Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek’s Style Helps Him Dominate Elections, Even After 43 Years In Office!

FEATURED PHOTO: CLEVELAND COUNCILMAN MIKE POLENSEK HAS SERVED FOR OVER FORTY THREE YEARS

Cleveland.com, By Robert Higgs, Posted October 1st 2021

City Councilman Mike Polensek is unabashedly old school.

He’s a self-described straight shooter, who is not afraid, as he says, to “tell it like it is,” often with colorful language. And if that means mixing it up on issues, it serves to convey to constituents that he’s got their backs.

That is a big part of why Polensek, the longest serving City Council member in Cleveland’s history, still dominates at the polls 43 years after his first election win.

In the ward 8 Cleveland Council primary, Polensek, 71, won a three-way primary race for Ward 8 with a staggering 77% of the vote. He still must face Aisia A. Jones in the November election, but in the primary, he collected more than four times her vote total.

In the last seven election cycles over nearly three decades, Polensek was unopposed for re-election twice. In three other elections he captured at least 80% of the vote. The closest any challenger came was a defeat by 22% in 2001.

So, what is the secret to Polensek’s unfading popularity among his constituents?

“I think … he combines the best of what you like to see in a local official,” said Thomas Sutton, a political science professor at Baldwin Wallace University and director of the school’s Community Research Institute.

He’s a native son, having grown up in Collinwood, the base of his ward. He is constituent-oriented.

“He fights for his residents,” Sutton said. “He has a public presence on council and looks like he’s minding the store.”

And notably, he never has sought any higher office.

“I can’t pucker my lips enough to kiss the fannies of the folks with the big checkbooks,” Polensek says irreverently. “I just can’t do it.”

Resonating with voters

That approach is popular with residents in Polensek’s ward, which includes North and South Collinwood and part of Glenville.

“I like him because he’s a straight shooter,” said Marlene Gatewood, who lives in Collinwood and owns a business there. He has always been such a big help.”

Gatewood said she appreciates that if she calls and leaves a message, someone gets back to her, even if the response is not something good.

“He doesn’t care if you like him or not,” Gatewood said. “He’s there anytime you call.”

While Polensek was talking with cleveland.com, a resident approached.

“Are you Mike Polensek?” he asked the councilman. “I hope you win.”

An aggressive approach

Polensek makes no apologies for his aggressive style. He demands answers when residents complain about city services.

And he won’t hesitate to call out the administration in council committee meetings when he disagrees with its approach or performance.

During budget hearings each of the last few years, for example, he has pointedly contested whether Police Chief Calvin Williams could hit goals the department set for increased manpower. And Polensek ended up being right.

“Am I aggressive? You’re damn right I am,” he said in an interview with cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer. “It’s my neighborhood, too. I grew up here. I was born in Glenville and grew up in Collinwood. I’ve raised five kids here. It’s my home.”

Recently Polensek met with a resident in the Glenville part of his ward who told him she had tried for 11 years to get the city to trim a tree on her tree lawn.

The councilman related the story to cleveland.com in classic Polensek fashion.

“Eleven years to get a tree trimmed. That’s absurd,” Polensek told cleveland.com. “You could have raised a family of beavers to take care of that tree in that time.”

Quality of life issues

He’s not shy about taking on quality-of-life issues, even if it means firing off a letter to an absentee landlord or a bar owner or people engaged in criminal activity.

He proudly notes that he successfully has fought 104 liquor licenses from taverns deemed nuisances to the community.

In 2014 Cleveland police investigated a death threat against him after he called for justice when a Cleveland Clinic employee was shot while waiting at an RTA bus stop in the ward.

Polensek said he wasn’t fearful then.

The biggest headache was that his neighbors were freaked out by the cruiser stationed for a time outside his home.

In 2007, he drew attention when he sent a letter to 18-year-old Arsenio Winston, whom Polensek said was selling drugs on the street. In the letter he called out Winston as a “crack dealing piece of trash.”

“There are only two places you will end up at the rate you are going – that is, prison or the nearest funeral home. I don’t care which one you get to first as long as your dumb, stupid a – – is out of my neighborhood,” he wrote.

Polensek said he still sends letters, hoping the recipients will change their ways.

“I don’t pull any punches,” he said. “I’ve seen so many of these kids destroy their families and destroy their lives.

Polensek’s letter was prophetic in Winston’s case. He was sent to prison two years later for armed robbery in Collinwood and trafficking in drugs. Winston remains in the Ross Correctional Institution today.

Stable ward population

Sutton suspects that part of the reason for Polensek’s success also is the stability of his ward. While there have been some population losses, particularly in Glenville, he notes that in Collinwood – North Collinwood, in particular – the population has remained pretty stable and it still is a working-class neighborhood.

He compares that to Ward 12, where long-time Councilman Anthony Brancatelli won Tuesday’s primary by just four percentage points over challenger Rebecca Maurer, 46% to 42%.

The base of Brancatelli’s ward, Slavic Village/North Broadway has lost significant numbers of people. Meanwhile, a portion of the ward in Tremont has picked up new residents, younger voters more likely to favor a progressive candidate, such as Maurer.

“It’s not that they are dissatisfied with Brancatelli,” Sutton said. “It’s that they are looking for something new and different.”

Staying the course

Polensek says he will challenge the new administration when it takes office in January, replacing Jackson.

“When you don’t hold the administration’s feet to the fire, they become complacent,” he said. “If you’re not pressed, if you’re not tested, then you become lethargic.”

And he’s not ready to step aside. He’ll continue to return every phone call and respond to every letter.

There’s work to be done, he says. And he wants to protect his ward through the redistricting process. New ward boundaries will be established before the 2025 election. As things stand now, the council would be shrunk to 15 seats.

“I’m a public servant. That’s what I am first,” he said. “When the day comes and I’m not there, all I can say is I did my very best.”