Buckeye State Blog - District 10

Post Primary Comments on the 10th Congressional District

Willie Green — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:05:52 -0700

Recap of the 10th Congressional District Primary by a voter from the 13th District

(You poor saps in 10 – how do you live with it?)

It ‘s going to be interesting to see what happens in the 10th District election on November 4. While Kucinich took 53% of the vote, in reality he only took 47% of the vote because the Independents didn’t vote for candidates and if you consider their vote, Kucinich could be in really big trouble – as in he could lose his seat. This is the first time that he’s below 60% and clearly he was nervous enough about losing his job to quit his other ego gig.

Now if the Republicans put some gumption, dough and ground troops into their candidate – even though he’s a really weak candidate and knows so very little about public policy and the issues, he knows even less about trade, tax, health care, and foreign policy.

Clearly the voters don’t seem to mind stupidity – they’ve enjoyed it for the past 11 years. And they have certainly demonstrated that they have very low expectations of their elected officials.

The beauty of this primary election outcome was that the developers got exactly what they deserved – the devil they know! And they wasted more than a half a million bucks in their brilliant discovery….too bad they didn’t have the wisdom to back a qualified candidate who lived in the 10th District and could actually for themselves. You gotta love the developers who were more like pimps and bullies…and their candidate was their trollop – and their other trollop, the mayor, at their very clear instructions on “how high to jump” endorsed their trollop boy. No wonder the city is going down hill faster than the speed of light. Seems everyone has forgotten “for the greater good” and they have all memorized “self interest” -- what we now have is a lot of self-interest elected officials and civil servants living off the taxpayers. Wonder why our population is moving out – I don’t.

Susan Goldberg, 6 months into her tenure as the Editor of the PD hit the nail on the head at her City Club debut on December 7 when she said that Brent Larkin was a “real curmudgeon.” After nearly 40 years on the job, it’s pretty sad that a newcomer to Cleveland figured out what so many of us in this one paper town have known for over a decade….”Larkin should have taken the buyout last year!” Early in his career he was a thoughtful writer who put out issues, but then he must have partied too hearty…and his writing skills have diminished to cynical, nasty, miserable and downright off the mark more often than not. Actually, you have to wonder if he has an intern as a ghostwriter. Larkin, whenever he decides it’s time to retire, will not leave on top – what a pathetic way to exit a life long career.

I say this because if anyone listened to the 10th District Congressional City Club Debate on February 19 at the Crown Plaza, all agreed that O’Grady and Palmer were put in by Kucinich to split the vote. O’Grady was a pathetic giveaway when he got to the podium and started trashing Simpleton. Then he continually quoted Friedman to let everyone know that he’s ready only one book in the past decade. Never once talked about issues. Poor Palmer couldn’t verbalize a complete thought and, as a result, couldn’t make a complete sentence. She gave the most embarrassing performance of the five, but she was pretty certain that she would win the race hands down! She did have a very experienced campaign staff of one and a team of 12 volunteers on a really good night. She mortgaged her house to buy an old blue bus that ate up a lot of expensive gas. Her poor husband suffered through the experience with hunched over shoulders and a constant grim reaper look of enormous pain on his face at every single campaign stop along the way.

Barbara Anne Ferris proved to be the most knowledgeable candidate in the race, fluent on the issues with a clear understanding of how the congressional process worked. All four of her opponents combined could not hold up to the depth of her foreign affairs expertise combined with her work on public policy and economic development. I actually enjoyed and looked forward to her responses because she is the only one who made any sense. She won the debate hands down. Even the high school kids in the audience said so! But it took poor old Mr. Larkin a couple of days to process that after he was given a few stern lectures by well-known political commentators who actually told him who won the debate. And Ferris presented herself in a manner that would make the voters proud to have her represent them. Too bad that money got in the way of good, sound decision making.

So as the campaign season continues, the buffoon continues to rant and rave and accomplish nothing in the process. And the poor people of the 10th District get what they deserve – absolutely nothing. Hopefully, there will be a big surprise in November and the incumbent will be shopping his resume on November 5!

I’m so glad I live in the other district……

Trouble in Dennis Land: PD Reports Joe Cimperman to challenge Kucinich

Nick D — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:10:36 -0700

And we got another challenger for Dennis (whom, to the best of my knowledge, has yet to file his petitions for re-election). Promoted from the diaries. -Jerid

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman is going to challenge Dennis for the 10th CD Democratic nomination. The 37 year old Cimperman is described as being of similar style to Kucinich Here's a quote from the article:

Kucinich praised Cimperman in the past.
"I think he has a great potential," Kucinich said in a 1999 Plain Dealer article. "He is passionately involved with his community. He's an activist, and an activist approach is necessary in order to catalyze the progress of the people you represent. I can identify with that."
Cimperman said Kucinich's second bid for the White House triggered his decision to run against the one-time ally.
"The community needs a full-time congressman," said Cimperman, who lives just outside the district.

Mayor Dean DePiero's Reply:

MarkJablonski — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:36:22 -0700

I missed this diary in the community pool yesterday. I think it deserves a knock to the frontpage. -Jerid

Amid all the hubub a few weeks ago about Parma Mayor Dean DePiero challenging Dennis Kucinich in a 10th district primary blowout extravaganza, I sent the Mayor some words of encourgement:

Mayor DePiero,

As a resident of the 10th Congressional District, I
must say that I was excited to hear rumors that you
are considering challenging Congressman Kucinich in
next year's primary.

I write to encourage you to run, and to let you know
that you have lots of folks in the 10th who are
standing by to support you-financially and
otherwise-should you decide to run.

The 10th district deserves serious representation; the
10th district deserves DePiero (is that a great
soundbite or what?).

Respectfully Yours,

Mark M. Jablonski
Olmsted Falls, OH

Today, I received the following reply from his office:

Mr. Jablonski,

Mayor DePiero has asked that I contact you on his behalf. Mayor DePiero appreciates your support of him, his efforts, and your kind words. He asked that I convey, however, that he is currently committed to continuing to serve the citizens of Parma as Mayor and is looking forward to his re-election this November.

Should something change, I am sure that he will maintain your information for future reference.

Sincerely,
Meghann McCall
Executive Assistant
to Mayor Dean DePiero

So what does this mean? Is Dean out for sure? Will the 10th district hand the largely ineffective, absentee Congressman Kucinich yet another term on a silver platter? I really have no idea.

It's not as if Dean's reply would be the first time that a politician was slightly ambiguous about his intentions to seek higher office.

Time will tell. If you're interested in seeing Dean run, sign the petition at Paul and Ryan's Draft DePiero site here: www.draftdepiero.com

Someone Explain: Ferris over Kucinich?

thirdwaydem — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:05:03 -0700

Wow, I am in awe tonight at some of the newspaper endorsements for the upcoming primary. I already posted an entry about the Canton Repository endorsing Flannery over Strickland. Moments after posting that, I came across an article that pointed out that the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” endorsed Barbara Anne Ferris over incumbent Dennis Kucinich. What I thought to myself? How can the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” (CPD) endorse Ferris over a popular incumbent?

After reading about this endorsement, I went to visit Bob Fitrakis’ blog. While I do not agree with him on many issues, I think he may have hit the reason for this endorsement on the head. Fitrakis writes that the “CPD” wants to try to influence the election so that the Republican candidate has a chance of winning in November. This endorsement, in combination with a recent request on Ferris’ website for Republican voters to crossover and vote for her in the primary, make it seem like there may very well be something wrong in Denmark. While this may seem like a conspiracy theory, remember that similar “coincidental” circumstances (newspaper endorsements and calls for crossover voters) lead to Cynthia McKinney’s defeat in 2002.

Anyhow, I hope that this is all just another Fitrakis’ conspiracy theory and that there is a logical explanation. Can someone from the 10th District provide me with the logical explanation behind why the “CPD” endorsed Ferris over Kucinich? I know that there has to be one, or I guess maybe newspapers do not even feel the need to fake nonpartisanship these days.

Link to the Fitrakis’ article:http://www.fraudbusterbob.com/blog/

What Happened to the Soul of the Democratic Party?

JeanLR — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:44:36 -0700

I received an email from the Kucinich campaign I thought was worth posting, I hope you guys would take a minute to go to his website and read what he has to say.

http://www.kucinich.us/

April 6, 2006 10:05 pm ET

What Happened to the Soul of the Democratic Party?
I need your support to continue my efforts in the House.

The Democratic Party is struggling to rediscover its soul. Leading Congressional Democrats still support the war; still support corporate-run health care, still support trade without protections for workers' rights, human rights or the environment. Predictably, the corporate media which fueled our march to folly in Iraq still sides with the corporate wing of our party.

Some in our party suggest that since the President and Republicans are sinking in the polls, Democrats should remain quiet. They forget the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. that "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Issuing tepid statements that "we can do better" hardly inspires those who worry each day about their children and spouses. American families facing a harsh struggle to survive deserve action -- not silence. Wages are down and savings the lowest since the Great Depression while job insecurity, education and health care costs are soaring. Social Security and pensions are at risk....

this essay continues on the front page of his website-jean