How bad was Ed FitzGerald's Historically Bad Loss to John Kasich?

Who voted for Ed FitzGerald? I did see some yard signs in his hometown of Lakewood, Ohio, but it turns out that these people were in the minority. Here's a map from that article.

Ed FitzGerald with a capital G didn't win CuyaHoga and he didn't win LakeWood. Furthermore, the article points out something amazing to me: Ed FitzGerald didn't even win his own neighborhood in LakeWood!

FitzGerald's neighbors in Lakewood Precinct 1H favored Gov. John Kasich, 249-140 on Tuesday.

It's not that the western Lakewood precinct is Democrat territory; voters there favored the Republican Kasich, 259-205, over Ted Strickland in 2010.

But FitzGerald's failure to pick up even 35 percent of the vote in his own neighborhood illustrates the depth of his loss.

So check this out: Kasich won FitzGerald's neighborhood in Lakewood with 64% which is the same percentage as he received in the state! He only got 55% when he was running against Strickland in 2010.

Later in the article there is a chart of the cities in the Greater Cleveland Area where Fitz won highlighted in blue. As one would expect, they are the places where you don't want to live or can't afford to. IOW, Democrat strongholds. Here is another illustration of the depth of FitzGerald's loss (from the AP):

It's nice to see Ohio red again. Man, are the Democrats mad. Go over to Fitz's Facebook page to check out some hilarious meltdowns.

"Desperate they'd run any cretin"

Yay! 3BP enabled embedding. Read the lyrics here.

Parody: "The Wreck of the Edward Fitzgerald"

Third Base Politics has come up with an awesome parody, The Wreck of the Edward Fitzgerald, based on the Gordon Lightfoot song. But they've disabled embedding of the video, which makes me sad. Almost as sad as Fitz gets when you forgot to capitalize the "G" in his last name.

You know, way back when the capital "G" thing came out the Democrats should have wondered about this guy. You don't do it the way he did. Besides, you can set up your name to have multiple spellings be official so there are really no big worries about this like the PD claimed.

New Report: Ed FitzGerald committed a "Breach of the Public Trust"

The skies of November are turning ever gloomier for Ed FitzGerald. It turns out that it's not just crazy right-wingers like me who care about Ed FitzGerald's lack of a valid driver's license for over a decade. Cuyahoga County Inspector General Nailah Byrd nailed Fitz with a 45-page report which is summarized here in the Plain Dealer.

I think props are due to Byrd who a lot of people thought might give Fitz a pass. After all, he did appoint her. And hey, she could have waited another couple weeks until after Election Day to release the report.

Here are some nuggets from the article. The entire 45-page report is embedding there, if you are into reading such things.

Byrd had taken heat for not being sufficiently independent of FitzGerald, who recommended her for the job in 2011. But in the report she levies strong criticism, noting in its conclusion that the county under FitzGerald had disciplined other county employees for driving through the course of county business without a license.

"Based on this alone, it would be disingenuous and an apparent double standard if no discipline is pursued in this instance. Moreover, FitzGerald's disregard of County policies regarding operating personal or County vehicles on or in the course of County business, without a valid driver's license, is a breach of the public trust that sends the wrong message to County employees and taxpayers," the report reads.

Here are some tidbits which someone could write an entire article on:

• Upon review of FitzGerald's driving record, "it is clear there are over 21 months during his tenure as County Executive when he did not hold a valid driver's license."

• The absence of the county executive's vehicle logs for the year of 2012 hampered the investigation. Byrd wrote the FitzGerald administration "improperly destroyed them."

• FitzGerald aides offered spotty recollections of whether they had seen FitzGerald drive himself while county executive. FitzGerald himself conceded he had probably driven himself to county events, but when shown specific events on his official calendar, he could not remember whether he had driven himself or not.

 Are we reduced to trusting the "spotty recollections" of aides who "improperly destroy" documents?

• FitzGerald told investigators he had never driven without insurance.

Also all you right-wingers should take note that Ed FitzGerald never removed a mattress tag or took more than one newspaper out of those self serve boxes over at Kamm's.

Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for FitzGerald's gubernatorial campaign, said in an email that FitzGerald cooperated with the investigation so it could be released in a timely manner -- in contrast to recent state investigations that have involved Republicans.

"[T]imely manner...." Boy, oh boy, is she sore that this came before the election. She knows the man is going to lose, but we are headed into record-setting territory now, and Lauren Hitt's name is going to be immortalized along with Fitz's.

Hilarious Political Cartoon

This is hilarious to me, especially the opening lines:

Governor John Kasich arrived for an endorsement interview with the NEOMG Editorial Board more underdressed than Ed FitzGerald.  But more overdressed than David Pepper in his attack ads against Mike DeWine.   Nonetheless,  Kasich ended up leaving with the board's endorsement in his blazer's pocket

Basically this article is an early wrap on the 2014 Ohio Gubernatorial election. I realize that yeah, yeah, anything can happen here and Hang On Sloopy, etc.

The article goes on to moan about how wouldn't it be nice if Strickland was running. Really. You mean the guy who lost last time? I'm no Kasich fan-boy, but the state just isn't in bad enough shape to jump back to an Obama fan-boy.

Nice handshake, by the way. This photo is not doctored. (Background)

Huh? Wha? What's SB5?

More bad news for Ed FitzGerald. The memory of the voter defeat of Senate Bill 5 is the great hope of the Democrats if you follow FitzGerald's Facebook page or the comboxes in PD articles. But it doesn't seem like it is going to matter:

George Edge of Grove City and Judy McLaughlin of Canton both voted against Senate Bill 5 in a statewide referendum nearly three years ago.

Both had union members in their household when they opposed the law, which would have stripped many collective-bargaining rights from about 360,000 state and local government workers.

But now both say they are voting for the re-election of Gov. John Kasich, even though he led the campaign to pass the measure.

The two voters are part of a modern political phenomenon in Ohio: the turnaround from a 62 percent to 38 percent defeat of the collective-bargaining law in November 2011 to an apparent runaway victory for Kasich coming on Nov. 4.

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

Can you smell the desperation? "Jerry Springer hits the road for Democratic Ohio candidate" reads the title. Drag out Jerry Springer to whip the crowd up into a frenzy to vote for Ed FitzGerald and the Democrats!

Oh, wait—sorry... misleading headline. Springer isn't joining the FitzGerald campaign. He's joining the Nina Turner campaign. Springer knows a loser when he sees one, no doubt, and Turner does have a chance against Husted.

Springer has given at least $12,000 to gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald, $10,000 to attorney general candidate David Pepper, and $5,000 to treasurer candidate Connie Pillich, according to state campaign finance reports this year. He also gave the state Democratic party at least $28,000.

Most of the time Jerry Springer is making money from showcasing losers rather than losing money to a loser. But $12,000.00 is probably pocket change. Springer is reportedly worth $45 million.

Springer said he attracts potential voters who don't typically attend political events. "Certainly not the blue bloods," he said, but more of a "working-class kind of audience."

I guess working class kind of folks can relate to people who can pony up $45,000.00 in political donations. For some reason.

The host of "The Jerry Springer Show" now lives in Sarasota, Florida, though he spent half his life in Ohio. He travels to Connecticut where he tapes episodes that feature bleeped-out obscenities, guests in fisticuffs and a studio audience chanting his name. (Recent titles include "I Slept With Your Twin & Your Mom" and "Stay With Me Or Else.")

We should qualify terms. Most of the working class people I know are decent people who vote Republican—sometimes begrudgingly—because the alternative is to support the ideology and lifestyles of pimps like Jerry Springer and philandering liars like Ed FitzGerald.

A spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party said Springer's appearance illustrates the size of FitzGerald's problems and hurts the Democratic ticket.

"Now voters associate the Democratic Party with two people: Ed FitzGerald & Jerry Springer," said GOP spokesman Chris Schrimpf in an email. "Maybe Ed can go on Jerry's show after the election and explain how not to run a campaign."

The question is whether Jerry Springer would ever let anyone he had the least bit of respect for to be on his show. Yes; this includes himself.

Ed FitzGerald and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Amanda Bynes retweet

This latest episode finds Ohio Democrat Gubernatorial Ed FitzGerald descending further into punchline territory. Now Ed FitzGerald can belly up to the bar with Anthony Weiner and commiserate about how it was Twitter that wrecked their political career, not that thing swinging between their legs. Here's the really important paragraph:

One thing to keep in mind about Twitter and politics: The politicians themselves rarely control their Twitter accounts. Those accounts usually end up in the hands of aides, who often keep personal accounts, too.

Keep in mind also that everyone serious has left the FitzGerald campaign at this point and what is left is the B-team. So there was a B-team aide taking care of FitzGerald's twitter messaging and he/she decides to favorite a tweet by Amanda Bynes, but he/she accidentally faves it as Ed FitzGerald. What is the content of the tweet? Is it "Legalize pot NOW!"? Is it "My dad put a microchip in my brain"? No. Try "Help a n*gga out and hop off ma d*ck". So that fits in perfectly with the booty call theme of the Ed FitzGerald campaign. (Nota: Amanda Bynes is rich white woman, but I suppose because she's a rapper she gets to be an honorary n*gga as well as use the word with impunity. I suppose she gets a honorary d*ck, too, as part of the deal....)

I hereby offer $10 to anyone who can identify this B-team re-tweeter. I'd love to do an interview, or at least go to their house and peak in the windows.* Maybe I'll do some real journalism a la Jason Matera.

Tom Suddes wrote today that "This could be the year Ohio Democrats hit bottom". But this is the modern-day Democrat party, Tom. I don't think there is a bottom.

______
* - Not really.

Chris Redfern covers his butt WRT Ed FitzGerald

I confess I'm obsessed with watching the slow-motion train wreck of the Ed FitzGerald campaign, but my excuse is that I have never seen any train wreck quite like it. Every article points out that he has no money for television ads and so is relying on grassroots and endorsements. Every article about FitzGerald also contains the prepositional phrase "with a woman who was not his wife", but that's old news at this point.

So in this environment, it doesn't help you if the State Chairman of your party makes jokes at your expense. In a New York Times interview, no less. Chris Redfern tells us how he feels in an obvious CYA move:

The party chairman, Chris Redfern, pointed a finger at Mr. FitzGerald himself. “I’ve never met a former F.B.I. agent who doesn’t have a driver’s license,” he said. “It’s akin to saying, ‘Damn, I should have my umbrella’ after it rains.”

Mr. Redfern, a State House member, said no other major Democrats stepped up to run in a primary. As for vetting Mr. FitzGerald, he blamed an outside group that the campaign hired to research the candidate’s vulnerabilities. Mr. Redfern said he would not hire the company “to clean out my bird cage.”

Ta-dump.

I keep thinking about how Nancy Pelosi maintained in 2010 that Dems would keep the house. That's what you're supposed to do in politics. You know you're lying, but you keep up appearances. Who knows, it might save you from losing worse. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to see everyone piling on to a fake Catholic candidate who has turned into a huge loser.

Hold the Mayo

My two takeaways from this piece on Ed FitzGerald's continued freefall. First, Nina Turner's absurd "bottum-up" remark:

"The best way to build a house is not from the top, but from the bottom," said the state senator from Cleveland. "When you go to the polls, vote from the bottom up."

Right, because voting is soooooo much like construction work. We're staffing the house, Nina, not building it. And no one wants a chamberlain chasing the chambermaids.

Secondly, I had to love this comment from The_Irish_Independent:

Both Ed Fitz (County Exec of Cuyahoga County) and Joanne Grehan (CEO Mayo County's Local Enterprise Office) have been DROPPED from the upcoming Cleveland Mayo Bash.

New AGENDA has been put up on line here -

http://www.clevelandmayosociety.org/Mayo%20agenda%20FINAL%209.23.14.pdf

That's sort of like the Vice President and Speaker of the House not being invited to the SotU speech.

Twenty Reasons Why Ed FitzGerald Hasn’t Released His Jobs Plan

All the Ohio Dems are moaning about how John Kasich won't debate Ed FitzGerald. One reason might be that he is going to trounce FitzGerald without one, and why risk it?

Another reason is that you really don't need to debate anymore; you can just use BuzzFeed to make your point.

Ed FitzGerald Splains Hisself

Does anyone else find articles like this hilarious? This is the first of two articles based on an interview with Ed FitzGerald. It pretty much leads off with Ed explaining why he shouldn't not be governor. Excerpt:

"We're going to take all that down and boil it down to saying, 'This is mysterious that someone was dilatory in something that was private,' " FitzGerald said. "Obviously, I should have handled it better, and I don't make any excuses for it, but it isn't a reflection and hasn't been a reflection on how I've conducted myself in public office."

Wait... private? How is a driver's license private? If you get stopped by a police and don't have a driver's license on you can you explain that "well really, officer, it is after all a private matter"? Does that work? Or how about "gee, officer, I'm sorry but I'm just a dilatory kind of guy." I think the whole point of government-issued licenses of any kind is that their nature is public, not private.

The whole "not a reflection on how I've conducted myself" claim is even more laughable. This whole incident is actually an example of how he's conducted himself. I happen to live next door to a public official and she is well-aware that everything done by her reflects on her. This is absolutely discernible in her behavior, bearing and things she chooses to converse about.

Ed FitzGerald has a shovel down there and is determined to dig himself out. Who wants to bet that the second part of the interview mentions Senate Bill 5?

Ed FitzGerald heads further toward joke territory

The Ohio State Troopers Association, a public-safety union, yanks its endorsement of Ed Fitzgerald. Excerpt:

On its Facebook page, the union said it was "the candidate's inability to give any reasonable explanation of his failing to secure a valid Ohio operators permit for years while continuing to drive on Ohio's highways that drove its decision.

"TSO noted that Troopers cite drivers for invalid licenses and for driving without a license or under suspension and the failure to secure a license is a serious breach of civic as well as the political responsibility of an elected official."

They would probably rather endorse FitzGerald than not after the SB5 fiasco which hurt Kasich with the public-safety unions to a seemingly irreparable degree. However "serious breach" is the key phrase. They really can't endorse someone who is such an incredible scofflaw. If he'd let his license or registration lapse once or twice before he held elected office it would be one thing. But the whole ten-year period coupled with the Westlake-woman-who-wasn't-wife incident is pretty hard to overlook.

My guess is that there is a lot of info on that event that hasn't been made public. But cops talk to each other.

What is Ed FitzGerald?

So what is Ed FitzGerald really? Is he a Quarterback for the Cleveland Browns? That's what he compared himself to. Of course, he lacked a valid drivers license for quite a length of time, so, Cleveland Republicans with some sense of humor might want to insert a The Drive pun in the comments.

Or perhaps he is a giant snake attacking Cuyahoga County employees. That's what Laborers' Local 860 compared him to.

Or maybe Ed FitzGerald is merely the newest poster boy for political leprosy.

The QB-comparison piece quotes from a Columbus Dispatch article that contains some insights. Excerpt:

The emergence of two down-ticket races in the mid-term election follows the August implosion of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald that knocked his challenge to Republican Gov. John Kasich off the marquee.

Ohio’s 2014 election cycle thus becomes somewhat of a giant political-science experiment. When the governor’s race is largely decided before Labor Day, can Democrats focus on down-ticket races and grab enough voter attention to avoid a Republican sweep?

“People don’t show up at the polls to vote for or against the treasurer and auditor. They may make independent decisions, but they go because of the top of the ticket,” Yost said.

Cool. I love to watch mad scientists—or Democrats—do "experiments".

Ed FitzGerald for Governor Update

First, Ed FitzGerald goes for the absolute kook vote by attacking Chief Wahoo. No, really.

Next, the rats are leaving the sinking ship; headline FitzGerald's top aides leave campaign. WVXU actually provides a good summary of how the Fitz campaign has done so far.

Buis, McElhatton and Hitt were all brought in from out of state to work with the campaign, and Buis and McElhatton made the choice to leave. It’s unclear whether the Democrats will spend what little money FitzGerald has left on an ad blitz or turn their attention to the downticket races.

There are still a lot of questions about why FitzGerald didn’t have a permanent driver’s license for a decade, which was discovered after a 2012 police report showing he was found in a dark parking lot in the early morning hours with a woman who was a member of a visiting Irish delegation.

Then last week, there came reports that FitzGerald disciplined employees in his office who didn’t have valid drivers’ licenses. FitzGerald’s campaign had stumbled early when it was revealed that his first choice for his running mate, Senator Eric Kearney of Cincinnati, owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes.

FitzGerald has struggled with fundraising since the beginning - as of the last reporting period a few weeks ago, incumbent Republican John Kasich holds a 5-1 money advantage over FitzGerald with more than $11 million on hand compared to FitzGerald’s nearly $2.5 million, and the latest Quinnipiac poll has FitzGerald down 12 points. Early voting starts in 50 days.

I really hope the man crashes and burns. He's a disgrace, and as out-of-touch as any elite leftist. And my desire to see him crash hard is not based on any great love of Kasich.

The Wreck of the Edward FitzGerald

Yeah. Hear that fizzing sound? That is the air rushing out of the balloon which was the Ed Fitzgerald for Governor campaign.

Excerpt:

We may never know exactly what happened between FitzGerald and a woman who was not his wife, at 4:30 in the morning, in the parking lot of an industrial complex in Westlake. What we do know is that women are far more likely to abandon FitzGerald over the issue than men. We also know that winning a huge majority of the female vote was FitzGerald’s only conceivable path to victory.

A Quinnipiac University poll released July 30 showed Kasich leading FitzGerald 53 to 31 percent among male voters, but only 43 to 41 percent among women. Take that same poll today and Kasich’s lead among women is probably at least eight percentage points.

As bad as that early-morning parking incident was for FitzGerald, things were about to get a whole lot worse. Reports that FitzGerald went 10 years without a valid permanent driver's license — including periods when he was county executive, Lakewood mayor and Lakewood safety director — fail the common-sense test in ways that boggle the mind.

"Ed FitzGerald went 10 years without a valid permanent driver's license." No, you didn't read that wrong. I thought I heard it wrong yesterday. Ten years? During which time he was Mayor of Lakewood and Cuyahoga Executive? His excuse for not renewing is that "things kept coming up." Really, his campaign said exactly that.

Meanwhile, Eddie is crying about the optics. "The question is whether the optics of it will trump reality."

Yeah, you guys just hate optics, don't you? Like when you took this photo... "Hey, looky, here's me with a hot blonde! I'm cool; vote for me!"

The Irish people involved are all twitchy:

In a statement, Grehan and Peter Hynes, a member of the 2012 Irish delegation, called the patrol stop an "innocuous incident."

"We are outraged and disgusted to find our names being drawn into what is clearly a controversy fabricated with political motivation," Grehan and Hynes said. "We confirm that there is absolutely no basis for the unfounded speculation and nasty innuendo which surrounds reporting of this incident."

So don't hang around garbage and you won't get any on you. I can't pretend I'm not elated to see a Pro-abortion "Catholic" being revealed for what he really is.

Overhead in overdrive in the stupid college savings boondoggle

Yet another reason to not vote for Ed FitzGerald for Governor of Ohio.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald's college savings account program will cost taxpayers $522,000 in annual overhead, about one-quarter of the program's $2 million budget, county records show.

That percentage is significantly more than the vast majority of large charities spend to administer their programs, according to Charity Navigator, a non-profit watchdog that tracks budgets of $1 million or more.

"I think that it does seem high," Charity Navigator spokeswoman Sandra Miniutti told Northeast Ohio Media Group on Friday.

Of the 7,000 philanthropic agencies Charity Navigator tracks, less than 4 percent spend a quarter or more of their budgets on administrative costs, Miniutti said. Most spend 15 percent or less, she said.

This whole savings account thing is a perfect example of Democrat boondoggling. Tax the parents, funnel money to kids, buy votes, raise the cost of education. Then repeat as often as possible and if anyone attacks the plan, tell them they must hate the children.

The program's likely overhead is drawing criticism from County Councilman Dave Greenspan, a Republican who has frequently questioned initiatives by FitzGerald since the Democratic county executive announced he is running for governor.

"Would you as a taxpayer give to a charity that had at least a [25 percent] administrative burden on the giving?" Greenspan said. "The answer is no. I believe it's no. I wouldn't do it."

But the FitzGerald administration objected Friday to comparing the savings account program's administrative expenses to those of charities.

"This program cannot be easily compared to this broad set of non-profit organizations. It has to be judged on its own merits," said Matt Carroll, chief of staff to FitzGerald.

The "merits" are easy to identify. This government program will give money to kids who will flunk out much more often than private charities will. Also accounts will be opened for everybody, and not everybody goes to college.

A similar program in San Francisco only had a 12 percent participation rate within its first three years. FitzGerald hopes to improve on those results by marketing his version of the program.

The county council's budget and finance committee will debate the request Monday.

The FitzGerald administration had hoped to launch the savings account this month. But concerns from county council over the program's details have delayed it.

The whole culture of savings argument is just dopey. You can't really encourage saving by giving people money they didn't earn. I hope this thing dies an appropriate death and the money is somehow returned to the taxpayer. Why do I live here again?

Ed Fitzgerald is "Abortion Ken"

Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald is a "pro-abortion Catholic", a Souper Candidate as my friend Dan Coyne calls such Catholics, and he's making fighting abortion restrictions passed by Ohio lawmakers and signed by Governor Kasich a big part of his 2014 bid for Ohio Governor. Here's proof on his own campaign page. Here's how it starts:

If you care about women’s health, you have to abhor the anti-abortion restrictions inserted into the two-year, $62 billion budget bill that Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law.

You really don't need to read any further than that to peg Fitzgerald as pro-abortion. But to leave no shadow of a doubt, Fitzgerald is also proposing a statewide pro-abortion ballet initiative for 2014.

Meanwhile, his presumed Democratic opponent, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, recently urged a ballot fight over restrictions on abortion enacted in the new state budget by Republican lawmakers and Mr. Kasich. If successful, that question would appear on the ballot at the same time he and Mr. Kasich will.

So it seems like he has pretty firmly hitched his wagon to Planned Parenthood and the abortion industrial complex. They will have no trouble ponying up funds for this campaign. At least Fitzgerald is not really wearing a mask. He's another fake Catholic hoping no one cares or notices. Or says anything. If Wendy Davis is Abortion Barbie, then without a doubt, Ed Fitzgerald is Abortion Ken.