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A month-long fight over former Cincinnati City Councilman Todd Portune’s seat has ended with a final score of unions and West Side Democrats, 1; progressive, pro-choice Democrats 0.
John Cranley, 26, who impressed party leaders during his unsuccessful congressional campaign against U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, took office Dec. 8. Cranley joined city council with the support of the four Democratic councilmembers Portune had named to choose his successor. But their choice, Cranley, wasn’t even on Portune’s list of candidates.
Portune says Cranley supporters began lobbying for his job before his victory in the Hamilton County Commission race was official.
“The election results hadn’t even been finalized, and people were already pushing him,” Portune says.
When Portune resigned from council Dec. 6, he asked Mayor Charlie Luken and fellow Democrats Alicia Reece, Minette Cooper and Paul Booth to select a candidate possessing “a breadth of experiences” and “the strength and independence necessary to tackle the difficult tasks facing the city, and reflect the passion and commitment to represent the issues and voices for whom I have fought these past eight years.”
Portune’s preferred list of successors included:
· Melanie Bates, a member of the Ohio Board of Education;
· Jane Anderson, a University of Cincinnati political science professor and 1999 council candidate;
· David Crowley, a longtime political activist and Mount Adams bar owner;
· Forrest Buckley, former president of the Cincinnati firefighters’ union and a council candidate in 1997 and 1999; and
· Scott Seidewitz, an advertising-agency employee who ran 12th in the 1999 council election.
Seidewitz, possibly Portune’s favorite, has been active on Democratic campaigns for several years. He created the Portune action-figure campaign ads ridiculing County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus and Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown.
But instead of following Portune’s recommendation, the council Democrats picked political newcomer Cranley, a St. Xavier High School graduate with degrees in political science and philosophy from John Carroll University and degrees from Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Law School.
An informal Nov. 22 vote among the four Democrats revealed a 2-2 split between Cranley and Seidewitz, according to Luken. Portune advocated an experienced candidate who would carry on his views. But Luken talked about putting a West-sider on council, noting Cranley’s impressive fund-raising and ability to energize campaign supporters.
Portune had expected to resign earlier but held out in an effort to convince the four Democrats to choose from his list of candidates.
Shortly after the Nov. 22 vote, Seidewitz says, the Greater Cincinnati Building Trades Association — an umbrella group for pipefitters’, plumbers’, electricians’ and carpenters’ unions — began pressuring the Democrats to pick Cranley. The organization gave Booth a campaign contribution of $1,500, but Booth says it came without a mention of Cranley. When Bates was discussed as a compromise candidate, the building unions pressured her not to accept the seat, Seidewitz says.
Cranley says unions accounted for only 20 to 30 percent of his campaign contributions. But four of his top five donors were unions, including three in the Building Trades Association, according to a Nov. 1 report by the Center for Responsive Politics.
“Did I have the support of unions? Yes,” Cranley says. “Am I proud of that? Yes.”
A Dec. 2 meeting produced a 4-0 straw vote in Cranley’s favor. Moments after Portune resigned Dec. 6, Luken downplayed the vote, saying all the candidates deserved consideration. Luken said other informal meetings seemed to indicate another candidate would get the seat. Booth, Reece and Cooper expressed similar sentiments. But that consideration ended less than two days later, when Cranley was sworn in.
At the ceremony, Cranley said he’s committed to representing the poorest members of the community.
“I hope I can live up to (Portune’s) legacy of a commitment to social justice,” he said.
Cranley said he has three main goals: being open to citizens’ input, improving housing and cooperating with the county on regional efforts.
So if Cranley is going to carry on for Portune, why didn’t Portune back him for city council?
“I don’t know,” Cranley says.
But it doesn’t take a theological degree to guess why the unions want Cranley on council: Money talks.
“I just think they made a big investment in Cranley,” Bates says. “They definitely have the clout.”
Seidewitz says he’s not trying to criticize Cranley, but he’s concerned council is losing an across-the-board progressive in Portune. Seidewitz also dislikes the unions’ ability to steer Cranley’s appointment.
“I think it’s an example of what’s wrong with money in politics now,” Seidewitz says. “I think it’s an indictment of the system.”
Cranley, however, has no problem with the chain of events that put him on council.
“The only thing wrong with how I got into office was that I wasn’t elected,” he says.
What does trouble Cranley is Seidewitz’ statements suggesting Cranley doesn’t support gay rights.
“I am not anti-gay,” Cranley says. “I am deeply offended by the suggestion. I am deeply committed to human rights for everybody.”
Cranley supports repealing Issue 3, the Cincinnati ordinance that excludes homosexuals from equal protection from discrimination.
Members of Stonewall Cincinnati have concerns about Cranley in part because he didn’t answer four questions on the group’s political survey last fall, according to Seidewitz. Stonewall instead endorsed a Libertarian for Congress.
Tim Burke, Hamilton County Democratic Party co-chairman, says Seidewitz has been a player in the party for years and there’s still a place for him if he wants it. Seidewitz says he’s eager to organize pro-choice, progressive Democrats to gain more council seats and plans to run in the 2001 council election. But Seidewitz — who held a press conference on Fountain Square to lobby for a progressive successor to Portune — knows he might have lost points with party leaders by going to the media with his complaints and by sending e-mail appeals to fellow Democrats.
“I have stuck out my neck politically, and I think it’s not going to help me,” he says. “It just got to the point in the issue where I could not believe what’s going on.” ©
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2000.
