Pictured are State Senator Shirley Smith (D-21), State Representative Armond Budish (D-8) (in tie), and fired former Cuyahoga County sheriff Bob Reid, all three whom are vying for the Democratic nomination for Cuyahoga County executive this year

By  Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. (Kathy Wray Coleman is a 20-year investigative journalist and legal reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press)

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, which is led by chairman Stuart Garson, a local area trial attorney,  held a forum at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Cleveland Sunday afternoon for the three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination this year to replace county executive Ed FitzGerald, the front-runner so far as the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor. All three announced Democratic candidates, state Sen Shirley Smith (D-21), state Rep. Armond Budish (D-8) and fired former county sheriff Bob Reid, whom FitzGerald ousted as sheriff last year and replaced with Frank Bova, a former Warrensville Heights police chief, were in attendance.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face the Republican primary winner in a November general election, though Cuyahoga County County, which is 29 percent Black and includes the largely Black cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, is strongly Democratic. It is the largest of 88 counties statewide and has substantial influence in presidential races since Ohio is a swing state.

Budish walked away with the most votes from ward leaders relative to a quasi unofficial vote taken at Sunday's candidates' forum. But not all people endorse him.

"The only person up there truly talking about people was Shirley Smith," said state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), a Smith supporter and Cleveland Democrat. "And what I did not hear was a discussion on food stamps and long term unemployment benefits."

Whether Reid and Smith will drop out if Budish gets the party endorsement on Saturday remains to be seen, particularly Reid, whose firing as sheriff brought tension between he and FitzGerald, and an endorsement from the Police Patrolman's Association, the rank and file of Cleveland police

The executive committee of the county Democratic party will make an endorsement for the county executive slot and other Democratic primary seats at 9 am at Euclid High School on Saturday. The high-powered  county executive job pays $175,000 annually to work with an 11-member Cuyahoga County Council, part time elected offices that pay $45,000 annually.

The county executive position also comes with the authority under a voter approved county governance structure that took effect in 2011 to hire and fire the county sheriff, coroner, clerk of courts, treasurer,  fiscal officer and recorder, influential jobs that were once election positions.

Billed as a debate, though moderator Rick Jackson told the candidates that they could not make negative comments or attack each other, Sunday's gathering at the Doubletree, which drew about 150 people, mainly Democratic party operatives, was hardly that, and began with at least two of the three contenders complimenting each other, and Smith at one point spoke for all three of them.

"We are all in favor of jobs, we are all in favor of all our kids getting a good education, we are all in favor of regionalism, we will all fight poverty" said Smith, a Cleveland Democrat and the only Black of the three candidates who, like Budish, was not afraid to say that countywide public corruption is an issue.

Budish went further and spoke of the need to retain the county inspector general, a division  under the county executive with a million dollar budget that Nailah Byrd, who is Black, and whom FitzGerald appointed, runs, a division to investigate malfeasance complaints against county officials under her jurisdiction, and county employees, among other responsibilities.

The articulate Reid did say that he would keep the inspector general office if elected and Smith said that she would evaluate the issue once on the inside as county executive, if she wins.

And Budish, the front-runner, and Smith, said that banks and mortgage companies must bear some responsibility for excessive abandoned homes and the high county foreclosure rate, which peaked at nearly 10,000 foreclosure filings in 2010 and lessened to roughly 7800 in 2013. Both also agree that abandoned homes are a problem and that they should be rehabilitated as much as possible and otherwise torn down, and Reid also agreed.

Reid, on the other hand, said not one critical word against the banks and mortgage companies and actually complemented J.P. Morgan Chase Bank as the vehicle for help with foreclosed and abandoned homes, his partner in alleged crime, a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals. That investigation found that Chase Bank, several of the 34 judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas , and Reid,  stole foreclosed homes when he was sheriff, a job that comes with a $92 million budget and authority over some 1,100 county divisional employees.

Smith said that tackling foreclosure impropriety requires that county officials take the effort of "going after banks and working with the state to establish legislation." She pushed her resume as a state legislator which includes a cancer awareness bill that she sponsored that became law and a state law that she co-sponsored that took effect last year and give Ohio judges the leeway to now expunge either two criminal misdemeanors or a misdemeanor and a felony, an amendment from the previous state law that permitted the expunging of only a single criminal record, either a misdemeanor or felony

A Beachwood Democrat, Budish, a licensed attorney, said that "we must pursue the highest ethical standard in this county, nothing less is acceptable."

Budish and Smith stressed public education and what they will do to improve it, though that purview rests with policy-making municipal boards of education of the county , other than the Cleveland Municipal School District, which Mayor Frank Jackson controls under state law, coupled with the authority to appoint board members, also under state law.

Reid stressed his job as a former sheriff, even though he got fired. And he bragged of being a former city manager and former police chief in Bedford, a suburb of Cleveland under stanuch investigation by the FEDS, and where one of its sitting judges, Harry Jacob, was indicted late last year and subsequently disqualified from the bench for allegedly pimping women and running a prostitution ring out of the court.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)