-he-knows/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co

 

Dimora could tell a grand jury so much more, but he has family he loves. They wouldn't last a minute.

 

Witness Protection Program.  They've gotten a lot better during the past few years.  As long as he doesn't roll on Chicago he's safe, and they're safe. 

"roll on Chicago"........ you're obsessed man!

I really don't think this runs nearly as deep as all of you think.  I could be wrong, but I think this was the local good ol' boys network. 

This could blow up big and end up being tied to the overall county probe.

 

http://fox8.com/2013/12/06/two-on-leave-bedford-law-director-home-and-office-searched/

Dimora and Russo were amateurs  (though I am still wondering about those gas pumps).

 

Shrimp Boy Chow and the MILFs?  Really?  A fiction writer would see more eye rolls than W. 6th during a comic book convention.

 

http://monsterhunternation.com/2014/03/28/leland-yee-super-villain/

I really don't think this runs nearly as deep as all of you think.  I could be wrong, but I think this was the local good ol' boys network. 

 

As someone who ran the website clevelandmob.com 10-15 years ago, I can tell you that the authorities did not catch the real bad guys. Many politicians (especially Dimora, Russo et al) are like rudder-less sailboats. They go wherever the wind pushes them. I know who made the wind.

 

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County isn't the corruption cesspool it was before the mid-1980s. When you had a guy (Michael "Mickey" Rini) in Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk's office whose sole job it was to hand out favors to and fix problems for mobsters, it was a sad era for Cleveland. Even as I write that, I'm reminded that 30 years later, Rosemary Vinci had the same job at the county for Dimora. She was a fixer, too. It's what got her killed. And I've spoken to people who knew the guys that ran Dimora. My sources also benefited from Dimora but in different ways, including Dimora convincing judges to help get favorable rulings on cases, mostly divorces. The people who ran Dimora pledged to get him a good attorney and would protect him as long as he kept his mouth shut. That also was an indirect threat.

 

Sure, the city and county have been cleaned up from what they were. But not yet to the level of largely corruption-free cities/metros. It's still got a ways to go. And as long as certain persons in the community are still there, that corruption won't completely go away.

Absolutely, Cleveland has a ways to go to become corruption-free, and I'm not sure it will ever get there.  There will always be corruption in politics given the nature of the "business", because that is what it is, a business.  There is corruption in all business, however it is a legal practice in the private industry, maybe not ethical, but legal.  Sunbelt communities, and newer towns, IMO, will always have less corruption simply because the family roots and heritage will never run so deep as they do in Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, etc.

Not technically "corruption", but IMO a product of the same mindset.  At least as objectionable than First Energy, a monopoly, buying "naming rights".

 

Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District: Ratepayers spent millions promoting, TV ads, dinners, events

 

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/investigations/northeast-ohio-regional-sewer-district-millions-spent-promoting-tv-ads-dinners-events

 

It provided my new sig line too.

I really don't think this runs nearly as deep as all of you think.  I could be wrong, but I think this was the local good ol' boys network. 

 

As someone who ran the website clevelandmob.com 10-15 years ago, I can tell you that the authorities did not catch the real bad guys. Many politicians (especially Dimora, Russo et al) are like rudder-less sailboats. They go wherever the wind pushes them. I know who made the wind.

 

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County isn't the corruption cesspool it was before the mid-1980s. When you had a guy (Michael "Mickey" Rini) in Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk's office whose sole job it was to hand out favors to and fix problems for mobsters, it was a sad era for Cleveland. Even as I write that, I'm reminded that 30 years later, Rosemary Vinci had the same job at the county for Dimora. She was a fixer, too. It's what got her killed. And I've spoken to people who knew the guys that ran Dimora. My sources also benefited from Dimora but in different ways, including Dimora convincing judges to help get favorable rulings on cases, mostly divorces. The people who ran Dimora pledged to get him a good attorney and would protect him as long as he kept his mouth shut. That also was an indirect threat.

 

Sure, the city and county have been cleaned up from what they were. But not yet to the level of largely corruption-free cities/metros. It's still got a ways to go. And as long as certain persons in the community are still there, that corruption won't completely go away.

 

Ed Tomba actually said this yesterday

 

"Cleveland has been free of traditional organized crime for a while," Tomba said. "We didn't want (Agnello) or any of his minions to get a foothold here in Cleveland."

 

Shades of J. Edgar Hoover denying that the Mafia existed.

What's funny, or I guess odd, is that federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI said, "We've cleaned this city of organized crime!" Meanwhile I've interviewed agents at the ATF and Ohio Organized Crime Strike Force who said, "Organized crime has definitely been weakened in Cleveland, but it's not gone. Probably never will be."

http://www.cleveland.com/brook-park/index.ssf/2016/02/brook_park_nuisance_hotel_has.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

As I commented:

 

Why exactly is running "an illegal park-and-fly business out of the parking lot" worthy of complaint?  The "legitimate" lot owners who pay the right people objected?

 

As someone else commented, interesting that the raid happened after O'Malley sold the bar.  Remember whose computer likely started the whole corruption case....

So he can meet with investigators?

 

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2016/03/jimmy_dimora_moved_to_federal.html#incart_m-rpt-1

So it occurred to me not long ago that if this case had not happened, Hillary might have carried Ohio, and the "advice" from Dimora et al regarding her grossly ineffectual campaign could have carried over to other similar states like Michigan and Wisconsin. 

 

Thoughts?

Thoughts: ignorant people would support and vote Trump regardless of Jimmy, Russo, and Janeway's husband. Hatred for Obama, liberals and a destroyed working class economy are why Trump is bored at 1600, not because those losers got caught.

Thoughts: ignorant people would support and vote Trump regardless of Jimmy, Russo, and Janeway's husband. Hatred for Obama, liberals and a destroyed working class economy are why Trump is bored at 1600, not because those losers got caught.

 

The problem with this point relates to the now ''ignorant people'' aka Trump voters that were Obama voters in 2008 and 2012.  All these Obama haters and liberals sure weren't issues after either of those elections.  So, it's ''ignorant people'' that voted for Trump's Ohio victory and ''not ignorant people'' when they twice voted for Obama.  Got it.

 

Are these ''ignorant people'' to use a Hillary term ''irredeemable'' or can they be redeemed if a Democrat carries Ohio in 2020?

 

Just trying to pin down if they are always ignorant or just sometimes ignorant.

To vote for an incompetent like Trump, and especially to support him currently, is indicative of being ignorant, brainless, hell, treasonous. As for some ironically supporting Obama beforehand, well, I guess those morons gravitated to Trump's malice, immaturity and proud stupidity over time. That or they realllllllllly were bothered by the oh so shocking server scandal.

 

To vote for an incompetent like Trump, and especially to support him currently, is indicative of being ignorant, brainless, hell, treasonous. As for some ironically supporting Obama beforehand, well, I guess those morons gravitated to Trump's malice, immaturity and proud stupidity over time. That or they realllllllllly were bothered by the oh so shocking server scandal.

 

You make it sound like OH is now an official Red State.  It could be but history has shown, as you know, that OH is neither permanently blue or red.  You will need those ignorant morons to make OH a Blue State in 2020.

 

Hillary's real problem was not her ''server scandal'', though it didn't help.  If it was ever going to happen, Hillary's time was 2008.  Chicago stepped in.

In 2016, Trump stepped in.

Ohio is forced to be a red state, including the embracing of extremists, by gerrymandering.

Thoughts: ignorant people would support and vote Trump regardless of Jimmy, Russo, and Janeway's husband. Hatred for Obama, liberals and a destroyed working class economy are why Trump is bored at 1600, not because those losers got caught.

 

The problem with this point relates to the now ''ignorant people'' aka Trump voters that were Obama voters in 2008 and 2012.  All these Obama haters and liberals sure weren't issues after either of those elections.  So, it's ''ignorant people'' that voted for Trump's Ohio victory and ''not ignorant people'' when they twice voted for Obama.  Got it.

 

Are these ''ignorant people'' to use a Hillary term ''irredeemable'' or can they be redeemed if a Democrat carries Ohio in 2020?

 

Just trying to pin down if they are always ignorant or just sometimes ignorant.

 

The most pro-Trump municipality, even more so than Hunting Valley, was blue collar Cuyahoga Heights, which went for Obama twice.  While it's small, it's the one place where the white ethnic blue-collar demographic dominates, because houses there get sold by "word of mouth" instead of being advertised due to the schools. 

 

Hillary's campaign was tone deaf to them.  The gun control people on the dias at the Labor Day rally was a classic example, but it was merely a symptom.

 

Trump pretended to care about them (dishonestly, IMO).  She really didn't.  I can't imagine Dimora not taking her to task on this and insisting.  The "advice" he proferred may have also made the difference in Michigan and Wisconsin.

So it occurred to me not long ago that if this case had not happened, Hillary might have carried Ohio, and the "advice" from Dimora et al regarding her grossly ineffectual campaign could have carried over to other similar states like Michigan and Wisconsin. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Trump won Ohio by a pretty wide margin. Also, Hillary's campaign is ridiculed today for not taking the advice of locals, and having a bunch of Californians come over to Ohio and run the show. I can vouch for that first hand - I did a bit of volunteering with the campaign, and also went to a "postmortem" meeting last December which was a union hall packed with local volunteers venting to state party employees for two hours, in the interest of figuring out "what went wrong." The main takeaway was that the Californians, well-intentioned as they may have been, didn't know jack about Northeast Ohio and wouldn't listen to the locals because they had big data. That was the way the campaign was run from the top down. So, not sure Frank and Jimmy would have been consulted much.

Ohio is forced to be a red state, including the embracing of extremists, by gerrymandering.

 

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with Ohio's statewide offices.  Republicans hold all but two, and one of those is Bill O'Neill.  Our side needs to admit it has screwed up in every possible way.  Serious changes are needed.  If I hear one more Democrat make fun of coal miners, I'm gonna flip out. 

So it occurred to me not long ago that if this case had not happened, Hillary might have carried Ohio, and the "advice" from Dimora et al regarding her grossly ineffectual campaign could have carried over to other similar states like Michigan and Wisconsin. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Trump won Ohio by a pretty wide margin. Also, Hillary's campaign is ridiculed today for not taking the advice of locals, and having a bunch of Californians come over to Ohio and run the show. I can vouch for that first hand - I did a bit of volunteering with the campaign, and also went to a "postmortem" meeting last December which was a union hall packed with local volunteers venting to state party employees for two hours, in the interest of figuring out "what went wrong." The main takeaway was that the Californians, well-intentioned as they may have been, didn't know jack about Northeast Ohio and wouldn't listen to the locals because they had big data. That was the way the campaign was run from the top down. So, not sure Frank and Jimmy would have been consulted much.

 

You could be right about them not being listened to, though I would imagine Jimmy would have been loud about that before November.  Didn't know they were all Californians running things.  I can't imagine anything much more inept.  As I retort to Hillary supporters on Twitter:  "Your candidate lost to a circus clown".

^^Yeah, I think gerrymandering gets us nuttier Rs, not necessarily more Rs.

Ohio is forced to be a red state, including the embracing of extremists, by gerrymandering.

 

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with Ohio's statewide offices.  Republicans hold all but two, and one of those is Bill O'Neill.  Our side needs to admit it has screwed up in every possible way.  Serious changes are needed.  If I hear one more Democrat make fun of coal miners, I'm gonna flip out. 

 

You're not kidding there.  That's not only how we get Republican supermajorities, but the worst kind of Roy Moore type wannabe theocrats.

 

They need to back off on guns too.  That's settled law for the remotely foreseeable future.  I imagine a lot of what mu2 heard in that meeting had a lot to do with that.

 

Bill's cantankerous, but he's a guy that can work with Republicans.  He actually may be more electable than the others.

Ohio is forced to be a red state, including the embracing of extremists, by gerrymandering.

 

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with Ohio's statewide offices.  Republicans hold all but two, and one of those is Bill O'Neill.  Our side needs to admit it has screwed up in every possible way.  Serious changes are needed.  If I hear one more Democrat make fun of coal miners, I'm gonna flip out. 

 

You're not kidding there.  That's not only how we get Republican supermajorities, but the worst kind of Roy Moore type wannabe theocrats.

 

They need to back off on guns too.  That's settled law for the remotely foreseeable future.  I imagine a lot of what mu2 heard in that meeting had a lot to do with that.

 

Bill's cantankerous, but he's a guy that can work with Republicans.  He actually may be more electable than the others.

 

Cantankerous is not the problem there.  I agree about the rest.  At least the race for governor should be competitive this time. 

 

On your original question, local turnout might have improved with the old machine intact.  Tim Ryan offered plenty of strategy advice and she blew it off.

Ohio is forced to be a red state, including the embracing of extremists, by gerrymandering.

 

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with Ohio's statewide offices.  Republicans hold all but two, and one of those is Bill O'Neill.  Our side needs to admit it has screwed up in every possible way.  Serious changes are needed.  If I hear one more Democrat make fun of coal miners, I'm gonna flip out. 

 

You're not kidding there.  That's not only how we get Republican supermajorities, but the worst kind of Roy Moore type wannabe theocrats.

 

They need to back off on guns too.  That's settled law for the remotely foreseeable future.  I imagine a lot of what mu2 heard in that meeting had a lot to do with that.

 

Bill's cantankerous, but he's a guy that can work with Republicans.  He actually may be more electable than the others.

 

Cantankerous is not the problem there.  I agree about the rest.  At least the race for governor should be competitive this time. 

 

On your original question, local turnout might have improved with the old machine intact.  Tim Ryan offered plenty of strategy advice and she blew it off.

 

Tim was polite about it.  Jimmy wouldn't have been so polite, especially if he felt she was dragging down the ticket.

 

Though I suspect Trump didn't have coattails, Hillary had negative ones.  Everyone expected her to win and people voted for Republicans to balance her.

Too much Democratic party control in Cuyahoga County. I don't care if it's the GOP, Green Party, Social Democrats, Libertarians, etc. We need political competition everywhere to have good governance....

 

Public corruption investigation targets County Executive Armond Budish's administration

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/02/public_corruption_investigatio.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

Too much Democratic party control in Cuyahoga County. I don't care if it's the GOP, Green Party, Social Democrats, Libertarians, etc. We need political competition everywhere to have good governance....

 

Public corruption investigation targets County Executive Armond Budish's administration

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/02/public_corruption_investigatio.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

 

The voters put Michael O'Malley in the prosecutor's office over the competent but less savvy Tim McGinty.  In other words they put the Mason machine back in charge of things there, which likely only dodged prison because of BM's Hooveresque files on the other faction.

 

I will be surprised if Budish himself is corrupt but he's a legislator not an executive. 

 

The results:  predictable.

 

When the charter was overhauled, the exec and especially the prosecutor should not have remained elective, but appointed by the county council.  Most city managers are selected that way.

The spotlight will be on Scene in this story,  because the family that owns the paper is personally close to Armond Budish. https://t.co/0kP8OnyLuE

The spotlight will be on Scene in this story,  because the family that owns the paper is personally close to Armond Budish. https://t.co/0kP8OnyLuE

 

Sounds like the editor isn't shy about calling him out vis a vis clecom....

Too much Democratic party control in Cuyahoga County. I don't care if it's the GOP, Green Party, Social Democrats, Libertarians, etc. We need political competition everywhere to have good governance....

 

Public corruption investigation targets County Executive Armond Budish's administration

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/02/public_corruption_investigatio.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

 

The voters put Michael O'Malley in the prosecutor's office over the competent but less savvy Tim McGinty.  In other words they put the Mason machine back in charge of things there, which likely only dodged prison because of BM's Hooveresque files on the other faction.

 

I will be surprised if Budish himself is corrupt but he's a legislator not an executive. 

 

The results:  predictable.

 

When the charter was overhauled, the exec and especially the prosecutor should not have remained elective, but appointed by the county council.  Most city managers are selected that way.

 

I don’t disagree at all that Tim McGinty was a better choice for prosecutor...but it appears that O’Malleys AntiACorruntion unit is the one who initiated this probe. So I’m not sure this take is applicable

Hmmm... Hyland Software huh?

 

is that the parking lot in Westlake where Fitzgerald was found with a woman at 4AM?

 

 

Too much Democratic party control in Cuyahoga County. I don't care if it's the GOP, Green Party, Social Democrats, Libertarians, etc. We need political competition everywhere to have good governance....

 

Public corruption investigation targets County Executive Armond Budish's administration

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/02/public_corruption_investigatio.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

 

The voters put Michael O'Malley in the prosecutor's office over the competent but less savvy Tim McGinty.  In other words they put the Mason machine back in charge of things there, which likely only dodged prison because of BM's Hooveresque files on the other faction.

 

I will be surprised if Budish himself is corrupt but he's a legislator not an executive. 

 

The results:  predictable.

 

When the charter was overhauled, the exec and especially the prosecutor should not have remained elective, but appointed by the county council.  Most city managers are selected that way.

 

I don’t disagree at all that Tim McGinty was a better choice for prosecutor...but it appears that O’Malleys AntiACorruntion unit is the one who initiated this probe. So I’m not sure this take is applicable

It is if it's true that Pat O'Malley informed on Mason's doings, and more to the point the files he had the Dimora-Russo faction.

The story about Budish and his chief of staff, Sharon Sobol Jordan, is getting more bizarre. According to the PD, he let her treat time for class and other activities as time working for the County.  AND "Budish also said in his letter that the county will pay for Jordan's travel to classes in Columbus and even pay for hotel stays while she was there." This is not only really inappropriate but bizarre.....begging the question why he would do this?  To boot, she didn't even stay working for the county after getting God knows how many hotel nights paid for by Cuyahoga County residents.  But why?  An affair? Did Jordan's husband, David Wallace, a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, help him out of a bind? I have no idea, but it just seems incredibly beyond the call. Certainly, such perks were not needed to land a qualified candidate for the role, as there are probably many more people out there more qualified than her or who could have done more than she has (especially as she was in Columbus so much). So.....what's the real story?  Here's the PD story:  http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2018/02/county_executive_allowed_chief.html

^ this seems strange.  I am wondering why she obtain her executive MBA somewhere in Cleveland.  This also seems to be a separate scandal from the one involving Hyland Software.

 

I think it's one thing to get certifications or training in other cities but to get an MBA in another city and get reimbursed for expenses is nuts.

^I hope Mark Namyk (sp?) and Scene do some good investigative reporting on this....

A different kind of corruption but nonetheless sickening...

 

Cuyahoga County set to pay $4.5 million to three East Cleveland men freed on overturned murder convictions

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2018/02/cuyahoga_county_set_to_pay_45.html

Corruption investigators served three more subpoenas on Cuyahoga County

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/03/corruption_investigators_serve.html