Thanks to the eye of Cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias, we can revel in the announced candidacy of Tanner Fischbach in this year's Cuyahoga County Executive race. And if that name sounds familiar, then you're already ahead of the curve.
Fischbach ran in the last race, in 2014, as a self-proclaimed "young Republican punk" from Berea. We chronicled his campaign, which, if anything, pointed out some of the shortcomings of a Democratic stronghold like Cuyahoga County.
When he ran for a council seat in 2016, he dutifully placed a spotlight on the southern reaches of the county. His argument then, and in 2014, was that the county is focused too narrowly on the business interests of its downtown Cleveland core. Back then, the obsession was honed on the red carpet for the Republican National Convention; now, there's a lot of work to be done and a good deal of county debt to tackle.
It's early in the race, of course, so it's hard to say how things will pan out. Fischbach is the only candidate to have pulled petitions at this point.
Incumbent Armond Budish, who was first elected in 2014, will almost certainly run again. His opponent in that November election was Republican Jack Schron, who's held steady as a critical voice on county council.
