Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

According to my sources, the local Democrats have once again set in place a series of out-of-sight deals to insure that certain players get to hold certain positions of power—and if true, by doing this behind closed doors and off the ballot, they have therefore sacrificed voter choice and voter empowerment for the maintenance of the status quo.  The details of this deal seek to place certain interests into key City positions, sometimes for reasons that hardly even seem political or to the benefit of any particular ideology.  This is an example of the dark, underbelly of the political process.

Under this deal, things start when Mark Mallory leaves his post as Mayor in the upcoming months to go to the State.  David Crowley will become Mayor.  It will be a nice feather in his cap for the end of his political career—as he will not run for Mayor in the next cycle (more on that in a minute).  Laketa Cole will be “promoted” to Vice Mayor, and former Charlie Luken staffer Bernadette Watson (who is African American) will be appointed to the seat vacated by Crowley.  This choice was designed to appease the African American voters.

Meanwhile, with Steve Driehaus running for Congress due to term limits, Denise Driehaus is running to keep his vacated seat.  Take a quick look at the yard signs and you can see the same strategy employed by the Mallory dynasty:  identical designs to maintain voter habits by appearing as if no change has been made.

The thing is that, apparently, Denise doesn’t want to drive to Columbus everyday.  However, John Cranley wouldn’t mind getting a job as a Representative.  That’s why, under this alleged deal, Driehaus will step down and appoint Cranley to her seat—and conversely Cranley will step down and appoint Driehaus to his seat.  Denise gets to snag a sweetheart, high paying, part-time City Council gig without getting elected, earning even more name recognition for her re-election campaign.

Now, why won’t David Crowley be running for Mayor?  The Democrats don’t want him opposing Roxanne Qualls, who will run for Mayor.  The Charterites don’t mind too much that lifetime Democrat Qualls is participating in this deal, because they’ll be able to claim Qualls as a Charterite when she serves as Mayor—which will apparently be some kind of resume point for them.  You’ve just got to wonder who could emerge to give Qualls a run for her money in a Mayoral race, or if she’ll just get to glide into the spot, virtually unopposed.

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