“Because I believe Judge Connally’s steadiness, wisdom, experience, and accomplished record of service are exactly the unifying qualities our party needs, I asked her to step into the lead role for our party,” Elkins said in a press release. “She and I have tremendous chemistry and we are committed to reforms intended to nurture activist energy to win elections.”
C. Ellen Connally added, “We have had many conversations about the future of our party and I’m excited to take the lead role of unifying it with a focus on getting Democrats elected. We are going to make a great team and cannot wait to get started.”
Since losing to interim chairwoman Shontel Brown last summer, Elkins has worked alongside the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus to build a coalition and incorporate activist energy into the party by recruiting progressive Democrats to run for seats on the party’s central committee. That body will elect a chair at Euclid High School on June 9.
Shontel Brown has the backing of Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and other elected leaders. Her vice-chair is Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley.
Elkins’ campaign for party chair consisted of a series of procedural recommendations. He called them “a set of essential rule changes designed to eliminate backroom horse trading” in a press statement announcing his candidacy last week. Those include electing the full membership of the party’s executive committee (nearly half of whose members are currently appointed), and refraining from endorsing candidates in primary races with open seats.
Elkins told Scene that he and Connally work well together and that they would treat their roles more or less as co-chairs. They are both committed to what they’re calling the Unity platform.
“This was never about Trevor Elkins being King,” he said. “And it isn’t about C. Ellen Connally being Queen. This is about making the party stronger.”
This article appears in May 23-29, 2018.
So, the day after Channel 19 busts him for running a political campaign from his public office, suddenly hes no longer running? Smells like someone is afraid of indictment…
Channel 19 didn’t “bust” Elkins for anything and the idea that he’ll be indicted is ridiculous. The fact that 19 would run such a smear only further shows the importance of returning the local democratic party back to the people instead of the corporate kleptocrats who’ve been running it into the ground.
Well said get real and totally on point!! Afton office is clearly a corporate loving shill and has not openness to embracing the possibility of progressive taking charge of the local Democratic Party
Why would anyone support fake ass Connelly. Hasnt she supported Republicans over endorsed Democrats in past elections?
Choices. One political machine being swapped out for another. The so called politics have not been in the peoples hands for decades, especially in Cuyahoga county. Nothing but very high taxes, blight and no accountability.
Until our young people stop pretending that politics doesn’t matter and a few of them become leaders, we’re stuck. The opportunities are there, but where are the candidates of the future?
Until there is complete transparency in public sector employment records, the only surprise is how little changes in the county. The notorious hiring practices in the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are well chronicled throughout the decades, but one has to wonder how many public entities – like the Lakewood City School District, which includes the Recreation Department – do not require job applicants to list family members or relatives who hold elected or appointed political positions and do not maintain files that could answer any “name game” questions generated from an open records request. Ignorance is bliss, it seems — with a dose of Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz tossed into the mix……and so it goes.