The idea is from DWT, here, stating in part -
Nina Turner Won In Cleveland & Akron, But Got Creamed In The Jewish Suburbs
Nina Turner vs Mark MellmanLast Tuesday, centrist corporate Democrat Shontel Brown beat progressive Nina Turner 37,666 (50.2%) to 33,420 (44.5%) [winning margin of 4246 votes]. As Matt Karp explained for Jacobin readers, "Turner won five of Cleveland’s nine black-majority wards and lost four (all of them narrowly, by less than two points). She won the city of Cleveland overall, as well as the black-majority city of Akron."
And that leads to the question everyone is wondering: "If Turner outperformed [Cori] Bush among black working-class voters, why did she lose while Bush won? In Ohio-11, the key difference came in the more affluent suburbs.
[...] Yes, Brown also did well in black working-class suburbs near her home base of Warrensville Heights, which she has represented as a city and county council member for over a decade. But by far the heaviest blow against Turner came in the richer burbs. In just six suburban towns-- Pepper Pike, Beachwood, Orange, Broadview Heights, University Heights, and Shaker Heights-- Brown netted 4,390 votes over Turner, more than her total margin of victory.This is just one special election. The progressive left as a whole still has work to do to win over working-class black voters.But for pessimistic observers tempted to over-read the results-- either as an ideological defeat for the Left, or a repudiation of Turner’s confrontational style-- the actual results in Northeastern Ohio offer a measure of hope.Nina Turner, after all, referred to the sitting Democratic president as “half a bowl of shit,” and the establishment spent millions making sure every Democratic primary voter in her district knew about it. She still won Cleveland, Akron, and-- probably-- a larger share of black working-class voters than most victorious progressives. Her defeat is a setback for the Left, but it was nothing like a defeat for class politics.And then there's this:
[click the image to enlarge and read - it is important] DMFI-- Democratic Majority For Israel PAC-- is a racist organization funded by conservatives-- both Democrats and Republicans-- and headed by racist swine Mark Mellman. It sure looks like they spent more money smearing Nina than all the other groups spent in the race combined. Shontel Brown won in the Jewish neighborhoods, where Nina was painted as an anti-Semite, a lie. Greater Cleveland is home to nearly 100,000 Jews, many of the more recent ones, extremely right-wing Orthodox Jews, in Lakewood and Tremont, where Brown (the not-Nina-Turner-candidate) won overwhelmingly. [...]
And that is gerrymandering in its essence. A heavily Dem district, where if Black voting is evenly split, the rich Jewish burbs hold the hammer. Brown is cogent enough to know the hand that fed her win, and will not bite the hand.
So, is the story only local? Or is it a nationwide way of weakening the power of black progressive voters by such district packaging?
A related question: What can progressives do about it, when fair districting is always absent; two parties trying to game each other while allowing some incumbencies to florish into senile seniority, each side, by the way Gov. Gerry did things, back then?
Last thought - that spending chart proves elections can be bought, clearly so, which means they will be. If I were in charge wanting to engineer fairness into things, I'd be assassinated.
UPDATE: Hello, NIna. Think about this -----
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| Mellman's Benjamins will be spread nationwide, 2022, and Nina Turner running against Portman would be a lightning rod for individual small-dollar large-volume progressive donors. Turner would stand out in a crowded field. Turner should file tomorrow, or today if the papers are ready. Start the donor interest. | |||||||||||||||||||