opinion

John Cranley’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month

David Niven teaches American politics at the University of Cincinnati and has written speeches for Columbus mayor Michael Coleman, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Quick rule of thumb: When your behavior prompts reporters to reach for a thesaurus to find synonyms for “inexplicable,” then you might need to rethink things.

Such is the case for Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. Cranley watched his parks levy fall in a what could only be called a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the polls. Then, he followed up on one debacle by creating another.

“We love immigration. We want more immigration,” the Democrat said in late October. “We believe that it’s key to our economic future and to a better, more just, society.”

Then, just two weeks after vowing to make Cincinnati “the most immigrant friendly city in the country,” Cranley joined forces with Donald Trump and voices on the far right seeking to ban Syrian refugees not only from Cincinnati but from the entire country.

For a moment, leave aside the strange political bedfellows Cranley found himself beside and the stunning reversal from his recently expressed unequivocal love of immigration. There’s even a more fundamental question here: What’s the mayor doing trying to set foreign policy?

As the multidirectional absurdity of his stance became clear to him, Cranley began damage control. It was, he came to realize, a “clumsy” response to a debate he shouldn’t have entered.

What’s worse, it was the clumsy culmination of a clumsy season.

By making himself the face of a contentious park levy on the ballot, Cranley put his personal political standing on the line for Issue 22. It’s the kind of move savvy politicians make only when they know they’re going to win.

But opponents derided the parks levy not only as the “Cranley tax” but as somehow a threat to the parks themselves – and Cranley’s park’s levy went down by almost 20 points.

Even his own party didn’t absolve him. Tim Burke, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said the loss was directly attributable to people’s reaction to Cranley. Without Cranley’s backing, he said, the parks levy would have passed.

Meanwhile, Cranley was left to issue a public apology for talking up Issue 22 in a polling place on Election Day – a setting where any kind of campaigning is prohibited by law.

Both the parks levy and the Syrian statement exacerbated simmering tensions with City Council, prompting fellow Democrat Chris Seelbach to say the mayor is a divisive bully.

To his credit, Cranley said he would learn a lesson from Issue 22’s fate. He said he needed to listen and collaborate more with council.

He also highlighted an agenda going forward focused on public safety and such mundane matters as road paving.

Ironically, it’s the boring stuff that could save him.

As a whole, Americans are deeply skeptical about the federal government, deeply skeptical about state government, but actually kind of fond of city government. What’s more, the reason Gallup and other polling firms consistently reach this conclusion is the sense that local governments use common sense and can get things done and not be stymied by ideological and partisan battles.

In other words, what makes people like local government is the refreshing sight of an executive who can work with the legislative branch and the absence of mayors with a foreign policy. For Cranley then, potholes are not merely a way to fill the hours. Potholes are political salvation.

And there’s more. Redistricting has left the Ohio Democratic Party deeply depleted. Its U.S. House delegation numbers only four. Its entire state Senate caucus couldn’t fill a good-sized conference table. The party may well need its mayors to step up in future statewide races.

But here’s the rub. The way upward to Washington – where leaders must take positions on Syria and where paralyzing partisanship is the norm – requires John Cranley to stop doing these things here. And to fill some potholes.