Has your polling place changed?

 

Ohio’s primary election day is Tuesday, May 3.  A number of greater Cleveland polling locations have changed.  To see if yours is one of them, click here for Cuyahoga County wards, precincts, and suburbs affected.

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Next Tuesday: primary election

 

Tuesday, Sept 14 is primary Election Day for seven cities in Cuyahoga County:

• Bay Village
• Cleveland
• Cleveland Hts.
• East Cleveland
• Garfield Hts.
• Lakewood
• Solon

More information is at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website here.

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Ohio Special Election on August 3

 

Mark your calendar.  From Ballotpedia:

A special election to fill the seat representing Ohio's 11th Congressional District in the U.S. House will be held in 2021. Primaries are scheduled for August 3, 2021. The general election will be held November 2, 2021. The filing deadline was May 5, 2021.^[4]

The special election was called after Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) was confirmed as secretary of housing and urban development in President Joe Biden's (D) administration. The Senate voted 66-34 to confirm Fudge on March 10, 2021.^[5]

The primary will occur on August 3, 2021. The general election will occur on November 2, 2021. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

There are 10 candidates running in the Democrat Party primary.  According to Conservative Angle and OAN:

The special election in Ohio’s 11th district has heated up as Democrats duke it out for who will succeed recently confirmed Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge.

Big names have stepped in to endorse either side of the Democrat campaign. Hilary Clinton has voiced her support for moderate Cuyahoga County Democrat Party Chair Shontel Brown. Where progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) have endorsed former co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign Nina Turner.

The race has become a proxy battle for the future of the Democrat Party, however, whether it will trend progressive or hold its establishment roots in the years to come.

There are two Republican Party candidates running in the primary, Laverne Gore and Felicia Ross.  Cuyahoga County always votes blue, so neither (R) candidate probably stands a chance.  Still, everyone needs to vote.

It’s too bad those of us in the 11^th District cannot vote for Ruth Edmonds in the 15^th district, but if you’re in Columbus, you can.  This household watched a brief interview with her on (sorry) Fox, and she was a refreshing conservative, all for faith, family, and community.

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Jim Renacci in the news

 

Michael P. Ramirez cartoon

Jeremy Pelzer at cleveland.com has the scoop, and it’s not particularly inspiring:

Jim Renacci, a former congressman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018, announced late Wednesday afternoon he intends to run against fellow Republican Gov. Mike DeWine next year.

Renacci, a Wadsworth resident who briefly ran for governor in 2018 before switching to the Senate race, is the highest-profile primary challenger yet to DeWine. Renacci, like many other conservatives, has been a vocal critic of DeWine’s coronavirus policies.

. . .

Except Mr. Renacci is not much of a conservative. 

Renacci, who often decries what he calls “career politicians,” started his political career in 1999 as the Wadsworth city council president. He eventually became mayor from 2004 to 2008.

Read the full report here.

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Trump rally in New Hampshire

Tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary. And this evening (Monday Feb-10), President Trump is holding a rally in Manchester. Pamela Geller reports that

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will address a capacity crowd of thousands of supporters during a campaign rally at Southern New Hampshire University Arena at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Tickets had to be requested through the campaign website; the event will be general admission.

Trump supporters began staking a place in line outside the SNHU Arena as early as 8 a.m. Sunday.

There may be some coverage on Fox Business and Fox News, but if you want to watch it, Right Side Broadcasting will livestream it; click here.  Sundance at Conservative Treehouse has alternative livestream links as well; click here.

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Go Vote

image credit: eventbrite.com

GO VOTE!

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Not this guy again…

From Weasel Zippers (and it’s the intro line that got my attention):

BREAKING: John Kasich Suggests There May Be 

A Primary Challenge 

To Trump In 2020…

Not this guy again…

And from the comments:

           Did he mention his dad was a mailman?

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Ellmers (R-NC) OUT, Davidson (R-OH) IN

art credit for Branco cartoon: pinterest.com

Incumbent Renee Ellmers loses primary,

Warren Davidson will replace Boehner until the next election

With all the headlines on Trump and Clinton, there are two other results from yesterday’s elections that you might have missed. The Washington Post reports:

Warren Davidson, a businessman and former Army Ranger, won a 15-way Republican primary in March in the special election for Ohio’s 8th Congressional District. The tea party candidate rather easily bested more moderate candidates, including two state lawmakers, in a campaign that quickly became ground zero for the party’s ongoing identity struggle in the House that Boehner used to run.

On Tuesday, Davidson easily won the special election in the deep-red district, which will allow him to serve out 2016 in Boehner’s seat.

Read the rest here.

And Renee Ellmers (R-NC) was defeated in the primary yesterday, despite Trump’s endorsement. The News Observer reports (h/t RealClearPolitics):

U.S. Rep. George Holding of Raleigh defeated a fellow incumbent — and a Donald Trump ally — in one of the most-watched congressional primaries in the nation.

Rep. Renee Ellmers’ defeat in the GOP contest marks a major fall for a politician who was once a television political show staple and who worked to recruit Republican women to run for office. Holding presented himself as more conservative than Ellmers.

“You go to Washington and you think you vote the right way,” Holding said at his victory party Tuesday night. “I try to vote in a conservative manner, and you wonder sometimes, do people even notice? This primary gave me the opportunity to learn that people do notice.”

With all precincts reporting, Holding defeated Ellmers by about 30 percentage points. Ellmers squeaked out a second-place finish by less than a percentage point over tea-party-connected candidate Greg Brannon.

This blog expressed disappointment over Trump’s endorsement of Ellmers. She was the first congresswoman  to endorse Trump, but her voting record was terrible. From News/Talk 1010 WCSI:

“Ellmers voted for Obama’s omnibus budget deal, voted to support Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants and supported John Kasich in a straw poll during the presidential primary,” the aide said Sunday. “Now she’s trying to fool voters to get reelected.”

More here. More on the 2015 Omnibus spending bill here.

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The Delegate Math

art credit: www.usnews.com

Ted Cruz just got thrashed in the five primaries yesterday, so today, he’s announced his VP running mate: Carly Fiorino. No surprise there. Cruz SuperPacs funders( Club for Growth, Keep The Promise and Robert Mercer) transferred funds to Carly’s campaign. See here and here. Meanwhile, the pro-Trump blogger Sundance runs the numbers following yesterday’s primary results:

The Delegate Math – Going into last night’s contest Trump was holding 848 delegates (Cruz 559).  There were 175 possible delegates available last night, however 54 are unbound from PA.

Based on preliminary results, it appears Donald Trump has swept every pledged delegate in Maryland [38] (won every congressional district), also Connecticut [28] (won every CD and took more than 50% statewide), Pennsylvania [17] (statewide delegates are awarded winner-take-all) and Delaware [16], along with 11 delegates in Rhode Island.

That’s a net pledged delegate gain of 110.  However, the math gets better because it appears Trump has also won 45 of Pennsylvania’s 54 “unbound” district level delegates (delegates declared for Trump, or declared intent to vote for CD winner).  So the approximate gain in delegates yesterday is around 155.

Add those 155 to the previous 848 and you get 1,003.

The Math Will Move In Direct Proportion To The Ideology – Most of the media totals will not include those unbound delegates from PA regardless of who they declared support toward.  Some media totals may include parts or portions of those unbound delegates – so you can expect to see some significant disparity depending on which media outlet is presenting their version of the data.

EXAMPLE:  CNN has a total for Trump of 988 (LINK) –  The New York Times has 950 (LINK)  – Politico is also using 950 (LINK) – and Green Papers has 956 (LINK).  It appears CNN is using “some” of the unbound PA delegates, and the latter three are not using any.

However, the fact that Donald Trump has resoundingly won every congressional district in Pennsylvania, and the fact Trump won the entire state with 57% of the vote total, gives Team Trump an easy leverage point to advance the argument they are entitled to the support of all 54 unbound Pennsylvania delegates.  Again, it appears 45 of them are already pledged to Trump or have agreed to vote for the CD/State winner.

[See here for the charts and map.]

Conservatively it is fair to say Donald Trump has won, at a minimum, 1,000 delegates as of this moment.

The goal is to reach 1,237.  But again, let’s be conservative and say –Moving Forward– Trump needs another 250 just for safe measure.  250 more delegates will easily put him over the top with wiggle room.

There are 502 delegates remaining in the next six weeks.  Indiana (next Tuesday) is holding 57 of those:

27 are district allocated to the winner in each of the 9 congressional districts.  Whoever wins the most votes in that district will receive all 3 convention delegates.

30 (10 base at-large delegates plus 17 bonus delegates plus 3 RNC delegates) statewide delegates are to be allocated to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes statewide. (link)

Currently Donald Trump is slightly ahead of the polls in Indiana.  Senator Ted Cruz has planted his flag, and with it his entire campaign, on winning Indiana.

Prior to last night’s results, Indiana was a must win for Senator Cruz and the #NeverTrump team.  After last night’s results, Indiana is now an absolute MUST WIN for Senator Cruz.

If Donald Trump wins Indiana, taking most, many, if not all of the 57 delegates, the Cruz/Kasich/#NeverTrump scheme is completely wiped out.

However, IF Trump doesn’t win Indiana, and because of the overwhelming victory last night, not much mathematically changes for Trump.

Cruz’s VP announcement today may change the subject for a few days, but it is unlikely to make a significant difference in the remaining primaries.

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"Voterless" elections

art credit: plymouthministorage.com

Okay, Ann Coulter is a bomb-thrower, but she also can hit the nail squarely on the head. Her column the other day was about the “voterless” primary elections, in which GOPe “leaders” are giving delegates to candidates whether the electorate likes it or not. Wisconsin. Colorado. Wyoming. Is West Virginia next? Here are extracts from her column

Another misconception sweeping the nation is that when state Republican parties disregard the voters and give all their delegates to Cruz, they are merely following THE RULES, and Trump is an idiot for not knowing THE RULES. 

That's what the Colorado GOP did, what the Tennessee and Louisiana parties are trying to do -- and what many other states may do, all under the careful tutelage of Tracy Flick Cruz.

I keep asking someone to send me a copy of THE RULES that direct state parties to ignore the voters and pick their own slate of delegates, but no one can cite such a rule. So I read through "The Rules of the Republican Party" myself -- and guess what? There's no rule instructing state parties to ignore the voters! 

To the contrary, the rules were recently rewritten so that delegate selection would "reflect the results of statewide presidential preference elections," according to a statement by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus. (The nerds will tell us, that's "legislative history," not THE RULES.) 

Apparently, what people mean by THE RULES is that there is no RNC rule specifically prohibiting a state party from giving all the delegates to a single nominee, even if that is demonstrably at odds with the will of the voters. 

The state parties are given a lot of discretion, so Cruz harasses and cajoles the local party until it awards all the state's delegates to him. Trump keeps winning elections, and Cruz keeps winning sneaky procedural victories. 

Until Cruz won a primary in mean-as-a-snake Wisconsin, he hadn't won a single primary -- i.e., an "election" -- outside of his home state, a sister state and a state where Trump didn't campaign. In fact, until cantankerous Wisconsin, the only primary where Cruz managed to surpass 34 percent of the vote was his home state of Texas -- where he got 43.8 percent. 

(Contrary to lies you read in The New York Times, Trump has not complained about any of those races. And you know why? Because they were elections, not corrupt backroom maneuvering. Hey - does anyone know if the general election is won by influence-peddling with tiny groups of insiders or is it by winning elections?) 

It's as if Cruz and Trump are playing different sports: Trump keeps belting home runs, while Cruz is berating the umpire until he calls a balk, then prances to home base, telling everyone he hit a grand slam. 

True, there's no rule explicitly disallowing a state party from rigging the delegate selection. There's also no rule explicitly disallowing a state party from giving all its delegates to Kim Kardashian. 

Cruz is bragging about winning delegates in “voterless” elections, as the Drudge Report and other media dub them. Trump's “campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.”

Does anyone really believe GOPe chairman Reince Priebus when he says “It's not a matter of party insiders. It's a matter of 2,400 grassroots activists, and whatever they want to do, they can do.”

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When Your Vote Doesn't Matter

The other day, this blog referred to Ted Cruz's dirty tricks in Colorado. The backstory is still unfolding, but it looks like Team Cruz worked with the GOP elites in Colorado, within the framework of their rules. The net result is that Colorado voters are disenfranchised by those rules. The GOPe takes full credit for getting delegates for Ted, an establishment insider. As the Drudge headline said, it was a "voterless victory."

American Thinker reproduced the resolution to exclude Donald Trump as a candidate for Colorado GOPe delegates. From another tweet from "Former CO GOP Chair: "The Message We're Sending Is Your Vote Doesn't Matter and Doesn't Count." 

The Colorado GOPe party controlled the selection. It followed the rules, and Colorado voters are going to protest those rules on Friday. 

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Cuyahoga County Early Voting begins today Wednesday, February 17

Image credit: flchamber.com

Early voting and voting by mail for the 2016 Presidential Primary began today and will continue through March 14. Election Day is on March 15. 

Voters who are registered as Republican may want to wait until Election Day when the field may have gotten smaller. More information at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website here.

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Register to vote in Cuyahoga County

If you are not registered to vote in Cuyahoga County, you have until February 16 -- that’s next Tuesday -- to register to vote in the March 15 Ohio primary. The County’s Board of Elections web site here lists the dozens and dozens of locations for registering and has more information on eligibility requirements.

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