One of the big winners in Tuesday’s primary was David Brock, chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
The results delivered him a victory on multiple fronts, reinforcing his ability to shape and guide the party in this heavily Democratic county.
Brock was unopposed in his Cleveland neighborhood race to remain on the party’s central committee, whose members represent every corner of the county, guide party politics, make endorsements and select leadership. The larger win, however, came as party voters rejected a slate of central committee candidates recruited or backed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley and others privately critical of Brock and the progressive leanings of some of his allies.
O’Malley himself lost his Rocky River precinct by seven votes. Of roughly 30 candidates informally aligned with him or his office, about 20 faced competitive races. Just three won seats on the central committee, according to election results and party members tracking the contests.
In one West Side Cleveland precinct, activist Nora Kelley easily defeated Keith Sulzer, a former Cleveland police commander and current employee in O’Malley’s office.
Beyond O’Malley’s slate, several longtime party figures also lost, including Valarie McCall, a former top aide to Mayor Frank Jackson. She was backed by Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin.
While some winners reflect the party’s progressive wing — including Molly Marcinkevicius, a grassroots organizer who pushed for Cleveland’s unsuccessful participatory budgeting charter amendment — others fall into more moderate Democratic lanes. In some races, central committee candidates, who must run every four years, mounted active campaigns, knocking on doors and badgering voters on the phone.
In an interview with Weekly Chatter, Brock described the winning candidates as “active” campaigners, not activists.
Brock said party members should not lose sight of what he called the most important outcome of Tuesday’s election: a re-engaged party. He said momentum from a “blue wave” midterm cycle (generated by a Republican-controlled White House and Congress) sparked some positive turnout figures. Turnout in Cuyahoga County was 22%, slightly higher than in the 2022 and 2024 primaries. County turnout here also edged turnout in Franklin and Hamilton counties, which each saw about 20%
But as the Signal Statewide team points out, primary turnout doesn’t necessarily forecast outcomes in a general election.
California dreamin’
One of Cleveland’s most active — and loudest — civil rights lawyers is leaving the CLE. Subodh Chandra is selling his Shaker Heights home as he and his wife relocate to Oakland, California.
Chandra explained on Facebook that his wife, Meena Morey Chandra, who was once the director of the Cleveland office of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, is now the “systemwide anti-discrimination director” for the University of California.
Subodh Chandra said he is maintaining his Cleveland law office, through which he has handled many high-profile cases. He represented the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy killed by a police officer in 2014.
Chandra, a former Cleveland law director, is also author of Issue 24, the charter amendment approved by voters in 2021 that shifted more power to civilian oversight of the Cleveland Division of Police.
Chandra told Chatter that he’s “grateful for the opportunities to serve and sorry not to be living in Northeast Ohio” but he “will continue to represent civil-rights victims and misconduct whistleblowers here, as we expand our practice westward as well.”
Data shock
Cleveland officials appeared surprised by news this week that a permit for a proposed massive data center in and around the Slavic Village neighborhood was quietly filed, first spotted by real estate blogger Ken Prendergast.
Mayor Justin Bibb used a 45-second social media post to acknowledge that he’s paying attention and hears residents’ concerns.
The proposed $1.6 billion project would be built in Council Member Deborah Gray’s Ward 3. She has not responded to a request for comment. The proposed site also sits near Kevin Bishop’s Ward 2 and Richard Starr’s Ward 5, both of which include parts of the Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood.
“Building the data center that has been proposed for Slavic Village would represent a massive shift in the city’s industrial landscape,” a Cleveland City Council spokesperson said in a statement. “Council has to do its due diligence to ensure data centers don’t strain our power grid, water system, or neighborhood resources.”
Cleveland City Council Member Charles Slife of Ward 15 introduced legislation in late April that would put a moratorium on new data centers for a year, but the legislation is still being discussed.
Cleveland has several small data centers, including ones on Prospect and Euclid Avenues. But they hardly compare to the two-story, 300,000-square-foot “state-of-the-art, hyperscale facility” described in the new permit for the proposed Slavic Village facility. You can find a map of data centers in Cleveland and across Ohio produced by Signal Ohio here.
Shutting off discrimination
The City of Cleveland has settled a long-running federal lawsuit that alleged that the water department’s practice of placing liens on properties over past-due water bills disproportionately hurt Black customers. You can find the backstory in this piece by Signal Cleveland’s Nick Castele. City Hall has agreed to pay about $3 million to settle the case, including giving about $13,500 to each of the plaintiffs, according to cleveland.com, which first reported the settlement.
