As you're probably aware, Ohio's 10th Congressional is in the midst of a fierce primary battle. Motivated to seize the House seat for its preferred corporate candidate, and driven by hatred stretching back to Muny Light, the Cleveland Plain Dealer -- a very conservative newspaper and the town's only daily -- is trying to push Dennis Kucinich out after more than ten years of loyal and able service to his constituency.
Cleveland's movers and shakers have thrown their support by sitting Ward 13 councilman Joe Cimperman, a corporate-owned politician. His argument for running is based in part on the most ludicrous of claims: that a sitting elected official ought not to spend taxpayer time and money running for another elected office. But that is precisely what Cimperman is doing. Furthermore, he is running on a patently false claim that Kucinich has missed more votes than almost any other member of Congress.
The truth, however, is not on Cimperman's side. According to GovTrack.us:
Dennis Kucinich missed 346 of 7054 votes (5%) since Jan 7, 1997.
Compare this to campaigning Republican Ron Paul, who according to GovTrack.us has missed twice as many votes as Kucinich.
Ronald Paul missed 687 of 7054 votes (10%) since Jan 7, 1997.
And what of the sitting U.S. senators running for president?
John McCain has missed sixteen percent of his votes.
John McCain missed 592 of 3720 votes (16%) since Jan 22, 1997.
Barack Obama has missed seventeen percent.
Barack Obama missed 185 of 1098 votes (17%) since Jan 6, 2005.
And Hillary Clinton has missed six percent of votes, just one percent below Kucinich's attendance record.
Hillary Clinton missed 152 of 2406 votes (6%) since Jan 23, 2001.
So what may we conclude from this? That Cimperman is either lying his fool ass off, or else he is too lazy or too stupid to get his facts straight -- or a combination thereof. My money, if I had any, would be on the combo theory. And whatever the case may be, is this really the kind of person Ohio's 10th Congressional District really wants or needs representing it?
Here's another case against Cimperman and his backers at the Plain Dealer.
The Pee Dee used the entire space of the Sunday editorial slot to bless Cimperman. Actually, it was not so much to anoint Cimperman as to throw slaps at his opponent, Dennis Kucinich.
And...
What struck me as really odd was how little space the paper spent on telling us of any accomplishments of Cimperman. His major accomplishment, as I can see, is giving away city money to developers.
While we're on that note, let's ask ourselves, of the two main candidates for Ohio-10, who has accomplished more? Kucinich, hands down.
Kucinich -
Cosponsored HR 676, which is Medicare for all Americans.
H.R. 4060: Universal Prekindergarten Act
H.R. 3400: Rebuilding America's Infrastructure
H.R. 1234: To end the United States occupation of Iraq immediately
H.R. 2707: To reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program
And then, of course, there are his articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney. Pretty busy for a "part-time" member of the House of Representatives, huh? And what, by the way, has Cimperman done for his constituents? According to ClevelandLeader.com (bear with me, this one's a long quote but it is absolutely necessary):
Just to remind people of what the donation-gobbling Cimperman has become as the downtown councilman, I’ve listed below what the city and others, with Cimperman’s strong backing, gave to the Wolstein project in the Flats. The project is in Cimperman’s ward.
Of course, the city also helped with eminent domain to shift properties to Wolstein from others.
There’s an interesting battle now going on for downtown real estate development with several major corporations and law firms reportedly interested in new office space. Looking for new digs: Baker & Hostetler, Eaton Corp., Ernst & Young, Huntington Bank and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. So there’s demand.
It will be interesting in the climate of demand to observe how city officials – Mayor Frank Jackson and City Council – react to this renewed interest in new office space.
Since there’s high demand should the city avoid offering all kinds of subsidy incentives to developers to do what they must do – meet the demand by building? (It’s also unclear whether the new space will be added space or simply newer space to shift tenants from older buildings, in other words, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic/Cleveland.)
The Pee Dee could do a service to the citizens by researching and telling us which downtown property owners got what part of the $100 million in taxable property that came off the tax rolls in recent years. Likely suspects: Forest City Enterprises, Dick Jacobs and John Carney interests.
The market is supposed to rule. And, to some degree, it does. The best example is the empty space on the west side of Public Square. The city in 1989 awarded Dick Jacobs the same sweet subsidy deal to build on that site as the developer received for the north side of Public Square (Key Center & Marriott Hotel).
Yet, 19 years later, the site remains fallow, a parking lot.
That’s because there has been no market for new office space and thus no development.
Now, since there is said to be demand, why don’t the developers meet the demand – but without seeking to wring out abatements and other subsidies from the depressed City of Cleveland? The answer is simple: greed.
They don’t because our political leaders are too eager (Cimperman) to serve their benefactors at the expense of their constituents.
Below are the incredible “incentives” given to the Wolstein partnership for the Flats East Side project. Here is the list:
