U.S. HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge ally Brad Sellers, who is Black like Fudge, enters Cuyahoga County executive race, Sellers the mayor of Warrensville Heights where Fudge was once mayor, Fudge a former congresswoman turned HUD secretary....Sellers is a former NBA player and would become the county's first Black executive if he were to win, Cuyahoga County a Democratic stronghold that includes the largely Black city of Cleveland....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia L. Fudge

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief 

CLEVELAND, Ohio –  Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers, a former NBA player for the Chicago Bulls and the protégé of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Secretary Marcia Fudge, and who succeeded her into office to lead the majority Black Cleveland suburb when she became a congresswoman, announced on Wednesday that he is running for  Cuyahoga County executive, the most influential political office in the county. 

And he will be able to mount a competitive campaign, partly because he is a Democrat in a Democratic leaning county that is 29 percent Black.

He will also have Fudge's political machine, what's left of it since she became HUD secretary with President Biden's administration in March of 2020 and is limited in what she can do politically under the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity. This also includes campaigning for a political candidate. 

“I’m running for county executive for the same reason I came back and for the same reason I ran for mayor: To make important things happen for Cuyahoga County,” Sellers said Wednesday. “Cuyahoga County residents want, need, and deserve more good things happening for them and should expect a county government that can get the job done."

To date, and with the Feb 2 deadline for filing petitions with the county board of elections approaching, Sellers will face Chris Ronayne, the former head of University Circle Inc., in the Democratic primary. Lee Weingart, a Republican and former county commissioner, is also running, though it is unlikely that a Republican will win because the Democrats control the county while Republicans hold all of the state offices, including the office of governor, all but three seats on the seven-member majority Republican Ohio Supreme Court.

A Warrensville Heights native and divorced father of four who was married to former  local radio personality Kim Sellers, Brad Sellers would succeed current two-term county executive Armond Budish, who is not seeking reelection following an FBI raid on his downtown offices and an  investigation relative to malfeasance and  heightened inmate deaths in the county jail. Sources said that Budish, who is embroiled with a conflict with the 11-member county council, was purportedly grooming Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell to succeed him, Blackwell a Black Democrat who announced earlier this week that she was suspending her campaign for county executive because it would be difficult for her to win. 

A suburban Black mayor who supported Budish for two terms and was economic director for the city of Warrensville for 11 years when Fudge was mayor, Sellers said the county, which is Ohio's second largest county, needs fresh leadership and that he has the experience and qualifications to guide it through the building of a new county jail where more than 10 inmates have died since, 2018 and other developments. He said that jobs and housing and economic development are key as well as the Lakefront and airports, and that his campaign will also focus on public policy matters designed to enhance the quality of life for county residents, a county where 18 percent of its residents live in poverty and half of the impoverish residents are Black. 

 Sellers endorsed 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown for Congress last year to succeed Fudge, Brown, like Sellers, a protégé of Fudge and a former county council woman who continues to lead the county Democratic party since winning a hard fought primary over former Ohio senator Nina Turner last August and then the general election in November against Republican nominee Lavern Gore.

Like both Fudge and Sellers, Brown is also a Warrensville Heights Democrat.

Sellers is also the half brother of former Cleveland councilman Zack Reed, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor on two occasions.

A Democratic stronghold, Cuyahoga County, with Cleveland its largest city, has a population of roughly 1.2 million people. It is governed by a county executive, Budish, and an 11-member county council, a  county governance structure that took effect in 2011 after voters scrapped the three county commissioners and the elected offices of the county sheriff, auditor, treasurer, and clerk of courts.

Those offices, and all but the judges and county prosecutor, which is now Mike O'Malley, are appointed positions under the purview of the county executive, though county council has some leeway as to the selection of the county sheriff pursuant to a subsequent charter amendment that voters also approved.

Black leaders, led by the NAACP, then county  commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, and Fudge, who was a congresswoman at the time, opposed the change in county governance arguing that it would dilute Black leadership, though county voters approved it by a two-to-one margin.

If Sellers wins the election for county executive Cleveland would historically have a Black congresswoman in current Congresswoman Shontel Brown, a Black Cleveland mayor in current mayor Justin Bibb, a Black city council president in current city council president Blaine Griffin, a Black county council president in current county council president Pernel Jones, a Black county council vice president in current county vice president Cheryl Stephens, and a Black county executive.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.