Michael Hardy and Danny Kelly Square Off to Win the Votes, and Hearts, of Ward 11

Councilman Danny Kelly at a campaign event at P.J. McIntyre’s in West Park, in the middle of October. Credit: Mark Oprea

It’s no big surprise that Danny Kelly had two campaigning events back-to-back in the weeks leading up to today’s election that could maintain his seat on council.

It’s fair to say that, at an afternoon brunch at P.J. McIntyre’s in West Park, Kelly was doing pretty well. He’d lea a door-knocking campaign with dozens of volunteers and family. (And his girlfriend, Andrea Gale.) He’d scored a coveted Plain Dealer endorsement. (“This time, it’s no contest.”) And, after nine months as Council’s newest member, he’s grown his labor-activist, man-of-the-people schtick in and out of Council Chambers.

“I think I’m a public servant. I mean, I’ve been helping people all along, and I’m able to help people,” Kelly, 63, said over a pot of black tea at P.J. McIntyre’s in mid-October. “I think I’m representative of our city because I did blue-collar work, physical work for all those years.”

Although Kelly was picked out of seven interviewees last year to replace former councilperson Brian Mooney, who resigned to run for a judge seat on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Tuesday will be the first time his popularity with the 13,500 potential voters of Ward 11 is put to the test.

Kelly, an affable talker and union-dues payer since 1978, will be facing off against Michael Hardy, a teacher and school director who could, if Kelly loses, be the first Black councilman of the ward.

Hardy, 54, at Brookfield Park in Ward 11, around the corner from where he grew up on Guardian Road. Credit: Mark Oprea

For Hardy, a 54 year old who lives in the same house on Guardian Road he grew up in, Tuesday’s election is bound to bring up old anxieties. Despite getting the Plain Dealer’s endorsement over Mooney, he lost by a slim margin of 264 votes. With a little over $3,000 raised, a volunteer base that seems half the size of Kelly’s, and a campaign strategy heavy on phone calls, Hardy may have a bit of an uphill climb to ensure his sophomore bid for council is successful.

Or he may not. Hardy’s close call in 2021, and his lengthy experience in two unions, as an adjunct professor at Cleveland State, and past head of the West Park Community Commission, could be what it takes to grab Kelly’s seat.

Politically speaking, Hardy and Kelly have their differences. Both support Issues 1 and 2, yet separate on the heated nature of participatory budgeting, Issue 38. Kelly takes Council’s side—that the PB initiative should go down at the polls—while Hardy sees Issue 38 as an experiment in good democracy. (“If you follow me into the voting booth, you’ll see me supporting it,” Hardy said.)

On safety, Kelly takes a more hard-nosed, reactionary stance—he mentions often his support of Mayor Bibb’s RISE Initiative, which gave police raises, among other moves to bolster the ranks—while Hardy leans toward the preventative side, believing proper schooling early on in a kids’ life is one of the best deterrents of crime later down the road.

“We’ve got to go really serious into youth development,” Hardy said from a bench in Brookfield Park, where he played softball as a teenager. “We have to be intentional about making sure that our kids are prepared to read by third grade. If they’re not reading by third grade, it’s very—oh, it’s been proven. It’s frightening, really, when you find out if a kid’s not reading by third grade.”

And then there’s what one could say are personality differences: Kelly seems to have spent his entire life sharpening his prized tool of endless relationship building, while Hardy gives off a refined studiousness, a policy-oriented entry into local politics.

It’s probably why Hardy likes to point out, several times, that his competitor doesn’t actually live in Ward 11.

Former CMSD teachers and supporters of Kelly at P.J. McIntrye’s. Credit: Mark Oprea

“You know, this is my lifelong home, opposed to Danny,” Hardy said. “I can share with you the document that clearly says [he lives in] Ward 16. That’s the thing. So I’m here, I’m in this ward.”

Back at P.J. McIntyre’s, where Kelly passes out sticker flyers to Irish rock on the PA, the current councilman prefers the nonchalant. “That’s legitimate. He has that,” Kelly said, suggesting home repairs are keeping him a ward over. “But I mean, you walk two blocks down, you’re in the ward.”

After door knocking that day, Kelly reiterated select points from his to-do list if he’s re-elected. He sees basic city services—fixing potholes, getting trees trimmed, preventing storm flooding, keeping guardrails up—as paramount, maybe a tad more so than Hardy. He sees the rehabbing of the historical Variety Theater, which includes eight apartments, as a key to the developmental success of the neighborhood.

And, above all, Kelly has his people.

“He understands struggles. He is honest. He’s a politician, but not a politician,” Diane Gardner, a teacher who worked with Kelly during his time at CMSD, said at a full table at P.J. McIntyre’s. “He’ll do whatever it takes. He has some standards with some morals and some ethics, and he isn’t afraid to stand up.”

But Hardy is a union guy. He’s a teacher. He has lifelong experience in the ward!

“But we don’t know him,” Gardner added. “Danny is somebody that we know from his involvement with families, from his involvement in activities.”

“When I call Danny, I know he’s gonna show up,” Rosa Cruz, a former teacher, said across from Gardner, “whether it’s his ward or not.”

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