CLEVELAND, Ohio – Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Lee Weingart announced Tuesday he is running for county executive in 2022, making him the first candidate to enter a race that won’t be decided for nearly 22 months.
In an interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, Weingart said he is intentionally starting early to overcome the disadvantage of running as a Republican in a county dominated by Democrats and to make a persuasive case for why the county desperately needs a change of leadership.
“I’m offering a bold new vision of Cuyahoga County that changes our perspective entirely, away from funding the government and bureaucracy to funding solutions to our community’s problems,” he said. “I think I can win the battle of the ideas.”
Weingart’s announcement comes six weeks after the editorial board for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer concluded that incumbent Executive Armond Budish cannot lead the county effectively and called on prospective Democratic and Republican challengers to start building support.
Budish, a Democrat, has yet to disclose whether he will seek a third four-year term while he and his administration remain under a criminal investigation that began more than two years ago. The probe has resulted in convictions for two former members of his administration and the indictment of a third.
At age 54, Weingart has not held elected office in 24 years, losing the seat to which he was appointed on the now replaced County Commission to Jane Campbell in 1997. He has remained informed, however, and since 2002 has served as founder and president of LNE Group, a Cleveland-based consulting firm.
He already has a detailed platform that calls for curtailing county government spending, using the savings to improve access to housing and jobs, reducing racial inequities, and reforming the county jail and criminal justice system.
If elected, he also pledges to:
*Reduce the county workforce by 800 employees through attrition and buyouts, and use the savings for a rainy day fund and economic and community development.
*Eliminate deficit spending and in his first term and oppose any county government tax increases.
*Assemble a “brain trust,” comprised of nonprofit and business leaders, to “review and revamp every part” of county government. After one year, they will return to the private sector, “leaving the county with well-trained deputies and a much more efficient and effective government structure.”
Under decades of Democratic leadership, Cuyahoga County has failed to address problems related to economic opportunity, racial inequities, hunger and homelessness, he said. As a result, the county and Cleveland have languished with high rates of poverty, residential segregation and crime.
Weingart is pointed in his criticism of Budish and his administration, particularly the now aborted effort to generate revenue by charging to house prisoners in the county’s understaffed jail where 12 inmates have died since 2018. He described the effort as the “biggest scandal in Ohio in the last 50 years.”
He also accused Budish for using too much of $215 million in federal coronavirus aid in 2020 to prop up county government and to keep county workers employed rather than devote most of the money to county residents who lost jobs and housing to the pandemic.
As an example of misguided priorities, he cited the administration giving a $7.9 million coronavirus bailout to the county-owned Hilton hotel while providing only $200,000 in federal aid to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
“If you were hungry last year, you’re better off going to the Hilton hotel than the food bank,” Weingart said.
Budish, through political consultant Alan Melamed, declined to respond to the criticisms, or to say whether he intends to seek a third term. Melamed said Budish is instead focused on guiding the county through the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis it has created.
To bolster his case as the best candidate for county executive, Weingart said that during his two-year stint as county commissioner he turned a $120 million budget shortfall into a $40 million surplus without raising taxes by slashing county spending by 11% and reducing the county workforce.
He also pledged to mount a lengthy, vigorous and well-funded campaign that reaches out to Democrats as well as Republicans. He contends the county executive position should be focused on problem-solving, rather than partisan debates.
“It’s not like being the governor or president,” he said. “It’s an executive position, but it’s also a position that focuses more on management, innovation and vision than it does on partisan issues.”