Today was by far one of the most exciting days at the office, as we hosted a press conference for local media about a few different issues concerning Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Fitzgerald and his campaign.
Both the chairman of Ohio's Republican Party, and the chairman of Cuyahoga's Republican Party came down to the office this morning to speak with reporters about concerns they had over the Fitzgerald campaign. I've actually met the chairman of the county's party before, Rob Frost, so it was really exciting to have the chance to hear him speak again. In light of the massive poll lead Governor Kasich currently has (with some data suggesting that his favorability rating is around 58%, which is incredible) it was interesting, and in my opinion very clever, to see the Republicans go on the offensive about Mr. Fitzgerald's campaign to continue to put much needed pressure on the Democrats.
The focus of the press conference surrounded two things: the release of data that would show how often Fitzgerald is on property owned by the county, essentially how often he's at work doing his job, and also an issue with the county's Inspector General. All Cuyahoga County public employees have scan cards that are used to enter property owned by the county, and their records are generally made available to the public. This enables citizens to see how often their elected officials, or public employees being paid with their tax dollars, are showing up to work and doing the job we pay them to do. Even the notoriously corrupt county politician Jimmy Demora regularly provided this information to the public. Unfortunately Fitzgerald has not, and when asked to do so, has refused. Chairman Frost used the press conference as an opportunity to make Fitzgerald's repeated refusals known, to make it clear that the Republicans have tried to push for this information to be made public, and to highlight the hypocrisy of a campaign that puts so much emphasis on transparency and good government, yet has been anything but transparent.
The second issue was equally as interesting, and had to do with the county's Inspector General seemingly working for the Fitzgerald campaign. The purpose of our Inspector General is so that we have someone who is conducting audits and inspections to ensure public employees are meeting the ethical standards set by the county. In light of years of massive corruption within Cleveland and across Cuyahoga county, the position is of relatively high importance. Yet unfortunately, it appears that the IG has been working outside of her purview and specifically for the Fitzgerald campaign, performing audits for them rather than for city employees as is her actual job. When Republicans asked the IG to provide the amount of time she's spent working for the Fitzgerald campaign rather than for the county, she said it would be impossible to do so. Yet days later it was realized that a week before the Republicans had requested this data, the IG had already met with county officials to provide an exact estimation of the amount of time she had been working for the campaign.
These issues aren't simply political ones brought to the forefront by the Republican Party to grab additional support. These are issues that everyone should care about, that relate to how seriously our government is taking their job of providing the service they promise to the people, and it's about holding our leaders to account. It's incredibly interesting, and I feel very lucky to have been able to watch some of these events unfold.
I enjoyed today's visit -- thanks!
ReplyDeleteEven though we sit on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I completely agree with the concerns you addressed in this press conference and how they relate to modern day politics. If someone is being paid to do a job, and especially if someone is being paid to do that job with money given from hard working Americans of all socioeconomic levels, they need to be doing that job. Any other Ohio resident would be fired in a heart beat for repeatedly failing to show up at work. I would be very curious to see how Fitzgerald responds to the pressure to release these records and if there is an explanation for his behavior. I think that it was a wonderful opportunity that you had to experience first hand such a critical press conference. I also think there's a problem when government officials spend there time, time during which they are paid with tax payer money, working for individual campaigns. if they want to work with individual campaigns also, that's not a problem, but they need to do it on their own time, and they need to do it with campaign funds. I think there are major problems with the way some members of all political parties behave and the upswing of corruption scandals in recent years. As an elected official, you should be working for all the constituents you represent, not just the interests and needs of certain individuals and groups. I would love to see a bipartisan solution developed to help combat this unacceptable problem that hurts all Americans.
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