FitzGerald streaks toward victory over Brown

Ed FitzGerald jumped into the county executive race last December, when the rest of town was still arguing about the last election. While bigger names dithered and stepped back from the leap, he ran all out. He got a four-month head start on his Democratic opponent and never looked back.

Now FitzGerald looks like he’s heading to victory in the Democratic primary. He leads Terri Hamilton Brown, 50% to 30%, in the vote-by-mail results – which will probably be two-thirds of all the ballots cast in today’s election. It’s likely an insurmountable lead. Likewise for Republican Matt Dolan, who leads Victor Voinovich 70% to 18% so far.

FitzGerald’s quick move into the race, just eight weeks after Issue 6 passed, didn’t impress too many people. The Issue 6 crowd tried to call a foul, saying no one who campaigned against their reform should lead the new government. But by Christmas, FitzGerald had already perfected his answer: He thought the county executive too powerful, so if elected, he’d check his own power.

I remember one or two people scoffing. Being first didn’t matter, they said. But in this election, when bigger names shivered and stepped back from the diving board, FitzGerald’s early leap made a big difference. He had six months to line up endorsements. He churned out one position paper after another. Hearing him talk, I got a sense of restless motion. It’s a good vibe to give off in a reform election.

Tenacity stands out in a field of unknowns and little-knowns. So does poise. FitzGerald’s a better communicator than Brown and might be the best in the general election field.

Political instincts stand out too. FitzGerald sensed he was in the lead at the City Club debate. He ignored Brown’s jabs and called out the Republican candidates for jabbing each other. He took the high road because he knew he could afford to.

Now, Matt Dolan awaits, warmed up by some shadow-boxing with George Voinovich's brother. Also ready to fight FitzGerald is Ken Lanci, his name recognition swelled by ubiquitous bus ads. Both are wealthy men who'll outspend the Lakewood mayor. Tim McCormack, the old-school liberal, may hit FitzGerald hardest of all -- did you see his "deceit" quote last week?

It'll be a dramatic general election. But FitzGerald's got a running start. And he's probably already planned his next few moves.

Check out my coverage of the county executive race, "A Fresh Start," in the September issue of Cleveland Magazine or online here.

Leading county exec candidates in our Sept. issue (and one we left out)

“A Fresh Start,” my coverage of the Cuyahoga County executive race, is out now in the September issue of Cleveland Magazine. Fourteen smart Clevelanders, from Joe Cimperman to Jimmy Malone, talk about what they expect from Cuyahoga County’s future leader and what challenges they hope the new government will take on.

The five leading candidates for the executive job describe their new ideas for the county government, and I analyze the biggest question each has to face to get elected. Take a look at my coverage of candidates Ed FitzGerald and Terri Hamilton Brown if you’re trying to decide who to vote for in the Sept. 7 Democratic primary.

What about the Republicans, you may ask? I also spoke to former state rep Matt Dolan for the package. We decided to focus our coverage on the five candidates we thought had the best experience for the job and the best chance to win.

By those standards, we left out Republican Victor Voinovich, a real estate agent who declared bankruptcy in 2003 and is playing the ballot name game, trading on the reputation of his senator brother by adopting the slogan “The name you can trust.”

His campaign was, naturally, unhappy to see our Voinovich-less September issue. “Shame on you!” his treasurer, Holly Thacker, e-mailed us. “How could you not report on this true lifelong Cuyahogan, a businessman, entrepreneur family man with character who has a pull yourself up by the bootstrap American story?”

Voinovich called my editor, Steve Gleydura, with a similar message. “I think you’re going to be embarrassed,” he said, hinting he’s confident of a victory in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Interestingly, his call came a day after Henry Gomez – who penned a less than flattering profile of Voinovich in July – reported the political newcomer has Dolan running scared (emphasis mine):

But before he can take on FitzGerald, Dolan must win his primary. It's not shaping up to be as easy as anyone thought. According to his most recent campaign finance report, Dolan spent more than $140,000 this month on postage and printing. The money helped fund a direct mail assault on his chief opponent, Victor Voinovich…

Dolan's internal polling data spooked him into the spending spree.

"Clearly, numbers showed that people thought I was running against George Voinovich," said Dolan, who has been endorsed by the county GOP.

If Voinovich proves us wrong and wins the primary, we’ll definitely cover him this fall. In the meantime, if you’re a Republican primary voter looking for information about him, check out his website, electvictor.com, which includes links to his economic plan and a 9-page bio, and his tense debate with Dolan at the City Club – hear the entire debate as a podcast here or WCPN’s coverage here.

Brown punches, FitzGerald looks ahead at City Club debate

Ed FitzGerald acted like a front-runner in today’s City Club debate. He declined every opportunity to criticize Terri Hamilton Brown, his opponent in the Democratic primary for county executive. He kept his eye on the general election, even opening with a joke about a candidate he expects to face in November.

“I’m a little bit relieved,” he told the crowd. “I heard a rumor that Ken Lanci had purchased exclusive rights to speak here.”

Brown opened like a challenger finding her feet. She jabbed at FitzGerald in opening remarks, and when he declined to punch back, she followed with an uppercut.

She said she joined the race because other candidates “were lacking the broad experience needed to start our government off properly.” One candidate “talked about hiring economic development czars and an inspector general,” she said -- at this, FitzGerald nodded; the inspector general idea is his -- “to do what is essentially the county executive’s job.”

The new executive, Brown added, should be “someone who has actually cleaned up corruption and not just identified wrongdoing” -- meaning she thinks her work at the county’s public-housing agency trumps his years with the FBI as a reform credential.

After Brown talked, about the balance between the new government’s top goals, providing human services and spurring economic development, moderator Joe Frolik asked FitzGerald for his rebuttal.

“I don’t feel the need to rebut that statement,” FitzGerald replied, passing up the chance to fight back. “I’m almost 100 percent in agreement with it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Terri’s record and resume and vision for the county.”

As if rebutting Republican frontrunner Matt Dolan instead, FitzGerald talked about why he became a Democrat. Like Robert F. Kennedy, he said, he believes “that government can be a positive force for changing people lives, that your final destination in life should not be dependent on the circumstances you’re born into.” Republicans, he argued, believe “it’s every person for themselves. If you’re doing well, good for you. If you’re not doing so well, it must somehow be your fault.”

Brown replied that she and FitzGerald agree on a lot -- “but this is a debate, and we are here to define the differences.” She hit FitzGerald for his ambition: he “sought three offices in three years” – Lakewood mayor, county auditor if Frank Russo resigned, now county executive – and he opposed Issue 6, but started running for the top job it created less than two months after it passed. “County executive is the only job I want,” Brown said, slyly implying FitzGerald wants more.

After that, peace prevailed. With the Brown campaign taking up five lunch tables at the City Club and FitzGerald’s four, I expected loaded, negative questions from the audience in the Q&A, but none came. Stuart Garson, the new county Democratic chair, asked both if the loser of the primary would support the winner in November. Both agreed they would. FitzGerald’s enthusiastic agreement sounded almost like an endorsement: “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. Terri is a class act, a public servant in the best sense of the word.”

FitzGerald, the more seasoned politician, came up with most of the debate’s best quotes. Frolik asked him if being endorsed by the Democratic party and the AFL-CIO would make it harder to change the county government’s hiring-hall patronage culture.

“In my opinion, there’s three major parties in this county,” FitzGerald answered. “There is the Democratic party, and the Republican party, and there’s another party of people who are out for themselves. And some of the government officials and folks that have public contracts were not really interested in public service at all. … I’m going to do the same thing I did as mayor: you have to come in with the attitude that you’re going to do what’s right. If you lose some friends along the way, they probably were people that shouldn’t have been your friends in the first place.”

It was a good answer, with an opening line brilliant in its versatility. FitzGerald can use the “three parties” bit to distance himself from Jimmy Dimora, Frank Russo and company – and also turn it around on independent candidates such as Ken Lanci or Tim McCormack in the fall.

Brown couldn’t match FitzGerald’s gift for sound bites, but she stepped up her game today, sounding more succinct and focused than in earlier, less-inspired performances. She pitched herself as an experienced problem-solver who’d lead an “open, honest” government with no patronage or “sweetheart contracts.” With a state budget crisis looming, “the first county executive will have to be a chief lobbyist and advocate for the county,” she said. She’d go to Columbus to convince the legislature to keep Cuyahoga’s deep needs in mind.

FitzGerald, leading in fundraising and endorsements, seems to have decided he can afford to be gracious to Brown, that he can win the primary if the race keeps going as it has, and that not fighting her now will pay off when he needs her supporters’ votes in the fall. But Brown – whose recent endorsements from Frank Jackson, Marcia Fudge and Joe Cimperman have given her momentum -- did what she had to do today. She defined the differences between her and FitzGerald in a strong performance that’ll help address doubts about her campaigning skills. I didn’t see a turning point, but I felt the race tighten.

(For more coverage of the debate, see Henry Gomez's cleveland.com article -- or, listen to the City Club's podcast of it here.)

My live coverage of Dems' county executive debate

The leading Democratic candidates for county executive -- Ed FitzGerald and Terri Hamilton Brown -- are debating at 12:30 p.m. today at the City Club. (Minor candidates James F. Brown and Dianna Hill did not accept the club's invitation.) I'll be covering the debate live on Cleveland Magazine's Twitter feed and blogging about it this afternoon.

To read my tweets, click here.

Mayor Jackson, Rep. Fudge endorse Terri Hamilton Brown for county executive

Here's Terri Hamilton Brown's big break, her chance to step up and compete with Ed FitzGerald: Frank Jackson and Marcia Fudge have endorsed her for county executive.

"We believe Terri Hamilton Brown is the one candidate who understands the complex challenges of our city and its suburbs, especially those suburbs immediately surrounding Cleveland," the mayor and congresswoman said in a joint statement.

What to make of that line, especially since FitzGerald is mayor of Lakewood, a suburb next to Cleveland? Sounds like they're saying FitzGerald's experience is narrow, confined to one town. Brown worked in Mike White's City Hall and ran University Circle and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, which owns housing complexes in Cleveland and four suburbs.

Jackson must like Brown's connections to the city. (He also has a personal connection to her: Her husband, Darnell Brown, is Jackson's chief operating officer.) As for Fudge, my hunch is she's turned off by FitzGerald's ambition and not sure his coalition is diverse enough for her liking.

"I think we should avoid a person who’s trying to just do this as stepping stone to someplace else," she told me a few weeks ago when I asked her about the race, which sounded like a dig at FitzGerald's rapid political rise. The executive, she added, should be "someone who has some experience in running large organizations" and "a person who can garner the respect of all the groups in this community."

That's echoed in Jackson and Fudge's statement today:

She is highly qualified, has the right temperament and reflects the experience and educational credentials to lead our county. If we are to rejuvenate the economy and streamline our county government, we must elect Terri Hamilton Brown as County Executive...

Of all the candidates, we believe Terri Hamilton Brown is the only one who can work with the many small businesses, governments, educational institutions, corporations and other partners in the economic and cultural mosaic of Cuyahoga County.

Did you note the "must," the "only one"? Pretty striking for a Democratic primary endorsement. They could've said she was "the best" candidate and hedged their bets in case FitzGerald makes it to the general election. Instead, it sounds like they're all in for Brown.

Jackson and Fudge "could be the king or queen-maker if they banded together, and worked very hard," a political observer told me several weeks ago, "but I’m not seeing it." Now they've made their move. But some endorsements are backed with more firepower and drive than others. So the question now is, how hard will they work for Brown?

(To read about my June interview with Brown, click here.)

Brown: “You have to establish a new tone and culture”

Of all the candidates for Cuyahoga County executive, Terri Hamilton Brown has the most experience at one part of the new job: Cleaning house after a corruption scandal. She took over the county’s public housing agency in 1998 after Clare Freeman, her predecessor, was fired. Freeman later went to prison for theft in office. Brown cleaned up the mess.

“I used to describe it as being parachuted behind enemy territory with no map or compass,” Brown says. She fired staffers loyal to Freeman, not the organization. She hired a new financial officer, recruited an audit committee of outside advisers, and transformed the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s books from unauditable to clean. She cooperated with the FBI investigation — and learned that wasn’t enough.

“You have to look and make sure there aren’t other areas that they haven’t identified,” Brown says. If elected county executive, she says, “We would look for other areas where there may have been abuse, or just poor practices that would allow for abuse.” Like some of her opponents, she says she’d issue a new ethics policy on her first day in charge. “You have to establish a new tone and a culture,” she says, “and you have to lead by modeling it.”

Brown has never run for office before, but she has a lot of executive experience: former president of University Circle, community development director in Mike White’s City Hall, vice-president for corporate diversity at National City. Unlike her more polished opponents, such as Ed FitzGerald and Matt Dolan, Brown doesn’t speak in clear, catchy sound bites. Her longer answers show she’s new at campaigning, more used to the boardroom. She's thinking as she answers, figuring things out as she goes, weighing a bunch of factors, then naming her top priorities.

Brown says she voted for Issue 6 with reservations because she thought the county needed a single, strong leader. She was concerned that the county council, with 11 members elected by district, might act like Cleveland's city council in the 1990s, which sometimes wanted to split her department’s development money equally among all wards instead of tackling the greatest needs.

“I believe that would have disastrous effects if the county council viewed its role and viewed budget resources similarly,” she says. “What I know about needs and services at the county is that they’re not equal by districts and wards.”

Still, she voted for 6 because she thought the county commissioners’ decision-making on the Ameritrust Tower and Medical Mart revealed a need for a single executive. The commissioners spent $40 million on the Ameritrust Tower, disagreeing all the while on whether to move into it or tear it down -- then canceled the project. “That created a question: Are we using resources effectively? Are we good stewards of our tax dollars?” She felt the Medical Mart project suffered from the years-long debate on where to build it. “[In] economic development, time is money,” she says. She thinks a single executive could’ve moved faster. “It’s about being able to execute decisions and move decisively.”

That’s the sort of talk the new charter's supporters in the business community love to hear, though it may not go over well with the insiders who'll decide on the Democratic party endorsement next weekend. (Brown, running against two well-connected suburban mayors in the Democratic primary, has called on the party to endorse no one.) But she’ll probably be well-funded enough to get her message out. And she hardly lacks political connections: Her husband, Darnell Brown, is Mayor Frank Jackson’s chief operating officer. If she can communicate well with voters and combine business support with support in the city, she’s got a good chance.

To fulfill the charter's top goal, encouraging economic development, Brown says the new government should find a unique niche where it can be most helpful. She thinks that means doing more of what the county already does: “Creating places -- redevelopment sites -- acquiring, re-subdividing, identifying locations.” The new county land bank “would be an important tool to use strategically,” she says, to “set the table.”

Brown says creating places is her specialty. One of her first projects at City Hall, the Church Square shopping center and homes at Euclid Avenue and East 79th Street, was celebrated as a model of urban redevelopment. However, her three years as president of University Circle, Inc., 2002 to 2005, ended without spectacular new development in the neighborhood. Brown says she laid the groundwork for the still-anticipated Uptown project at Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road by buying property at the corner and attracting new businesses, including a Starbucks and a Charter One bank branch. She pushed for the Opportunity Corridor, a proposed boulevard to connect University Circle to I-490 -- a project she's also worked on for the Greater Cleveland Partnership. To bring more visitors to University Circle, she built a new stage in Wade Oval, created popular events such as Wade Oval Wednesdays and improved outreach to Glenville and other nearby neighborhoods.

“I’m passionate about things,” she says. “I think that passion can become contagious and invite others to join.” In her City Hall job, “I got really excited about rebuilding places. As I progressed in my career, it moved from bricks and mortar to investing in people, to helping people succeed. I think now it’s a mix of both.”

New county exec candidates: Welo, Brown, and... Frazier?

Wow, what a day for the county executive race! Three new candidates all jumping in: former University Circle president Terri Hamilton Brown, South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo, and, most exciting of all, Cleveland Magazine contributor Mansfield Frazier!

Um, OK, so maybe Mansfield is ... how should I say it? Not entirely serious?

From his new Cool Cleveland column:

… why not? I can sling bullshit, make empty promises, and not call people back once I’m elected with the very best (or worst) of ‘em. And the real upside is, I’ve already been to prison — been there, done that — so that’s not something the electorate has to be concerned with.

Some readers must've thought he meant it. Since Cool Cleveland came out this morning, the note "a satire" has been added to the column's top rail.