It’s here! The Ward 3B ballot! As usual, I’m sharing my ideas and picks. In this post I’m skipping all the elections for judges, because there are so many and I haven’t decided on most of them.

Here are my ideas.

President & Vice-President

Biden/Harris ofc. Come on.

Representative to Congress, 11th District

This is Marcia Fudge’s seat permanently. I don’t feel like rewarding her for the Q Deal. I will probably pass. I might vote for the Republican.

It’s honestly a free protest vote. Do what you want here.

State Representative, 13th District

Skindell ofc. The “Ohio” legislature is such a rigged, gerrymandered clusterfuck that the Democrat would have to be really bad to lose my vote. And Skindell is actually quite good.

Prosecuting Attorney (Cuyahoga County)

Michael O’Malley has not been good on jail reform. He’s unopposed, but he doesn’t deserve my vote. I’m passing on this one.

Member of State Board of Education, 11th District

The League of Women Voters put on a candidate forum a couple weeks ago! Meryl Johnson knows the job, as the incumbent. Also she was well prepared to answer questions, and I especially appreciated her opening with DeRolph v. Ohio. I think Michele Elba was quite good, but this time I’m voting for Johnson.

Issue 68: Cleveland Metropolitan School District levy

YES.

You know what’s absolutely amazing? CMSD had a 52.2% graduation rate in 2011 and now it’s over 80%… and it’s not from lowering standards. The fact is that almost four out of five kids in our system are motivated to stick with school through 12th grade, and nine years ago… not so much.

Half of the graduates are in college or some other kind of postsecondary education a year later.

That alone is worth continued funding. I believe CEO Eric Gordon deserves immense credit for this, but that’s not the point right now. The point is that the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is improving greatly in fulfilling its important and very difficult mission. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s improving and it needs to be well funded and the kids deserve it.