Plain Dealer’s Steve Koff Discusses Redistricting Plan

The Club met on October 21 with the Plain Dealer’s Washington Bureau Chief Steve Koff, who gave a talk about the proposed congressional redistricting plan for Ohio that would take effect in next year’s congressional elections. Steve stood in for Columbus Dispatch Bureau Chief Jack Torry, who could not come.

Steve arrived armed with maps of the present and proposed districts. The proposed plan was created and passed by the Ohio House and Senate, both controlled by the Republicans, and approved by Republican Governor Kasich. Ohio loses two seats in the U. S. House, so its 18 districts shrink to 16 (Ohio gained population since the last census but not so fast as in other states). In the 2010 elections, the Republicans picked up five congressional seats in the state, so they were looking for new boundaries that would help them hold those districts, Steve said. In northern Ohio, the plan in some ways was balanced. Steve said that the Republican proposal more or less leaves Democrat Marcia Fudge’s 11th District a strong minority district, which she should be able to hold, though she may face a challenge from new territory her district has picked up in the Akron area. But Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur may have to square off in a redrawn district that stretches from Toledo to Cleveland’s west side.

Steve believed that Republican Steve LaTourette was safe in his district stretching from Cleveland’s eastern suburbs to the Pennsylvania line. Much of Democratic Betty Sutton’s district is shifted to Republican Jim Renacci’s district south of Cleveland; Steve sees a Sutton-Renacci matchup as very tough on Sutton. Concerning Democrat Tim Ryan, Steve believes Ryan will be safe in his newly drawn district that still holds Youngstown.

At the time of Steve’s talk, the situation was unsettled. Ohio Democrats did not like the way the districts were drawn and had won the right to take the plan to a referendum, but Steve was not sure of the outcome owing to the time restraints on a referendum and its costs. The primary election for U. S. congressional House candidates and presidential candidates will be held on June 12. The primary for the U. S. Senate candidates will be held on March 6.

The Club is very grateful to Steve Koff for making this presentation. Follow the Plain Dealer online at www.cleveland.com.

Recent Club Events

Please read stories about recent Club events in the spring. In April we met with Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who represents Cleveland's east side. In May we met with former mayor Jane Campbell, who is now the chief of staff of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. In June we met with renowned broadcast journalist Carl Stern, who began his broadcast career in Cleveland in the 1960s. He then moved to NBC in Washington to cover law and the Justice Department. Image Galleries show photographs associated with all these Club events.

Club Meets with Renowned Broadcaster Carl Stern

Club members met with former KYW and NBC reporter Carl Stern on June 16, 2011, at the National Press Club. Carl grew up in New York but moved to Cleveland in 1959 and until 1967 worked in radio and television there while at the same time taking law courses at both Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Marshall schools of law.

Carl regaled the Club with memories of Cleveland in the 1960s. He recalled such a cold spell during one winter that he and his wife, who worked at the Cleveland Public Library, moved into a hotel for three weeks rather than drive back and forth to an apartment east of Fairhill Boulevard. He told of interviewing the pilot who flew the first jet aircraft into HopkinsAirport and of being on the air wearing spectacles with no lenses so that he could both look scholarly yet show no reflection from the glasses – at times he would scratch his eyelid through the frame but no one seemed to notice. He recalled factories and the Lake Erie salt mine, and covering the second trial of Sam Shepherd, the one in which F. Lee Bailey won an acquittal for the former doctor. He recalled interviewing Richard Nixon in 1961 while on a visit to Cleveland and during which the future president seemed oddly unsettled by his interviewer.

Carl had gone to lengths for the Club’s lunch; he brought pictures of his television crew from the days in Cleveland, his original press pass (the picture was stapled on), and other mementos.

Cleveland memories filled the bulk of Stern’s presentation, but members also wanted to hear something of his 26 years covering law and politics in Washington. Stern spun lively stories about Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre, and about Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, as well as cameos of J. Edgar Hoover, Bill Saxbe, and William O. Douglas. Stern’s memory was delightfully sharp and his penchant for stories profound. His tales and recollections were a delight to all members present.

Club Meets with Jane Campbell on Capitol Hill

Club members met with former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 24. Campbell is currently the chief of staff to Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Jane Campbell mainly discussed her tenure as mayor of Cleveland (2002-‘06). As she freely admitted, it was a turbulent and troubled time. The country had a Republican president and Ohio had a Republican governor, neither keen on spending money on cities. Yet she had to wrestle with a budget far out of balance and the economy was shaky. Nevertheless she recalls being mayor as the best job she ever had though also the toughest. She pointed to projects started under her stewardship though coming to public attention only later: The Convention Center and Medical Mart, and infrastructure upgrades to rekindle development in the Flats.

Campbell reflected that she met Mary Landrieu in the 1985 when both were the youngest women legislators in their respective states. They remained friends over the years and she was pleased to accept Sen. Landrieu’s invitation to be her chief of staff after the 2008 election when Barack Obama was elected president.

Asked why she thought women were being elected in fewer numbers to Congress and state legislatures she speculated that politics had become increasingly focused on attacks at candidates’ personal lives or at least aspects outside public affairs (children and spouses, for example) and that women were holding back from entering such a tarnished arena.

She also said that she loves Cleveland and would certainly entertain returning.

Club Met with Rep. Marcia Fudge on Capitol Hill

Club members met with Rep. Marcia Fudge on May 3 near her offices in the Longworth House Office Building. Rep. Fudge was upbeat about Cleveland’s future and wishes media would deliver a better message about the city.

“Cleveland has the best orchestra in the nation; it has the number one library system in the nation; it has the best health care in the world; it has a wonderful housing stock, and it has tremendous universities,” she said. “As an example of the latter, CWRU ranks third in the nation getting innovation to market.”

Rep. Fudge pointed to new vibrancy in downtown, notably the new Medical Mart under construction and a casino project. She noted that water is still one of the region’s greatest assets: “We need the collective will to develop our waterfront, which has more potential than Baltimore’s did before it built the Inner Harbor,” she told 20 persons around a conference table in the Longworth room. She is also encouraged by the number of start-ups coming out of the region, especially from CWRU, University Hospitals, and the Cleveland Clinic. “Businesses are moving in,” she said.

“Progress in Cleveland is steady,” she reported. “In the next one- to two-years, you are going to hear a lot from Cleveland. We are going to be a leader in solar and wind power.” She urged Club members to tell the good stories about Cleveland. “We need consistent leadership and those good stories to get out there. When people come to Cleveland they see that media reports are wrong.”

Asked about the impact owing to the loss of earmarks, Rep. Fudge said she would be working harder with federal agencies to bring the kinds of services and work that her district needs.

Rep. Fudge said she flies to and from Cleveland at least twice a week and that travel is the worst thing about her job – “It’s tiring,” she admitted. But she said she likes to be in Cleveland for important events, and she noted she appreciates Cleveland’s lower prices on many goods and services compared to those in Washington, D. C.