Double Barrel: Jeff Crossman & Tricky Nickie Antonio make major moves
Jeff Crossman looks to buy a judgeship, while Senate Minority Leader "Tricky Nickie" attempts to gut a rule preventing her from seeking another public office, if that's something that interests her.
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Welcome to a special double-barreled dispatch of The Rooster.
As a 100-percent reader-supported publication, The Rooster doesn’t have any corporate overlords or leathery benefactors dictating our coverage.
Today is another example of that storied tradition.
The first half is a freelance piece from the newest hire from Cleveland, Ky, A. Hoga, on the upcoming, hyper-local central committee elections and why it appears former State Rep. Jeff Crossman has purchased a pivotal, still-to-come party endorsement for a cushy judicial gig.
The second half of the dispatch is from yours truly, and deals with Senate Minority Leader “Tricky Nicky” Antonio attempting to gut a sensible and long-standing caucus rule, seemingly out of self-interest.
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Thank you for your consideration on this important matter. Now, without further ado, let’s get on with today’s double feature!
At the beginning of Cuyahoga Dems’ critical year… by Ky A. Hoga
To quote Andrew Tobias from the first State Signal of the new year: Will this be the year Ohio Democrats become relevant?
A gubernatorial race against one of the Republicans’ weakest candidates, a Senate race with the return of one of Ohio’s most beloved Democrats, and a handful of difficult yet winnable House seats across the state are what Ohio Democrats should already be prepared for as we enter what has the potential to be one of the country’s last elections—given the ever-quickening descent into fascism.
Significantly less discussed, though, is another set of elections taking place during this critical year that will receive little to no attention. On May 5, residents across the state have the opportunity to vote for a precinct leader of their preferred political party or the Central Committee.
Central Committee Elections
The central committee is elected from every precinct within one’s county. Precincts are essentially the smallest electoral districts, so these races are hyper-local, often with little to no political spending.
Citizens can vote early or by absentee ballot, or wait until May 5 to vote in person for their neighbors running in their precincts.
In Cuyahoga, there are 896 precincts up for grabs. You can find the list of candidates who have pulled petitions for signature collection or have already submitted them to the Cuyahoga Board of Elections (BOE).
Those elected then become part of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s (CCDP) central committee, the closest elected representative to the people. Their supposed duties and loyalty, however, are to the Democratic Party rather than to the office of an elected official who makes decisions regarding public spending.
While it will be easy to get wrapped up in the larger and more commonly covered state and federal political races, this writer asks themselves: What would coverage of these hyper-hyper-local races look like?
What type of questions should these candidates receive as they prove to their neighbors they’re best for the role?
And how would one arguably hold these servers of the Democratic public accountable?
Voter Turnout
Voter Turnout is one important topic, especially for Cleveland Democrats.
“Anemically low voter turnout” is the phrase cleveland.com used in their Cleveland 2025 primary election recap coverage. And it is certainly true, as Cleveland’s voter turnout hasn’t surpassed 50% in the past four years.
In the 2024 November election, Cleveland voter turnout was a revoltingly low 46%.
The 2023 November election, which included both legalizing marijuana and abortion, hovered at around 29%. And one year before, in the 2022 November election, an election year semi-comparable to 2026, Cleveland also couldn’t pass 30% turnout.
Democrats like to blame Republicans for their constant efforts to disenfranchise voters, particularly voters of color. But at some point, the Democrats need to take responsibility for their own inability to turn out voters. And that starts with the neighbor you vote for to the central committee.
Party Leadership
Another important topic is the election of the party’s leadership, which in Cuyahoga includes the chair, the vice chair, and the secretary. These subsequent elections won’t take place until June, after the central committee members are elected and assume their positions.
Right now, there doesn’t appear to be any other candidates running for the chair, other than the current chairman David Brock. But according to BOE records, he terminated his chair political candidate committee in July 2025.
It remains to be seen who will run for the chair, vice chair, and secretary, but the central committee members elected on May 5 will decide who will hold those positions.
Party Finance
And another potential topic, quite possibly never discussed before, concerns the party's financial state. According to the party’s finances from the last 4 years, or June 2022 through 2025, available through the BOE, the party has raised $1.95 million, while it has spent $2.01 million.
As of 2025, it also has an average monthly overhead expense of $25K. That means in order to break even, not including any expenditures on voter engagement, advertising, or mail, the party must raise at least $25K a month.
As covered in Signal Cleveland’s Weekly Chatter, the only reason the party is entering 2026 with more than $55K on hand is because of a $107,903 donation from Jeffrey Crossman, made on November 24, 2025, from his now-terminated candidate committee from his 2022 run for attorney general.
Helping out a struggling party? Certainly. As it attempts to register 43,000 new voters in the county and increase voter turnout by more than 80,000, the party needs all the help it can get.
But the significance of the party’s largest donation in the past four years looks different when one sees that Jeffrey Crossman is also now running for the 8th District Court of Appeals.
What several party insiders assign as the significance of that donation is its purpose in helping guarantee an executive committee pre-primary endorsement, which is the fourth potential topic that neighbors should consider when they (hopefully) cast their vote for their central committee member in May.
Executive Committee
Though the executive committee's pre-primary endorsement vote for the 8th District Court of Appeals will likely take place in March, or certainly before the incoming central committee is elected, a growing number of voices consider the pre-primary endorsement a tool of a political machine, which seeks to advance interests without the engagement of the general electorate.
The party’s next class of executive committee members will ultimately be drawn from those elected to the central committee on May 5.
The central committee self-elects members to the executive committee, while also electing the ward leader and chair, the two most influential positions in determining who is then appointed to the executive committee. It is the executive committee that has the power to influence any election before the general electorate votes, and that begins with the May 5 election.
And so as Clevelanders decide whether or not they want to vote in the central committee elections this May, and for whom, they should remember that these hyper-hyper-local elections perhaps have the single most powerful impact in Cleveland’s “anemically low voter turnout” elections.
Though there are signs that 2026 could be a golden year for Ohio Democrats — “an open governor’s seat and a second-term Republican president with iffy approval ratings” — true Ohio Democrats know that there is no turning Ohio purple, let alone blue, without a stronger-than-ever performance in Cuyahoga County, specifically Cleveland. And that requires paying attention to the May 2026 central committee elections.
Stay tuned. We’ll see what happens this year in the 2-1-6…
Why is Senate Minority Leader Tricky Nickie Antonio trying to change caucus rules? by D.J. Byrnes
The Ohio House and Senate Democratic Caucuses have long-standing rules preventing members of leadership from running for another elected office.
The logic isn’t hard to grok. Running for a new elected position is a time-consuming endeavor and would inevitably take away from the time required to lead a caucus, even in a super-minority.
But according to two well-placed sources, Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) is moving to eliminate that rule in a vote that could come as soon as today:
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