The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party officially put its name behind the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s upcoming tax levy, which appears on the November ballot as Issue 49.
The vote followed a presentation by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb before the party’s executive committee on Tuesday. Standing with the mayor were 15 of the city’s 17 council members, whose support will be critical in convincing voters to absorb the second new tax increase for the schools in four years. The party committee’s vote to support the levy was nearly unanimous.
The campaign for Issue 49 also organized a rally this week with public officials and faith leaders at the West 58th Street Church of God in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The West Side is an important target for the campaign because of its soft support for tax levies in the past.
Kris Harsh, the Cleveland City Council member representing the West Side’s Ward 13, was at the Thursday event in support of the levy. School levies have been a tough sell in his ward, which includes Old Brooklyn. In 2020, voters in 13 of his ward’s 17 precincts rejected the levy, which nonetheless passed citywide. Harsh said he thinks his ward will pass this one, but not by a large margin.
To a crowd of about 40 people, Harsh said the cost of voting down the levy is much higher.
“If you think public education is expensive, try ignorance,” he said, referring to a slogan he had seen on a friend’s T-shirt. “The only thing that would cost us more than paying for schools is paying for the mistake of not paying for schools.”
Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and local pastor E.T. Caviness of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church were also at the West Side event to show their support.
Also this week, Cleveland’s school levy and Issue 55, countywide cigarette tax for the arts, won the endorsement of an influential nonprofit. The board of the community development group Cleveland Neighborhood Progress threw its support behind Issues 49 and 55.
“To so many residents, their community is reflected in both the education their children receive in school and in the vibrancy of the arts around them,” CEO Tania Menesse said in a news release.
Yet to be seen is whether either tax issue will draw any organized opposition.
🗳️For more on this year’s November election, visit our Election Signals 2024 page.
Group behind Derek Merrin campaign literature mixes up Ohio geography
Voters in the Toledo area recently got political literature championing Derek Merrin, the Republican state representative running for Ohio’s hotly contested 9th Congressional District.
“Derek Merrin defends the American Dream for Northeast Ohio,” reads the mailer, which cites an Axios Cleveland article from June describing the link between higher-than-normal interest rates and rising housing prices.
That sounds great. But the problem is Merrin is running in the Toledo area, which is associated with the Northwest part of the state. He is challenging longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
The ad was funded by Americans for Prosperity, a prominent conservative advocacy group that’s funded by the Koch Brothers network and that’s involved in other heated Ohio races, like Sen. Sherrod Brown’s reelection campaign against Republican businessman Bernie Moreno. The group wouldn’t comment for this story.
Michael R. White and George Forbes lend support to voting effort
The last time many Clevelanders saw the names Michael R. White and George Forbes in the same sentence, the two were fighting it out on the 1989 mayoral ballot. White, then a state senator, defeated Forbes, the longtime Cleveland City Council president, and the rest was history.
Half a lifetime later, the two former adversaries have been spotted out on the event circuit together. Forbes and White made appearances at this month’s ceremony to rename CMSD’s East Professional Center after the late political consultant Arnold Pinkney. (Zack Reed, the former city council member and mayoral candidate, snapped a photo with them.)
Next, White and Forbes were marquee names on the invite list for a political fundraiser held Friday night at The Lanes bowling alley in Maple Heights. The event raised money for Voices For A Better Future, a super PAC trying to get Black men to vote in this year’s election.
Also on the guest list were former Mayor Frank Jackson and former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge. The party happened after Weekly Chatter’s press time, so we’ll have to save details for another day.
