Analysis: How P.G. Sittenfeld’s political ambitions led him to a criminal trial on bribery charges

The story of former Cincinnati council member P.G. Sittenfeld is closely laden with irony.

The reality is that if Sittenfeld weren’t going through a criminal trial in U.S. District Court right here stemming from a federal investigation into political corruption at City Hall, he would most likely be occupying the nook workplace at Eighth and Plum Street as Cincinnati’s mayor at present.

Instead, his legal professionals shall be in court docket Tuesday attempting to maintain him out of jail on charges of trustworthy providers wire fraud, bribery and extortion.

The charges have halted useless within the water the ambitions of a politician in a hurry to transfer up the ladder.

He is accused of falling in with a group of “buyers” who informed him they needed to take the vacant, failed 435 Elm Street constructing off the town’s fingers and switch it into a resort and sports activities betting heart. And they have been keen to contribute $40,000 to Sittenfeld’s supposedly “secret” Super PAC, The Progress and Growth PAC, in trade for his help for the venture.

As it turned out, although, the “buyers” have been undercover federal brokers. And the person who launched them to Sittenfeld — Chinedum Ndukwe, the council member’s good buddy and a former Cincinnati Bengal turned developer — was working for the FBI, as a result of federal prosecutors allegedly had some dust on Ndukwe and will prosecute him except he cooperated with the City Hall investigation.

Sittenfeld, who needed what Ndukwe and the “buyers” needed when it got here to 435 Elm, was simply sucked in.

The query to be determined in his trial, which might final for weeks, is whether or not or not Sittenfeld promised to ship the votes on council to approve the venture in trade for the $40,000 in contributions to his PAC.

The prosecution will current testimony within the trial saying that Sittenfeld deliberately sought out builders who needed to do enterprise with the town and hit them up for donations.

And Sittenfeld’s legal professionals will argue that after all he did; Sittenfeld did nothing that was not customary working process in political marketing campaign fundraising in any respect ranges.

In November 2020, the day after FBI brokers arrested him at his residence, Sittenfeld took to Twitter to defend himself and proclaim his innocence.

“I’m harmless,” Sittenfeld mentioned. “The allegations towards me are merely not true. The try to painting correct help to a venture bringing jobs and progress to our metropolis that advantages the general public is a gross overreach and an injustice.”

We haven’t fully misplaced our minds on this nation; the precept that a individual is harmless till confirmed responsible in a court docket of legislation nonetheless stands. It should.

This case, although, appears to be a textbook case of political ambition run amuck — other than the difficulty of innocence or guilt.

I’ve been overlaying politics a very very long time. The one factor that binds the 1000’s of candidates I’ve written about collectively is ambition — in some it’s a raging fireplace; in others, it is only one of many motivations.

I’ve hardly ever seen ambition burn so brightly because it has in P.G. Sittenfeld. He had his foot on the fuel from the primary time he ran for metropolis council in 2011 — turning into, at 27, the youngest individual ever elected to Cincinnati council — to the day in November 2020 when the FBI brokers knocked on his door and put him underneath arrest.

In 2016, on the age of 32, he baffled the world of Ohio Democratic politics by taking on the previous Democratic governor, Ted Strickland, for the U.S. Senate nomination — despite the fact that the Ohio Democratic Party had endorsed Strickland in April 2015.

Of course, Sittenfeld misplaced, taking solely 22% of the vote within the March 2016 major. The solely factor he did was, I suppose, make himself recognized to Democrats in different components of the state, within the fairly vainglorious concept that he can be a official statewide candidate sometime.

Who does that? Only Sittenfeld.

Sittenfeld got here in first within the 2013 discipline race for 9 council seats and did it once more in 2017, by a huge margin.

If you’re P.G. Sittenfeld in 2017, after a second first-place end, you’re naturally seeing your self because the frontrunner to exchange a term-limited John Cranley as mayor in 2021. And you begin elevating cash in earnest, together with cash in your Super PAC, which you employ to give beneficiant contributions to the campaigns of different Cincinnati Democratic candidates, in hopes of locking up their help in your mayoral candidacy.

Things are developing roses in your ambitions till hassle enters the image within the type of the U.S. Attorney’s workplace, the FBI and your buddy Ndukwe, who, unbeknownst to you, is working for the feds.

And, after years of pedal-to-the-metal politics, you end up in a world of damage — the potential for a jail cell fairly than the nook workplace at 312 Plum Street.

But chances are you’ll, after this trial, end up acquitted of the criminal charges. You’ve already rejected a plea deal. And, in October of this 12 months, you may be 38 years previous. That may be thought-about previous for a Major League Baseball participant, however not for a political candidate.

Sometimes, voters are forgiving. He nonetheless has loads of supporters in Cincinnati Democratic circles. It’s a stretch, however not out of the query.

Sittenfeld may very well be again sometime, whether or not he deserves to be or not. And, if not, effectively — there’s that jail cell.