Cuyahoga County Democratic Party retains Shontel Brown as its chairwoman, Brown winning over C. Ellen Connally, who is also Black.... Brown is the first Black and first woman to hold the powerful post....A Congresswoman Marcia Fudge protege, Brown said she is truly grateful for those who watched and witnessed her sincere desire to unite, grow and strengthen the party and that she looks forward to carrying the momentum into the November election and elections to come.....Former president Barack Obama carried Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold, in 2008, and when he was reelected in 2012, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Chordray, an Obama ally, will need strong Democratic support as he faces Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine, the Republican nominee for governor, in the general election on November 6, 2018....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.8 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Cuyahoga County Councilwoman and Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairwoman Shontel Brown, the first Black and first female to hold the powerful post, and of whom executive committee members of the county Democratic party voted to retain as chair via an election on June 9, 2018

C. Ellen Connally,  a retired Cleveland judge and former Cuyahoga County Council president who lost an election on Saturday, June 9, 2018 in her bid to unseat Shontel Brown as chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party

 ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the  KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com

, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.8 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM- EUCLID, Ohio- Executive committee members of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party retained Cuyhoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown of Warrensville Heights as its first Black and first woman chairperson at a meeting at Euclid High School on Saturday, June 9, 2018 the outcome of which was a show of power of the political machine of 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, also a Warrensville Heights Democrat like Brown, and Brown's political mentor.

More than 600 executive committee members voted.

Brown, 43, beat C. Ellen Conally, who is also Black and a former county council president and retired Cleveland judge, by a 2-1 margin.

"I want to thank all of my supporters, especially the Cuyahoga County Democratic precinct members for allowing me to continue the work my team and I have started," said Brown after winning the election. "I am truly grateful for those who watched and witnessed my sincere desire to unite, grow and strengthen this party and I look forward to carrying this momentum into this upcoming election and elections to come."

She also thanked Connally for all her accomplishments and congratulated her on winning a third of the support of the executive committee members, an outcome that sources say is indicative of divisions in the Democratic party of Cuyahoga County.

The county includes Cleveland, and is the second largest of 88 counties statewide, behind Franklin County, which includes the capital city of Columbus.

Leading up to Saturday's controversial election Connally was critical of both Fudge and Brown and called them patsies for the establishment, and she said Brown is a political novice.

A Democratic stronghold that is roughly 29 percent Black, former president Barack Obama won the county in 2008, and again in 2012, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Chordray, a former consumer watch dog with the Obama administration, will need strong Democratic support as he faces Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Republican nominee for governor, in the upcoming Nov. 6 general election.

Other key elected officials supporting Brown in her successful bid to lead the powerful county Democratic party include U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, who, on Saturday, retained his seat as vice chair of the county Democratic party, and Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, all of them Fudge allies.

A Black female leader in her own right, Brown replaced former county Democratic party chairman Stuart Garson last year, a well-to-do White attorney who quit the unpaid post Aug 4 before the completion of his final term as chairman, which officially ended this June.

Brown ran for the open chairmanship seat on Saturday, her election last year in August of 2017 of which was to complete Garson's  unexpired term.

And while Brown beat Connally this year by a comfortable margin, both sides lobbied precinct committee members and ward leaders for support this year, given the close election for chairman last year that fueled tensions between the party  power brokers and the progressive end of the party, many of them Bernie Sanders supporters. 

Brown beat Newburgh Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins, who is White, last year in the second round of voting after failing to meet the 51 percent threshold needed to win in round one where she got 47.7 percent to Elkin's 34.2 percent with state Sen Sandra Williams, who is Black and a Cleveland Democrat, getting 18.6 percent and then purportedly urging some of her supporters to back Brown in round two.

Elkins ran Saturday on Connally's slate for vice chair and lost to Kelley.

Williams did not seek election this year as chair, or otherwise regarding party elections.

Connally and Elkins ran on a progressive platform and criticized Brown, a member of county council, and Kelley, Cleveland's city council president, for failing to back a proposed $15-an-hour minimum wage hike, and for their support of a multi-million dollar Cavaliers' sports complex renovation project they say comes at the expense of a debilitating inner city of Cleveland, and on the backs of the working class and the poor.

Supporters of Brown say Connally, a former county council president, is no less establishment than Brown, when she wants to be, while advocates of Connally said it took courage for her to take on the political elite.

Others say Connally was used to undermine a fellow Black woman and they say they remember her role as special prosecutor selected by former Cleveland mayor Michael R. White in 2006 who ultimately cleared Cleveland cops of five fatal shootings of Black men or teens that occurred between March of 2004 and December 2005, including the high profile police killing of 15 year-old Brandon McCloud in 2005.

While race does often matter when Black leaders and elected officials take on each other in elections with Whites at the helm, Connally, they said, was the best choice for the progressives to push their party agendas, race aside. 

Brown's win no doubt enhanced the influence of Fudge, whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes parts of the city of Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs.

A former Warrensville Heights mayor and former national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, Fudge, also a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is one of two Blacks in congress from Ohio, the other of whom is Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Columbus.

Brown said she is a change agent and will work to unify the county Democratic party, which has had its struggles over the years.

The county Dems continue to recover from a long term public corruption and FBI probe that brought some 61 guilty pleas or convictions since 2008, mainly White businessmen associated with the county Democratic party, and including two former Democratic common pleas judges that served federal prison sentences.

Also embroiled in the public corruption probe, among others, were former Cuyahoga Country Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, a former county party chairperson serving a 28-year federal prison sentence for racketeering and public corruption, and Dimora's sidekick and once a powerful county Democratic party operative, former county auditor Frank Russo, who took a plea deal for a 22-year prison sentence for his public -corruption- in -office illegalities.

ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.8 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.