What Cuyahoga County Residents Need to Know about Shontel Brown and her Campaign for Congress
By Keith Wilson
Shontel Brown is running for Congress in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. Her candidacy has very little substance and she has many ethical problems, which are detailed below.
This piece will give you a sense of the political landscape of Cuyahoga County and Shontel Brown’s place in it. I hope this is useful as a reference for people who want to be able to argue against her candidacy in an informed way. I link to reporting from many sources, leaning heavily on reporting by Sam Allard. It’s divided into four sections:
- Disqualifying Transgressions
- Who is Shontel Brown?
- Subpar Legislative Resume and Competence
- Addressing misconceptions spread by the Shontel Brown campaign and prominent supporters — updated as needed
Disqualifying Transgressions
These are the only things you really need to know about Shontel Brown. Any one of these things should be disqualifying.
- In April 2014, having raised significant funds for her County Council campaign from her associates in the construction industry (including her partner Mark Perkins and the Perk company), cleveland.com reported that “she said if she were elected, she would recuse herself from county contracts with ties to Mark Perkins as necessary.” This is an extremely low ethical bar to set for oneself; to do otherwise would be nepotism, and if Perkins and Brown were married, it would be a felony in Ohio. Nevertheless, she broke her promise. To date, “she has approved more than $17 million to Perk and has received $13,000 in campaign donations from the Perkins family and Perk’s current owners, the Cifani family.”
- In February 2021, Brown refused to step down from her post as CCDP Party Chair, even after the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial staff said she “must resign.” As the editorial staff argues, Shontel Brown’s position as CCDP Chair gives her the power to orchestrate the party’s candidate endorsements. By staying on as Chair, she has put Democratic elected officials in a situation where they must choose between endorsing Shontel Brown or risking their political careers. Many chose to endorse her. (Many others did not.)
- In May 2021, it was discovered that Brown’s campaign was not-so-subtly signaling to Super PACs in order to circumvent campaign finance restrictions that prohibit communications between Super PACs and electoral campaigns. [Update 7/12/21: As expected, a Super PAC has come through with over $600,000 in spending on ads attacking Turner. This Super PAC is not using talking points related to their own agenda, but, rather, those suggested by the Brown campaign’s unsubtle coded message. Their most recent mailer depicts a fake ballot that suggests Nina Turner voted specifically against universal health care and a minimum wage increase, when in fact she was pushing for stronger platform with Medicare for All.][Update 7/22/21: Reporting last week revealed that the Super PAC backing Brown is funded largely by “an oil and gas executive who belongs to a billionaire family.”]
- As a member of the Cuyahoga County Council, one of Shontel Brown’s responsibilities is to provide a check on the powerful County Executive. Instead, Brown has aligned herself with the egregious County Executive Armond Budish, whom she proudly presents as one of her most important supporters. She is therefore complicit in his scandals, most prominently at the inhumane county jail and the deaths of children in the care of Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services. The list goes on and on.
These are not isolated incidents; they are part of a pattern that has characterized her career. Below, I put these ethical violations in context to show a more complete picture of the role Shontel Brown has played in the county: a willingness to prioritize personal ambition and personal loyalty over her public responsibilities, and a record that has proven palatable to Republicans and the wealthy, despite Brown’s role leading the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
Who is Shontel Brown?
- Shontel Brown is the Cuyahoga County Councilmember who promised not to vote to give contracts to her boyfriend’s construction company but does so anyway, on contracts that now total more than $17 million. (That such a promise would even need to be made in the first place hints at the political climate in Cuyahoga County.)
- In her role as County Councilmember, she has remained nearly silent amid multiple scandals, notably the inhumanity at the county jail and the deaths of children in the care of Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services. As a Councilmember, Brown is responsible for holding County Executive Armond Budish accountable. Instead, she supports him, and he has been a featured speaker at her campaign events.
- She is the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party (CCDP) Chair who, when running, was identified as a “puppet” for the corrupt party machine. Outgoing chair Stu Garson, whose role was to clean up the party after the previous decade’s spectacularly embarrassing scandals, endorsed Brown’s two challengers for the position, warning the CCDP committee against “moving the party back to a dysfunctional past instead of building on the fragile progress we have achieved up to this point.” (“I’m not a puppet,” Brown feebly offered as a counterpoint.)
- In 2017, having won an election for Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party (CCDP), Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley sent $137,500 from the Council Leadership Fund to CCDP. He was promptly appointed as her Executive Vice Chair.
- Shontel Brown is the CCDP Chair who bends the party rules for the corporate machine-aligned candidates. Two examples: First, Brown helped orchestrate the election of Martin Sweeney, “the former double-dipping Cleveland city councilman and Ohio state rep with a sordid history of sexual harassment accusations and corruption-adjacent behavior” to join her as a Cuyahoga County Councilmember by facilitating an influx of new Sweeney supporters to the CCDP Central Committee. This should have been impossible due to a CCDP rule that said the new central committee members would otherwise have been forced to wait a few weeks before being allowed to vote. This rule was conveniently discarded just in time to ensure Sweeney won the seat. Second, Sam O’Leary, a machine-aligned candidate for Mayor of Lakewood in 2018 who received a donation from Shontel Brown, was allowed to turn in his endorsement questionnaire to CCDP after their deadline, and was thus able to view his progressive opponent’s answers before submitting his own.
- Shontel Brown is the candidate for US Representative for Ohio’s 11st Congressional district who refused to step down from her post as CCDP Party Chair, even after the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial staff said she “must resign” for the good of the party and public. (Brown supporters will point out that the CCDP parliamentarian found that the by-laws do not require Brown to step down. This does not answer the question of whether it is good for the party and public. To defend Brown’s decision to retain her position as chair, the parliamentarian noted that she was in keeping with “past practice”: besides Stu Garson, CCDP Chairs all held public office. Citing the “past practice” of CCDP Chairs here is a laughable defense, considering what this past practice wrought: Jimmy Dimora, the CCDP chair from 1994 to 2009, is currently serving prison time for corruption.)
- When asked in June by a cleveland.com reporter if she thought it was fair to keep the position, Brown didn’t hesitate to use her race and gender as a shield from criticism, implying that it is wrong to apply basic ethical standards to Black women in power. “I think it is unfair for people to ask the only woman and only Black person ever elected to step down from this position,” she said.
- Shontel Brown is the recipient of campaign donations from prominent local Republicans including the Haslams, who themselves donated $11,600. [Update 7/27: New reporting shows Republican support is much greater than previously known.]
- Brown’s popularity among Republican oligarchs may be partly explained by her vocal support of the egregious Q deal giveaway of public funds to the billionaire owner of the Cavs. Properly understood, the entire Q Deal can be seen as another betrayal of the public trust in service of local moneyed interests that fund Democrats’ campaigns.
- Shontel Brown is the candidate whose campaign blatantly signaled to Super PACs in order to circumvent campaign finance restrictions. (Among the talking points suggested in the document was a false smear of Nina Turner. The offending page remains up as of this writing. As of 7/22/21, these Super PACs have spent over $1,000,000 on Brown’s campaign.)
- Brown supports America’s continued funding of Israeli apartheid. This is because it is politically expedient: at least one of the Super PACs to which her campaign is blatantly signaling (see point 10), Democratic Majority for Israel, exists to promote and whitewash Israeli apartheid among Democratic politicians, and its largest donor is an executive in the oil and gas industry.
Subpar Legislative Resume and Competence
Could it be that Shontel Brown’s resume is so impressive that it overshadows the above list of failings? Examining her entire record is beyond the scope of this piece, but consider these five points:
- Brown’s primary responsibility as Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party is to get out the Democratic vote by building organizing capacity. However, according to CCDP’s Ward Leader in Cleveland’s Ward 12, there was almost no such organizing capacity in 2020: “There was no consistent direction or resources given from Party leadership. Each Ward or City Leader was allowed to set their own course. Because many of the Leaders are also the city councilperson for their ward or the mayor for their city, many did not have time to get any electoral work done. Many precinct slots are unfilled. There is nobody to call on. Other precinct representatives just will not do the work, having been in the role for years without having to knock a door or make a call.” In sum, there was no county-wide plan and no sense that there would have been the resources to execute it if there had been one.
- On July 6, months after Brown refused to resign as CCDP Chair, it was reported that CCDP’s Executive Committee had lost many of its members. One of the Chair’s basic responsibilities is to appoint these members each year. Nominations were made six months ago, but it appears Brown has been focused on her Congressional campaign, causing the party to be neglected.
- As a County Councilmember, “Brown was not the primary sponsor on any of the legislation she has taken credit for passing,” meaning she has no experience with initiating legislation (let alone championing any), a key method for a member of US Congress to deliver for their constituents. The Plain Dealer called her an “undistinguished member of Cuyahoga County Council who has little to show for her time in office.”
- Despite being a legislator in Cuyahoga County, Brown cannot name a single issue concerning Lake Erie. She even admits to never having thought about it. Consider these answers from her interview with the Plain Dealer:
Should Burke Lakefront Airport remain open? What can you do to address the issue from the federal level?
That’s a good question. Candidly speaking, this is something that has not come across my conversations or thinking. I think because of its location, it’s certainly a gem that we could capitalize on and certainly would be in support of maximizing its potential. I’ll put it like that.
Lake Erie is by far Northeast Ohio’s most important natural resource. What sort of federal policies do you support or oppose as it relates to the health of Lake Erie?
As it relates to Lake Erie, it is truly one of our gems and when it comes to federal policies as it relates to Lake Erie, I have to give that a little bit more thought. I know we’ve had some issues around algae blooms and some conversations around wind turbines. As it relates to specific policies, is there a specific question you have?
Nope, I’m just asking if you have any federal policies you support or oppose as it relates to Lake Erie?
I haven’t really talked about federal policies on Lake Erie. Can I get back to you on that one?
Brown’s campaign did not provide further details or respond to a follow-up inquiry about this question.
- Brown is clumsy, at best, with trans issues. She repeatedly misgendered a transgender woman while telling a story at the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats Equality Forum. (Nina Turner received their endorsement.)
That Brown lacks competence should be clear by now, but I’ll conclude by leaving you with Seth A Richardson’s June 18 summation of Brown’s candidacy in cleveland.com after he interviewed the candidates:
Through numerous forums and in-depth interviews, it’s become increasingly clear that only a handful of the 13 who will be in the Aug. 3 ballot have any real policy chops.
…
[Shontel Brown] figured to have all the establishment help she could ask for when she first announced, but the necessary gusto hasn’t seemed to coalesce.
It was evident during the editorial board interview, with many of her answers sounding repetitious. Talking points are important to a campaign, but being unable or unwilling to deviate from those talking points simply isn’t going to win over voters.
…
if you’d read those in-depth interviews, it would be obvious how little depth there was to some of the answers from some of the candidates.
Addressing misconceptions spread by the Shontel Brown campaign and prominent supporters — updated as needed
Nina Turner does not support Donald Trump! I didn’t think this needed to be included until yesterday (July 25), when I knocked on the door of a local Democratic voter and said I was a volunteer for Nina Turner. “Does she support Donald Trump?!” she asked angrily. Apparently this voter had gotten that impression from the DMFI mailer or another advertisement that says, “Turner helped elect Donald Trump by refusing to endorse Hillary Clinton.” For the record, it’s true that Turner did not endorse Clinton, but there is no evidence that she preferred Trump. In April 2020, she called him bad, rotten, and wrong. In her “bowl of shit” comment, it was clear that Donald Trump represented a whole bowl, and Joe Biden only half a bowl. On January 6, Turner called for Trump’s outright removal from office under the 25th Amendment. This is no Trump supporter.
Shontel Brown has not been endorsed by Marcia Fudge. The Brown campaign website’s main page and much of her campaign literature prominently feature photos of Brown with Fudge. Brown’s campaign has made an ad showing Fudge’s mother endorsing Brown and implying that Fudge would endorse her, too, if only she could. However, the fact is that Fudge has sat this race out. You may hear the excuse that Fudge, as the new HUD Secretary, is prohibited by the Hatch Act from issuing endorsements. This excuse fails for two reasons. First, Brown announced her candidacy and started receiving endorsements months before Fudge was sworn in as HUD Secretary. Second, even after being sworn in, Fudge did not hesitate to violate the Hatch Act to praise Ohio Senate candidates including Tim Ryan, just moments after declining to weigh in for Brown. (Fudge’s transgression was addressed by the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.)
Shontel Brown has not been endorsed by Barack Obama. Despite Brown’s endorsement page being headed by a picture of her with Barack Obama, which would suggest Obama is one of her endorsers, he has in fact sat out this race. (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have also sat out this race, despite Shontel Brown’s campaign often invoking her loyalty to them and utilizing their pictures.)
Brown’s list of accomplishments are not actually her own accomplishments. Despite a long list of accomplishments on her campaign page and materials, most or all of these were things she simply voted for as a member of County Council. She has not been the primary sponsor on any legislation. Voting for good legislation is worthwhile, but it isn’t an “accomplishment” to take credit for. The reality, as the Plain Dealer said, is that Brown is an “undistinguished member of Cuyahoga County Council who has little to show for her time in office.”
[Update 7/12/21.] Nina Turner is a champion of universal health care and a $15 minimum wage. Contrary to implications to the contrary made in a mailer from a Super PAC (using messaging that was suggested to them by the Shontel Brown campaign), Nina Turner does not oppose a minimum wage increase and universal healthcare. In fact, she is a prominent supporter of both policies. In 2016, she worked with Mary Kay Henry to get the $15 minimum wage on the Democratic Party platform for the first time. In the case of Medicare For All, she is one of the country’s leading voices championing the policy, making it central to her campaign for congress and earning her the endorsement of National Nurses United. The kernel of truth in this lie is that, along with hundreds of other progressive Democrats, Turner made a symbolic vote against adopting a Democratic Party platform because it did not include Medicare for All.
[Edit: Below are facts that counter the claims made by a group of Shontel Brown supporters at a press conference on 7/19/21. I fact-checked the event here.]
Shontel Brown’s campaign has been negative since its first advertisement. Despite insistent claims made by supporters at a press conference they called to denounce Nina Turner’s first negative ad, which came in July 2021, Brown’s campaign has also produced negative ads. In fact, their first very first ad, released May 6, went negative. That’s two months before Turner. They’ve also sent at least a dozen negative mailers and have shown negative ads online.
Shontel Brown’s campaign bears responsibility for the deceptive attacks on Turner put out by the DMFI Super PAC. At a press conference, a supporter of Brown suggested her campaign had nothing to do with a particularly deceptive advertisement, saying “Somebody else ran an ad. That’s on them.” It’s true that somebody else (the Super PAC “Democratic Majority for Israel”) ran this ad for Shontel Brown, but it’s not true that “that’s on them,” which would imply that the Brown campaign’s hands are clean. The truth is that the Brown campaign solicited ads explicitly from DMFI and two other anti-Palestinian Super PACs, and suggested talking points that included false information about Nina Turner. Although the smear used by DMFI was not precisely one suggested by the Brown campaign, it is still the case that the Brown campaign is responsible for soliciting ads from an unaccountable firm with a recent history of attack ads so egregious that were rejected by a candidate they were trying to support. Clearly, the Brown campaign knew what it was doing in soliciting these ads, and they have made no official denunciation of the misleading ads.
Nina Turner’s ads criticizing Shontel Brown were accurate; no lies have been identified coming from the Turner campaign. Despite Brown supporters calling a press conference to denounce the Turner campaign’s “lies,” they were mistaken about the only example of a “lie” they thought they had identified. Specifically, they claimed that after listening to Turner’s ad, “You would think that Shontel Brown voted a raise for herself, by herself. That’s what the ad said. She gave herself a $7000 raise. Like she could singularly do that.” In fact, the ad did not say Shontel Brown did those things “singularly” or “by herself.” It says she “voted” for them, which is true. Both in audio form and in big bold letters on the screen, it says the words “voted.” Not “gave” or anything else like that. “Voted.” Obviously, voting implies there are other voters, not a “singular” handout. Watch it for yourself.
Nina Turner supports universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, and immigration reform. The deceitful ad put out by Democratic Majority for Israel that depicts a fake Nina Turner ballot showing her voting against “Raise the Minimum Wage,” “Universal Health Care,” and “Immigration Reform” is probably too ridiculous to be worth refuting, but I’m going to anyway. Basically, she voted against a proposed Democratic Party Platform along with 700 other progressives who thought it was too weak. See below.
Nina Turner supports universal healthcare. The explicit reason for opposing the platform was because it did NOT include the form of universal healthcare commonly called “Medicare for All.” Nina Turner and 700 other Democratic Party delegates voted “no” on the proposed platform because they wanted Medicare for All to be included. In an interview she said that Medicare for All was the top priority on Our Revolution’s policy agenda when she was its President.
Nina Turner supports an increase in the minimum wage. As Turner herself tweeted out in response to the deceitful ad, she was central to getting the $15 minimum wage included in the Democratic Party platform in 2016. This year she has begun calling for it to be higher than $15, suggesting $20.
Nina Turner supports immigration reform. She has passionately defended the honor of immigrants on national television, and listed immigration reform as second only to Medicare for All on her policy agenda as President of Our Revolution.
(The Cleveland Observer published a version of this article. Update 2/9/23: The Cleveland Observer no longer hosts this article. When I inquired why, I was told that they archive their entire site every two years to keep hosting costs manageable.)
(Image from the Facebook page for Shontel Brown for Congress.)
On Tuesday, July 27, Newsweek published a story entitled “Hillary Clinton-endorsed Candidate Shontel Brown Faces Potential Ethics Probe.” With less than a week to go until an August 3 election, it’s more urgent than ever to answer the question: Just who is Shontel Brown?
