Most national political convention goers this year wore their politics on their sleeves. That wasn’t enough for Helen Sheehan. A former executive director of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party who attended the recent convention in Chicago, Sheehan literally wore her politics on her head. On a green glitter-encrusted hat she purchased from the store Five Below, Sheehan fastened a couple dozen buttons that reflect her political beliefs: “Re-elect Congressman Stokes,” “Protect Ohio Choice,” “Re-Elect Congresswoman Shontel Brown.”The hat also included buttons – some she received from a former journalist – that catalog both the failed and successful presidential candidates of the last 60 years, from Hubert Humphrey and John Kerry to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And, of course, Kamala Harris was represented, too. In Chicago, Sheehan was seated at the front of the Ohio delegation, which didn’t have a prime spot on the convention floor because it is no longer a battleground state. But Ohio’s roughly 150 delegates were in the first section above the floor and directly across from TV cameras. Sheehan and her hat got noticed, and she gave a couple of interviews about her hat, including with CBS News. One button in particular – reading “I am Roe” – got some extra attention in interviews. It’s a reference to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that set the framework for legal abortions across the country. It was overturned two years ago and remains a top political issue in this year’s elections. “I was in high school when Roe passed,” Sheehan told Signal Cleveland, noting that the prominent placement of the button on the hat was intentional. “That pin is about the future because I want my daughters and future nieces, grandnieces and grandkids to have more rights than I did and that my mother did.”Representatives of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History also spotted Sheehan’s hat. They asked her if she would be willing to donate it to the museum for a collection on politics that also includes items from this year’s Republican National Committee. “I was a little bit hesitant and then thought, ‘It’s preserving history and because who knows what it’s going to be like for politics in the future after this election,’” she said. “It really struck me. And I thought, this is a way to tell a story about the time that we’re living in.” At the moment, the hat sits on her kitchen table. Before shipping it, she wants to add three buttons that didn’t make it on the hat before the convention. All three buttons represent local campaigns she championed: That of Jane Campbell, who became the first female mayor of Cleveland; the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who succeeded legendary U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes; and former U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. “They’ll be the last buttons because they really left a legacy,” she said.Four more years of Michael O’MalleyBarring the unexpected, Michael O’Malley will win a third term as Cuyahoga County prosecutor. That’s because he faces no opponents this fall. Last week was the deadline to file as a write-in candidate with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. While a smattering of write-ins threw in their names for races up and down the ballot, no one filed to take on the prosecutor. The Republican candidate, 36-year-old local attorney Anthony Alto, withdrew from the race in April. Matthew Ahn, a former law professor, put up a spirited but unsuccessful progressive challenge to O’Malley in the Democratic primary. With that race out of the way, O’Malley will face no Republican or independent opponent in November for the third general election in a row. Lisa Stickan, the chair of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, said her party’s candidate jumped into the race amid concerns, as she put it, that Ahn “lacked appropriate experience” for the top prosecuting job. That mirrored O’Malley’s own line of attack on his primary opponent. During their March debate, Ahn countered by saying O’Malley was downplaying the challenger’s knowledge of criminal justice data.But with Ahn out of the race, the would-be GOP contender stood down. “Given the results of the primary, Mr. Alto was satisfied that he didn’t need to continue his candidacy,” Stickan told Signal Cleveland. Alto, who didn’t return a call seeking comment, wasn’t just a potential O’Malley challenger. He also donated money to the incumbent prosecutor’s reelection effort last year, campaign disclosures show. The post Local political hat from Five Below headed to Smithsonian; why Prosecutor Michael O’Malley wins in November appeared first on Signal Cleveland.