This is what democracy looks like?
It's hard to describe the psychotic nature of what transpired last night at the IBEW hall. But I'm going to try.
The freaks were barking last night at the IBEW #683 union hall on Goodale Boulevard in Grandview.
And I mean that in the most derogatory way possible, while also including myself.
The Franklin County Executive Committee convened to endorse a slew of issues and candidates, with the headline being the Columbus City Council District 7 race between Jesse Vogel and Tiara Ross.
In an ideal world, the party would stay neutral and let two Democrats earn their ticket to the big show. But as I wrote on July 9, that’s not how the Franklin County Democratic Party functions.
It’s not enough for Ross to have the endorsement of every elected official or access to their unlimited donations in an electoral system designed to prevent outsider challenges to centralized power.
They have to get 120 political perverts into the same room and let elected officials badger them on behalf of their preferred candidate before holding a raise-your-hand election with no permanent record of individual votes.
Gretchen James, chairwoman of the Franklin County Democratic Party Candidate Screening Committee (and Ross’ co-worker at the City Attorney’s office), while explaining the committee’s non-unanimous endorsement of Ross, knocked Vogel for “not understanding the implementation pathways” of public policy in Columbus city government.
That’s a fancy way of saying that Vogel is not beholden to the corporate “stakeholders” that have long controlled City Hall and the city council’s unanimous votes on public policy.
State Rep. Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus), whom I like and endorse for a promotion to the State Senate, made the point that Ross received 600 votes more than Vogel and therefore “won” the election. That might be true if it were November instead of a three-way primary, where the top two winners advanced in an election where 59 percent of voters cast ballots against Ross.
State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) said that, since he represents large portions of District 7 in the Statehouse, he knows what its constituents need. Left unmentioned was that District 7 voted for Vogel by 18 points in the May primary. And while he played up the impoverished nature of his district, he also represents Bexley, the wealthiest suburb of Columbus, from where he raises most of his campaign money.
Jarrells also expounded upon how Ross won historically Black neighborhoods. Left unmentioned was that City Hall designed the “wards in name only” system to stymy a potential civil rights lawsuit for diluting the voting power of those same Black voters in the entirely at-large system that existed until two years ago.
He also seemed to insinuate that Ross’ “driving license issues” were of a systemic nature, rather than her personal belief that she didn’t have to pay parking tickets she accumulated outside of work, her apartment, or bars.
Sometimes, you just have to laugh.
But then there was City Councilman Emmanuel Remy, waving one of the many “Black Voters Matter” fans that had been passed out in the steamy union hall.
Remy, like his colleagues Shannon Hardin, Nick Bankston and Rob Dorans, voted to endorse Ross.
Remy waved that “Black Voters Matter”—a disturbing dilution of the original Black Lives Matter slogan—despite running against Adrienne Hood, the mother of the late Henry Green, who was murdered by Columbus police, in the last election cycle.
Coincidentally, Ms. Hood was in attendance, and she excoriated the powerbrokers in the room for their mockery of the democratic system.
“I am talking about the process,” she said while urging a no endorsement vote. “Where is the integrity in this room?”
Alas, that was one Black voter who didn’t matter in that moment.
But not every elected official in the room went along with city council’s pony show.
House Minority Whip Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio (D-Gahanna) and State Rep. Munira Abdullahi (D-Westerville) gave fiery speeches urging the party not to endorse.
“What this party needs to be considering is whether it’s in the best interest of the party to endorse in this race,” Brown-Piccolantonio said.
Jen House, a longtime party insider, insinuated that their opinions shouldn’t matter since neither of them lives in Columbus. Which, you have to admit, would have been a helluva point if we were at a Columbus Democratic Party meeting and not one representing Franklin County. Her side counted votes for Ross that came outside of Columbus all the same in the endorsement.
It was galling watching city Democrats push so hard for an endorsement, knowing they were undoubtedly arguing the opposite side when their good friend, then-city council member Shayla Favor, blocked a party endorsement of her competitor in last year’s county prosecutorial race.
There was no official voting system other than a show of hands with two party apparatchiks counting the numbers in their heads. There is no public record of how every member voted. There is no video available for anyone who couldn’t attend the 6 p.m. event at Grandview on a weekday.
At least Republicans have the decency to say, “Why? Because fuck you,” when they engage in similar tactics. I don’t like it. But it’s easier to respect the nakedness of their powerplays.
When Democrats do the same thing, they piss on your leg and call it “democracy” and pretend that it’s social justice to thrust another one of their unqualified cocktail comrades into a position of power despite numerous self-enduced scandals.
This scam occurred in the middle of summer, when nobody was paying attention, months before roughly 12 percent of the electorate will decide representation for a district that had already rejected Ross after she moved into the district one day before the legal deadline to run for office.
Then they’ll act surprised when the party fails to turn out voters in any meaningful statewide or national election.
It’s disgusting.
But hey, in their defense, it seems to be working out quite well for their friends, subordinates, delusional hangers-on, and corporations and labor unions with business in front of the city.
Five minutes with Franklin County Democratic Party chairman Mike “Big Sexy” Sexton
I walked out of the IBEW hall last night feeling like I had just contracted gonorrhea in a seedy whorehouse. And that feeling should translate to my feelings for Franklin County Democratic Party chairman Mike “Big Sexy” Sexton.
Is he a boss of a Tammany Hall-style racket? Yes, he is. But does he also seem like a likable guy that I would have enjoyed blacking out beside at some shitheel dive bar in my previous life as a raging alcoholic while arguing about elections that occurred 30 years ago?
Yes, yes he does.
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