The Grind of Life
It’s been a while since I’ve published my thoughts on the political happenings of Cincinnati. There are several reasons for this, but mostly because being an adult with two children and a full-time job takes up most of my time during the months of August through May. I take my job as a Special Education teacher serious because it is a very important job. Teaching and advocating for individuals with moderate-to-intense cognitive disabilities is something that I have always enjoyed doing and my role as a teacher will always trump publishing my random political ramblings on this website or my wonderful Twitter account.
It's been no secret that this political cycle has greatly frustrated me. When these City of Cincinnati elections roll around, Democrats begin cannibalizing each other and this has been quite an eye-opening experience seeing it unfold all right in front of me. I do not anticipate making any sort of City Council or School Board predictions or public endorsements, but I think it’s safe to say I am feeling very bullish on Aftab Pureval’s chances to become our next mayor. The CPS school board race is interesting and I think whoever gets elected will be an upgrade over the individuals that are stepping down and/or retiring. The City Council race is a real head-scratcher, but I ultimately think it comes down to name recognition. The field has been flooded with 35 candidates vying for 9 seats which will most likely confuse voters and make them feel overwhelmed. That means the names that pop out at them will be the ones they’ve seen or heard before. With local Democrats being split and in disarray, this most likely means a couple charter candidates and a couple Republicans find their way onto council. People like Tarbell, Flynn, Keating and Goodin seem to have very good odds at getting elected, since all have actually served on council currently or in the past.
I am not a praying man, but I’ll send one up to our creator in hopes that Betsy Sundermann does not get elected. Her disdain for teachers has been insulting and she clearly lacks any sort of understanding on how public education as well as policing works. In a time when citizens want transparency and accountability for police officers, Sundermann has doubled down on increasing police budgets, blocking reforms and has embraced the idea of reactive policing opposed to proactive, community-based policing. To put it politely, she’s in way over her head which is why she relies on publicity stunts to get people to notice her and get her name out there in the public sphere.
In a field this large, it isn’t hard to find individuals who have run excellent campaigns but may get lost in the shuffle of being first-time candidates. It’s extremely hard to get elected to City Council on your first try; it even took Greg Landsman two tries to get on there. Sadly, I’m not feeling super confident that we see a ton of first-time candidates getting on City Council. Obviously, if they’ve been appointed to an elected office currently or previously, that gives them a better chance and I really don’t consider them true “first-time” candidates. Additionally, candidates that have ran for other offices previously, even if unsuccessful in the past, increase their odds because they have increased name-recognition. Council races are now every two-years which means we may have to face the drama and in-fighting every two years opposed to the previous four-year terms. In the coming months, I’ll have to do some soul searching about how active I want to be, or not be, in the upcoming political cycles. Being one of those so-called “political insiders” isn’t as cool as you would think. Additionally, running for office is also not as glamorous as it’s made out to be. All of it is time consuming, tedious and maddening at times. But it can also be glorious and rewarding if you come out on the winning end. In the meantime, I’ll keep my ear to the ground and you’ll hear from me if anything interesting happens.