Cuyahoga GOP optimistic about commissioner's race

The leader of Cuyahoga County's Republicans think his party has the best chance in 16 years to win a countywide office this year in the race for county commissioner, which would help bring the party out of the cold in Ohio's most Democratic area.

Cuyahoga Co. Republican Party chair Rob Frost said he believes Mayor Debbie Sutherland (R-Bay Village) can beat him Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones (D-Cleveland) because of Jones' connections to federally indicted Commissioner Jimmy Dimora.

Dimora and county auditor Jimmy Russo are under investigation for exchanging government jobs and contracts for personal favors.

"Peter Lawson Jones was appointed by Dimora and voted with him 99 percent of the time," Frost said.

Sutherland will serve only one term if she wins, Frost said. This pledge has beem ade to further the GOP's efforts at reforming the county's government structure to make it more efficient and accountable. Frost said voters finally see Republicans' case for county restructuring as necessary in the wake of the Dimora scandal.

"Is the Republican Party because of a current scandal going to become the dominant party in Cuyahoga County? That would be a sea change," Frost said.

Jim Petro was the last Republican to hold countywide office in Cuyahoga as commissioner in the early 1990s, before moving on to auditor and attorney general. Petro told PolitickerOH.com he thinks Sutherland will beat Jones.

Frost said Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats but independent voters are larger than either party, and Republicans need to convince in large numbers to vote for them to overcome Democrats' strength. He said independents will vote for Republican this year because Democrats have failed to improve the area's economy.

"Democrats have created their problems and have now placed those problems on the people of Cuyahoga County," he said.

As for the presidential race, Frost said McCain will do better than President Bush in Cuyahoga County did in 2004. That year Bush lost the county by 217,000 votes but won 80,000 more than he did in 2000, Frost said. McCain will win more votes than Bush and finish closer to Obama than Bush did to Kerry, Frost said.

Frost chalked up his prediction get-out-the-vote efforts by the McCain campaign and independent groups. In addition, Frost said McCain is asking people for their votes in campaign appearances, as he did last week during a visit to the area.

When asked if Cleveland's white suburbs will not vote for Obama, Frost said he thinks Obama will not perform well because Obama's too liberal not because he's black.

"There are those certainly who want to make this out to be a campaign that is about race, and we've got to be able to have that conversation as a country," Frost said, adding that these voters will break with Obama over differences in social issues, like abortion.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article used "Lawson Jones" in secondary references, but "Jones" is his last name alone.