The primary for the next Cuyahoga County Executive isn’t where the excitement is on the May 3 ballot. But you should know about the candidates anyway.
When two-term Cuyahoga County executive Armond Budish announced last November that he’d retire when his term ended, others were already looking at running for his job. That includes Chris Ronayne, the likely winner of both the May 3 Democratic primary and the November election. The 15-year head of University Circle Inc., Ronayne launched his campaign last summer. Even then it was fairly obvious that the beleaguered Budish would not run for another term.
There was a brief flurry of drama around the race early this year when it appeared that some people inside the Democratic Party were trying to recruit a candidate to challenge Ronayne for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — perhaps just because he isn’t part of the old-school Democratic establishment. That petered out, leaving Ronayne alone in the race until Tariq Shabazz qualified for the ballot.
Shabazz also ran in last year’s Democratic primary for Congress to replace Marcia Fudge and came in 9th in a field of 13; he also ran in the 2020 primary against Fudge. The 27-year-old has served in the military and earned a masters in public policy from Cleveland State, but has no apparent experience in civic organizations or community issues. Instead of acquiring the tag of a perennial loser candidate so early, it would be good to see him getting out in the community to work on issues he’s passionate about and become known as a leader. He’s unprepared at this time for the job of running Ohio’s second largest county.
Meanwhile, the affable Ronayne oversaw the massive growth and expansion of the University Circle area, working with an array of stakeholders to build a new and vibrant community. Of course he’s got a list of great-sounding ideas about everything from education to housing to senior services to transportation, which you can read at his website. But getting things done in any of those areas depends on the ability to sell his plans and engage a range of stakeholders. Ronayne has never held public office either, but he’s run a large organization, has experience inside government, having worked on the County Planning Commission and as planning director, Chief of Staff and Chief Development Officer during former Mayor Jane Campbell’s administration, and has a wide network of friends and contacts in the region. He has a winning combination of deep experience and being a fresh face in elected office.
Republican Lee Weingart, who was briefly a county commissioner in the ’90s, is unopposed in his primary. Sure, he COULD win in November, but so far, there’s no reason to think it’s likely, especially with the baggage any Republican totes these days. Weingart’s not a lunatic conspiracy MAGA type, but the “R” tag is likely to be toxic to the Democrats who dominate the county. Ronayne winning the Democratic primary and going on to win in November will surprise virtually no one. And he’s by far the candidate best qualified to do good things for Cuyahoga County.