Upfront

from Scene November 18, 2020

Arts

OF COURSE DR. AMY ACTON WAS RIGHT “AT OUR PEAK SURGE WE MAY

be as high as 6,000 to 8,000 new cases a day,” Dr. Amy Acton said on March 26th during the state’s thendaily coronavirus press conference. Screenshot

This was a shocking prediction to many at the time — Ohio had only 867 total cases as of that day — but the former Ohio Department of Public Health Director said that stunning reality wasn’t a matter of if, “but when.”

“We will surge,” she said.

And here we are. More than 8,000 new cases Friday.

Pilloried by Twitter epidemiologists and sports bloggersturned-infections disease experts (including Kyle Lamb, the Covid truther who claimed masks don’t work and that the pandemic was a Chinese biowar who was hired this week by the governor of Florida to help with coronavirus data in that sad state), railed against and mocked by the Jack Windsors, Jim Jordans and Mike Trivisonnos of the world, insulted by the ‘masks are tyranny’ crowd and the subject Joe Biden has already identified President. dimmest bulbs attempted to impeach of anti-Semitic, gun-toting protests experts for a Covid task force and “Who will be running for DeWine for his coronavirus response. on her front lawn that spurred her promises to act urgently once he’s Governor of the Great State of Ohio?” Meantime, they’ve managed not June resignation from the position, officially in office, using this lead Trump Tweeted, half an hour after to overturn HB6, the FirstEnergy it turns out the good doctor was, in time to further spread the message the clip aired on Fox. “Will be hotly nuclear bailout passed as a result of a real shocking development, right that masks and social distancing contested!” a $60 million racketeering scheme. and the fabulist grifters were wrong. save lives. This is just your garden In Ohio, riling up gerrymandered

Record-setting infection rates Which is exactly what Dr. Acton variety Trump petulance, but it bases with culture-war nonsense across the country. Record-setting said he should do. should nevertheless be frustrating is the main preoccupation of the new infections across Ohio. “We cannot wait two and a for DeWine, who has bent over legislature. Record-setting infections in the half months to start leading a backwards to appease the President Cleveland.com noted that Jim city of Cleveland. Hospitalizations messaging,” she told the New Yorker over the past several months. He Renacci, who unsuccessfully skyrocketing. last week. “...Crisis leadership and has rarely criticized him during challenged Democrat Sherrod Brown

Even the fabulists are, perhaps at communication is every bit as science statewide press conferences and even in 2018, has been amassing funds last, coming to grips with the truth. based and crucial.” -Vince Grzegorek peppered the administration with and “laying the groundwork” for a

This train doesn’t stop on a dime, compliments while taking umbrage campaign of one kind or another. of course. The disciples of Jack at the Federal coronavirus response. Scene has also heard that energy Windsor, faced with reality, won’t Mike DeWine Draws Ire But DeWine’s conciliatory efforts, on the rightmost fringes has been abruptly decamp from conspiracy of Trump for Mortal Sin of up to and including the “anti- coalescing around Congressman and land much like the MAGA “Stop Acknowledging Reality lockdown” stance in accord with Trump lapdog Jim Jordan, who has the Steal!” sect won’t acknowledge the Republican party line, has now made headlines for his sycophancy. the true and factual results of the proven to be insufficient protection. His name recognition is off the charts election once the performance art of President Donald Trump was Loyalty to the supreme leader must in the Trump-sphere and he will be the country’s Republicans comes to watching Fox News on his otherwise be unconditional, and the appropriate a dangerous candidate for whatever a close. eventless Monday morning and response to the 2020 election is office he seeks next. -Sam Allard

And, by all accounts, Ohio Gov. likely saw the recent clip of Ohio to follow Trump’s lead; that is, to Mike DeWine, who struggled to Gov. Mike DeWine telling Jake keep screaming “I WON” in all-caps find a suitable replacement for Dr. Tapper on CNN that former Vice like a lunatic and shouting words City of Cleveland to Intensify Mask Acton and settled on an attorney President Joe Biden should be like “fraud” and “rigged” with no Enforcement, Adjust Staffing Plan, from the state’s Bureau of Workers’ considered the President-elect. evidence attached. in Light of Covid SurgeCompensation department in lieu For this grave indiscretion, (i.e. Those who follow this path of an actual physician, will use his acknowledging the results of the stand to do very well in an Ohio In a Friday press conference fireside, statewide chat this evening 2020 election, what has been called gubernatorial primary against occasioned by the statewide surge to politely admonish Buckeye land the most secure election in American DeWine, who has made enemies in in Covid-19 cases, Cleveland Mayor without taking any steps himself to history by the Cybersecurity and the flaming clown car that passes Frank Jackson reaffirmed the city’s stop the spread of the virus. Infrastructure Security Agency), for the state’s general assembly. This commitment to enforcing its mask

On the plus side, President-Elect DeWine drew criticism from the summer, a faction of the right wing’s mandate at bars and restaurants and | clevescene.com | November 18-24, 2020 5

said a prior plan to bring back City Hall staffers at full capacity has been revised.

Jackson and a number of his chiefs outlined the city’s recent and ongoing efforts to combat the coronavirus. Safety Director Karrie Howard said that in conjunction with the department of health and the state’s liquor control board, police were continuing and intensifying their inspections of local businesses and their weekend enforcement sweeps to ensure compliance of mask-wearing and social distancing.

Alongside the state’s meteoric rise in case numbers, Cleveland is now seeing well over one hundred positive cases per day. These totals far surpass the daily number of cases during the summer surge. without naming departments

Jackson said that he had planned specifically, said that if certain to bring back City Hall’s staff divisions weren’t meeting full-time, five days a week, but performance standards, supervisors that the recent spike had forced would have to amend work him to re-evaluate. He said that all schedules, presumably bringing in city facilities had been improved additional employees in-person. with Covid-safe features, including With respect to testing, Jackson plexiglass barriers and hand and his new Health Director, Brian sanitizer, but that the goal was Kimball, said that testing was being now to be at roughly 50 percent conducted citywide in partnership occupancy. He said individual with MetroHealth and the County. departments would be given latitude And in partnership with the National to develop their own “hybrid Guard, 12 testing events have been models” and staggered schedules for scheduled in areas designated as employees, and that service delivery “testing deserts” on the east side. would have to be balanced with Kimball said the city would attempt worker safety. to improve communication and

Jackson’s Chief Operating messaging related to Covid safety at Officer, Darnell Brown, said that in those events. addition to physical improvements During a Q&A, Jackson was at City Hall and other facilities, all asked why, during the crisis, city personnel were expected to perform residents have seldom heard from a daily health assessment, and the Mayor and City Council. temperature screenings had been “An empty wagon makes a lot of added at employee entrances. noise,” Jackson responded, “and I

The impression was that a plan don’t intend to be an empty wagon had been devised and implemented, making a lot of noise. I’m going but City Hall employees have to do my job.” He said that there’s privately expressed frustration in much the public does not see, and recent weeks about what is still the fact that the city has not laid perceived as an unsafe return off employees or reduced routine to work. Many “non-essential” services should be evidence that he employees had been working and his team have been working productively from home for months, hard. -Sam Allard and they question the wisdom of even a partial return. Some have told Scene that the decision, which has Opinion: After Disappointing not been formally communicated, Cleveland Turnout, Cuyahoga is the result of an old-school County Dems at a Crossroads management style — a “boomer mentality” — in which supervisors As we face down a close election at prefer to have direct contact with the national level, the results from those they oversee to ensure that Ohio leave little room for doubt. work is being done. The Democratic Party in Ohio and

Jackson stressed that the city Cuyahoga County did not perform prioritizes service delivery, and well. 6 | clevescene.com | November 18-24, 2020

Donald Trump is on pace to win statewide with a higher percentage of the vote than in 2016. In Cuyahoga County, Trump garnered 10,000 more votes than in his last election. Even when accounting for population changes, that means Trump won a larger percentage of votes in Cuyahoga County—the supposed Democratic stronghold of the state.

Perhaps the most startling numbers come from Cleveland proper. Turnout across the country and in Ohio is generally up. But turnout in heavily Democratic Cleveland did not even hold steady based on initial numbers. It declined. Overall, Democrats did not have a good night in Northeast Ohio.

We are still in the throes of understanding this election, but one thing has become very clear to me: Local Democrats have to take a hard look at our party and make changes. I say this as a proud Party member and a Ward 12 Leader – making me one of the 70 official City/Ward Leaders who make up the backbone of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

I have worked inside the Democratic Party. I see how it is failing Ohioans and Clevelanders in particular.

I believe that a better Party is possible. But only if we have a cleareyed assessment of what happened this election cycle.

Cleveland started out at a deficit. The Biden campaign wrote off Ohio. We had few resources, little support and no field offices. Strategy does change when you are campaigning in a global pandemic, but the apathy towards the state was palpable. We did not have an assigned field organizer in Cuyahoga County until the fall. In a normal campaign you would be starting paid field organizers early in the summer. When my ward was finally assigned an organizer, it turned out she was based in DC.

Until mid-October, we had so few yard signs we had to ration them. Until the last weeks of the campaign, there was no Bidenspecific campaign literature to hang on doors.

The Ohio Democratic Party and Chairman David Pepper had little to offer either. There was no statewide strategy communicated to us, no statewide goals. We could not access even basic campaign resources through ODP. When some of my fellow wards wanted to begin a textmessaging campaign, they got the runaround for weeks before being told they could not get access to ODP’s texting platform.

And so, it became apparent early in the cycle that those of us in the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party were on our own. No longer propped up by national attention or a statewide campaign, we had to see what we could muster on our own.

If we had a healthy local party, here is what that might have looked like.

Party leaders could have engaged Democrats early in the spring to design a plan for the cycle that everybody bought into. Most likely, each Ward or City Leader would have been given clear responsibilities and goals to hit starting in June. Each City or Ward Leader would then have mobilized their precinct representatives for their area and doled out responsibilities. We would have had regular check-ins on who

was hitting their numbers. If an area was not looking good, we would send in additional help.

Here’s what it looked like instead:

There was no consistent direction or resources given from Party leadership. Each Ward or City Leader was allowed to set their own course. Because many of the Leaders are also the city councilperson for their ward or the mayor for their city, many did not have time to get any electoral work done. Many

DIGIT WIDGET

2 Days of suspension for Cleveland Police Officer Janell Rutherford, who detained Tamir Rice’s 14-year-old sister Tajai as Tamir lay dying in the snow outside Cudell Rec Center in 2014. Last week, Safety Director Karrie Howard overturned the decision by Police Chief Calvin Williams to impose no discipline of any kind.

29.1% Percentage of hotel rooms occupied in Cleveland on a nightly basis during the third quarter in 2020, down from nearly 80% over the same period last year, but up from 17% during the second quarter.

$45.3 billion Estimated personal wealth of Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert, whose fortune ballooned by more than $38 billion after he took Rocket Mortgage public this year.

5%

Percentage of Cleveland Cavaliers / Canton Charge / Lake Erie Monsters business staff laid off last week, in a cost-cutting measure the teams say was planned before the pandemic. precinct slots are unfilled. There is nobody to call on. Other precinct representatives just will not do the work, having been in the role for years without having to knock a door or make a call.

In sum, there was no county-wide plan and no sense that there would have been the resources to execute it if there had been one.

Of course, some wards and cities still built successful turnout programs. Indeed, hundreds of people – including dozens that I organized personally – did show up to get work done. And I will say that where a Ward Leader, precinct representative, or a volunteer expressed interest in engaging, CCDP provided resources as best they could. Without these efforts the turnout numbers could have been even worse.

But some Democrats doing good work on an ad-hoc basis is not the same as the Party having run a successful campaign in Cuyahoga County.

Looking at the turnout numbers and specifically the decline in Cleveland, it seems clear that the lack of political organizing had a material effect on the election. Some will read this argument and think I’m advocating for the rise of machine politics. I am not.

The everyday mechanics of good political organizing—the door-knocking, the neighborhood meetings—are not about bullying our neighbors to the polls. They are about engaging people who have given up on the political process because they no longer believe it has the power to improve their lives. Organizing is about giving people reason to believe that their act of voting is a meaningful decision that is worth doing.

As I worked with the Cuyahoga County Democrats this cycle, that drive, that reason for being, felt far away. The Party felt like a shell of what it could be, like it was merely going through the motions of offering walking packets and call lists without a coordinated vision of how to turn out the vote.

Yes, this election has taken place under the most unusual of circumstances. But I do not think we should write off this election cycle as an outlier. The Party is taking the voters of Northeast Ohio for granted and it is taking its own political power for granted in the process. Democrats deserve better and Clevelanders deserve better. -Rebecca Maurer

Rebecca Maurer is a local attorney and Ward Leader in Ward 12 for the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Her writing on voting and political engagement has appeared in The Plain Dealer, Belt Magazine, and Cleveland Scene.

Regarding the Disenfranchisement of Cleveland Voters, the Call Is Coming from Inside the House

In the wake of Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Joe Biden in Ohio — a margin (~8%) virtually identical to Trump’s victory in 2016 — many have scratched their heads and speculated about the city of Cleveland’s low voter turnout.

Cleveland is the largest city in Cuyahoga County, the state’s socalled Democratic stronghold, yet its residents showed up to the polls in uninspired numbers. Only about 53% of Cleveland voters cast ballots, compared to nearly 70% countywide.

Cleveland City Councilpeople in the lowest-turnout wards across town told Cleveland.com that there were a number of reasons for the lack of participation on election day: poverty, racism, inflated voter rolls, apathy, the pandemic. Democratic Ward Leader Rebecca Maurer wrote in Scene that the Ohio and Cuyahoga County Democratic Parties failed to effectively coordinate a ground game in the absence of official Biden campaign offices.

All of these factors are significant.

But among the most critical, and overlooked, factors is the degree to which Cleveland’s own leaders have ensured that residents do not get to participate in how they are governed. For Cleveland’s leaders, the electorate is a thing to be marshalled and deployed every four years, at which time they are expected to fill in the bubble for the Democratic candidate. This is what voters mean when they say that they are “taken for granted.”

For voters, it is not only a sense of apathy and despair over presidential politics that keeps them at home. It’s no doubt true that impoverished Clevelanders are so accustomed to their misery that they’re unlikely to be convinced that a vote for one or another candidate will improve the material conditions of their lives. It has not in the past. But it’s also true that they’ve tried to improve their lives, and every time they’ve done so at the local level, they’ve been shut out.

Though they’d deny it up and down, Cleveland City Council has made shutting out voters its preeminent mission. They communicate nothing with as much regularity and strength. Any councilperson bemoaning low voter turnout should recall that they forbid residents from offering public comment at council meetings; that they appoint their own successors, robbing residents of the ability to elect their own representatives; and that they work tirelessly to ensure that citizen petitions are invalidated or sabotaged.

Council President Kevin Kelley has been the architect, in recent years, of this textbook disenfranchisement. He and his allies on council have ensured that Clevelanders could not vote on a $15 minimum wage, a referendum on the Q Deal, citizen-led lead-safe legislation and a proposal to cut the size and pay of city council itself.

Well, those efforts have ripple effects. You cannot continually forbid the involvement of constituents and then expect them to show up for national elections. Any analysis of low voter turnout, then, must include not only the macro-level disenfranchisement borne of poverty, racism and gerrymandering, but the micro-level disenfranchisement’s borne of the city’s contempt of the electorate. -Sam Allard